A drug used to treat high blood pressure may hold promise as a weight-loss agent, based on research involving obese mice.

Researchers at the University Hospital in Bonn, Germany, found that a variant of a drug used to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension — known as soluble guanylyl cyclase, or sGC — helped boost weight loss in obese mice fed a high-fat diet, Medical Xpress reports.

The experimental drug is in the same family as of drugs that include riociguat (trade name: Adempas), approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2013 as a treatment for high blood pressure in the blood vessels that lead to the heart from the lungs.

In mice, the drug prompted a shift in fat tissue, turning some stored “white fat” in the mice to a form of “brown fat” that burns up more energy and improves metabolic function.

The new research, published in the journal Nature Communications, showed the drug also improved glucose tolerance, reduced insulin levels, and drove down signs of fatty liver.

Researchers said the findings open the door to new therapies that might convert white fat to brown, and drive weight loss.