Scientists have discovered that the drug losartan, commonly prescribed for high blood pressure, boosts brown adipose tissue activity in mice, enhancing their metabolism. This indicates that repurposing losartan—an angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) with a well-known safety profile—may be a clinically viable method of stimulating brown fat, which has been linked to improved cardiovascular health and, reported for the first time in this study, psychiatric health.

In a paper published in Nature, researchers found that across all diagnoses, those conditions were less prevalent in individuals with brown fat.

The researchers initially discovered the connection between brown fat and ARBs through an analysis of medical records from 100,000 patients. The work builds on discoveries in the lab made in 2021 in which they characterized roughly 50,000 patients, finding that people with more brown fat had significantly lower odds of cardiometabolic diseases, including coronary artery disease and type II diabetes.