SYDNEY, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- A new Australian drug, shown to reduce weight gain in mice, may prove a useful tool in dealing with obesity in the future, research released on Wednesday revealed.

Scientists at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) were originally trying to develop new medicine to target the build-up of a toxic type of fat in skeletal muscle.

However, to their surprise, they found that the mice on which they were conducting their study gained less weight after being given the drug.

"The mice that we were studying at the time, and we had them on a high fat diet to induce obesity, they didn't gain as much fat as the animals that weren't receiving the drug," associate professor Nigel Turner from UNSW told Xinhua.

"So we've got a drug which accelerates calorie burning in skeletal muscle and has an anti-obesity affect as a result."

"Since obesity is a strong risk factor for many different diseases including cardiovascular disease and cancer, any new therapy in this space could have widespread benefits," Turner said.

Turner added that while the drug has not yet been proven to induce weight loss, he sees no reason why it should not do so.

The team intends to build on their results with further animal testing as well as expanding the scope of the drug to target fat enzymes in parts of the body other than skeletal muscle.

"The results are really promising at this stage, but it's still early days, so we've got a lot of testing to do in animal studies where we explore safety profiles," Turner said.