More and more people are undergoing medical treatment to combat obesity and currently millions of people with this health problem receive drugs such as Wegovy and Ozempic, which have been shown to be effective for weight loss, but which lead to the appearance of nausea and vomiting as a side effect, leading many patients to abandon treatment.
Now, researchers at the University of Copenhagen have developed a promising experimental drug that reduces appetite without causing nausea or loss of muscle mass and that, unlike current therapies, acts by increasing the body’s energy expenditure; that is, the body’s ability to burn calories.
“While GLP-1-based therapies have revolutionized the care of patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes, safely harnessing energy expenditure and controlling appetite without nausea remain two holy grails in this area,” he stated. Associate Professor Zach Gerhart-Hines, from the Center for Basic Research in Metabolism of the NNF Foundation at the University of Copenhagen in a note published by this center.
“By addressing these needs, we believe our discovery will advance current approaches to make more tolerable and effective treatments accessible to millions more people,” adds the expert. The new therapeutic target is the neurokinin 2 receptor (NK2R) and also addresses another key limitation of GLP-1 hormone-based treatments, as these are less effective in facilitating weight loss in patients with obesity and diabetes. type 2, a group that exceeds millions of people.
“While it is not clear exactly why people with obesity and type 2 diabetes lose less weight than people with obesity, the need to improve treatment for these patients is obvious. “This is where we believe that NK2R agonism could have a significant impact,” say the researchers, who have published their findings in Nature.
Greater energy expenditure and less appetite
Body weight depends on the balance between energy consumed and expended. Eating more and burning less leads to weight gain, while consuming fewer calories and burning more leads to weight loss. Current medications rely on reducing appetite to decrease calorie intake, but scientists have identified the potential of increasing caloric expenditure as a complementary strategy.
This pathway is especially relevant because recent research suggests that our body burns fewer calories at rest than it did a few decades ago. However, there are still no clinically approved treatments that safely increase energy expenditure, and there are only a few options in development.
“Activation of the NK2R receptor not only safely increased calorie burning, but also reduced appetite without any signs of nausea.”
“This was the starting point when we decided to test the effect of NK2R activation in mice. We identified the receptor through genetic screens that suggested that NK2R played a role in maintaining energy balance and glucose control. “Activating the receptor not only safely increased calorie burning, but also reduced appetite without any signs of nausea.”
The study has been carried out in mice and non-human primates and constitutes an important step towards clinical application, as researchers have indicated that testing in humans could begin in the next two years, and the treatment could be available in five years.
“The discovery could result in the next generation of drug therapies that provide more effective and tolerable treatments for the nearly 400 million people worldwide living with type 2 diabetes and obesity,” concludes Zach Gerhart-Hines.
