Ozempic Without Nausea: Brain Cell Discovery Could Change Weight-Loss Drugs

Weight-loss medicine that mimic the impact of regulatory hormones on urge for food and effort steadiness continuously include a couple of moderately uncomfortable unintended effects.

Semaglutide is what is referred to as a GLP-1 receptor agonist, that means it turns on the receptors of the GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) hormones that keep watch over blood sugar and urge for food in our personal our bodies. Activation of those receptors on different cells can cause a variety of alternative results, each sure and damaging.

Researchers from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden have now known a community of neurons within the brains of mice that particularly ship the similar well being advantages of semaglutide medicines like Ozempic and Wegovy with out the chance of nausea and lack of lean frame mass that may include them.

Further learn about of those nerves – the Adcyap1+ neurons, to present them their technical title, within the dorsal vagal advanced a part of the mind – may result in remedies with results very similar to semaglutide with out its wide-ranging unintended effects.

“This suggests that these nerve cells control the beneficial effects of semaglutide,” says neuroscientist Júlia Teixidor-Deulofeu, from the University of Gothenburg.

“We have therefore identified a specific group of nerve cells that is necessary for the effects that semaglutide has on weight and appetite, but which does not appear to contribute to any significant extent to side effects such as nausea.”

The scientists gave doses of semaglutide to mice and looked for particular mind cells that was lively as a end result. That led them to the Adcyap1+ neurons in the stem of the mind.

By artificially activating the cells in additional exams, the researchers produced a lack of urge for food and weight reduction within the mice. When the cells had been destroyed, there used to be little have an effect on on weight when semaglutide used to be administered, even whilst the drug’s unintended effects remained.

Add all of that up, and we might be able to design remedies with the entire execs of semaglutide and now not such a lot of of the cons.

“If we can target the treatment there, we may be able to maintain the positive effects while reducing side effects,” says Teixidor-Deulofeu.

As those nerve cells have handiest simply been known – and handiest in mice – any doable remedies are nonetheless some distance off. What’s extra instant is the perception into how semaglutide works at the mind.

While the drug’s results were smartly documented, it is been much less transparent precisely how and why it is running. This analysis offers us extra perception into that facet of semaglutide, so its packages can also be additional subtle.

“Semaglutide and other GLP-1 receptor agonists are currently being prescribed to more and more people and are also being investigated for other potential indications such as substance use disorders and neurodegenerative diseases,” says neuroscientist Linda Engström Ruud from the University of Gothenburg.

“It is important to understand how these drugs actually work. The better we understand this, the greater the opportunity we have to improve them.”

The analysis has been printed in Cell Metabolism.