A common blood pressure medication may boost brown fat activity, tissue linked to improved cardiovascular and psychiatric health, according to a National Institutes of Health-funded study. Researchers discovered the connection after analyzing medical records from more than 100,000 patients.
Using PET/CT imaging and medical records from more than 50,000 patients undergoing cancer treatment, researchers led by Paul Cohen, M.D., Ph.D., at Rockefeller University identified associations between brown adipose tissue—fat that burns calories to produce heat—and reduced prevalence of cardiovascular and metabolic disease. The analysis considered more than 500 diagnostic codes, uncovering associations including lower incidence of anxiety and depression in patients with greater brown fat activity.
The study found higher levels of brown fat activity among patients taking angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), the class of blood pressure drugs that includes losartan. When researchers tested losartan on brown fat cells in the laboratory, the drug directly increased their metabolic activity. The molecular interactions involved were separate from the mechanisms underlying its blood-pressure-lowering properties.
Healthy mice treated with losartan exhibited indicators of enhanced metabolism, including increased energy expenditure, oxygen consumption, and carbon dioxide production, while maintaining a steady body weight.
The separation of the drug's effects opens the possibility of isolating them in future therapies. "That way you would be able to stimulate brown fat in people with normal blood pressure," said Nicolás Gómez-Banoy, M.D., an instructor of clinical investigation at Rockefeller and an endocrinologist at Weill Cornell Medicine. The research was published in Nature on October 14, 2026.