A new study is seeking to harness the potential of weight-loss drugs without some of the unwelcome side-effects, in a £1.2 million research project getting underway at UCL and the Rowett Institute, University of Aberdeen.
The anti-diabetic medication semaglutide, also known under brand names Wegovy and Ozempic, acts in the brain to reduce food intake and has gained popularity for its weight-loss effects.
But semaglutide's positive impact on weight loss is sometimes offset by nausea and vomiting, which can reduce its benefits by putting patients off sticking to a course of treatment.
Now a team led by Professor Lora Heisler (Rowett Institute) and Professor Stefan Trapp (UCL Biosciences) and funded by the Medical Research Council will spend three years identifying where semaglutide acts in the brain to influence specific aspects of food intake such as meal size, healthier food choices, delaying digestion and dampening the "feel-good" food effect, and also where it acts to produce the unwanted side effects.
Answering these questions will fill large gaps in our current understanding of precisely how the drug works.
Professor Trapp commented: "While semaglutide and similar drugs have been very effective in helping people with diabetes and show much promise in helping people to lose weight, we still do not know that much about how exactly they work in the brain.
"My lab has done extensive research for years into the glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) in the brain, which semaglutide targets, so we hope by mapping out the drug's mechanism more precisely, we will be able to develop more effective drugs with fewer side effects."
Professor Heisler added: "There is huge interest in how the brain targets of semaglutide and similar drugs could be switched on in a slightly different or more targeted way. Drugs that can do this could work better, have effects that last longer and produce specific therapeutic obesity treatment benefits without the nausea side effect.
"We can only now do these types of studies because of the latest technological advances, and we expect our results will provide the blueprint to develop even better obesity medications in the future."
