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Tag: experimental

  • Ozempic’s Latest Weight Loss Competition Is Like Nothing We’ve Seen Before

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    The race to develop the next generation of weight loss drugs has taken an interesting new turn. In recent research, Eli Lilly’s experimental treatment eloralintide helped people lose a substantial amount of weight—without needing to use the same approach as existing popular medications like Ozempic.

    Earlier this month in The Lancet, Eli Lilly researchers and others published the latest phase II trial results of eloralintide. Over a 48-week span, people taking eloralintide lost up to 20% of their baseline body weight, well above the average weight loss experienced by those on placebo. Eloralintide’s early success so far is all the more notable because it isn’t a GLP-1 drug.

    A different mechanism

    Eloralintide mimics the hormone amylin. Our pancreas naturally releases amylin alongside insulin into the bloodstream in response to eating food. Once released, amylin helps tell our body that it’s full, tamps down our appetite, and slows the passage of food through our digestive system.

    The most effective weight loss drugs today, such as semaglutide (the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy), are long-acting mimics of the hormone GLP-1. Like GLP-1, amylin plays a part in regulating our hunger and blood sugar control. The two hormones even share some overlap in how they affect the body to carry out these functions. But they also have some key distinctions, and that’s made amylin a promising new target for obesity treatment.

    There is an existing amylin-based drug, pramlintide, which was first approved two decades ago as a treatment for diabetes. But it’s the newest amylin analogues in development, like eloralintide, that have really excited scientists. These experimental drugs are designed to last much longer in the body than natural amylin, ideally boosting the hormone’s effects to help people lose weight and control their blood sugar. Much like semaglutide, eloralintide is intended to be taken once a week via subcutaneous injection.

    Early promise

    Eli Lilly’s phase II trial involved 263 participants without type 2 diabetes who had obesity (a body mass index over 30) or who were overweight (a BMI over 27) with weight-related health conditions. They were randomly assigned to either receive a placebo or varying doses of eloralintide. Some were given the same dosage of the drug throughout the study, while others were given gradually escalating dosages.

    People on eloralintide, no matter the dosing strategy, saw greater improvements in weight loss over 48 weeks on average compared to the placebo group, the study showed. People taking the highest weekly dose, nine milligrams, saw the best results, an average 20% weight loss during the study, as did people who steadily increased their dose from six to nine milligrams.

    It also appeared to be safe and generally well-tolerated. The adverse events typically associated with the drug were gastrointestinal, similar to the known side effects of GLP-1 therapy. The most common adverse event was nausea, with about a third of people on the highest dose reporting the symptom.

    “Eloralintide produced clinically meaningful, dose-dependent reductions in bodyweight over 48 weeks and was generally well tolerated, supporting eloralintide’s potential use for obesity treatment,” the study researchers wrote.

    What does this mean for the future of weight loss?

    GLP-1s have greatly changed the field of obesity medicine in recent years. And though these drugs aren’t risk-free and can be highly expensive, they’ve already started to turn back the clock on obesity. For the first time in years, America’s obesity rate has noticeably declined as the use of these drugs has steadily climbed.

    There are now plenty of obesity drugs in development, many of which are iterations of GLP-1. Other drugs are combining GLP-1 with other hunger-related hormones, including amylin. Eloralintide’s results are especially tantalizing, though, since the drug is only relying on amylin. That’s important because it may mean that eloralintide can eventually become an appealing alternative for people who haven’t responded to GLP-1 therapy.

    It’s far too early to be sure, especially without a study directly comparing these medications in a trial. But it’s worth noting that semaglutide only helped people lose about 15% of their body weight on average in clinical trials. Eli Lilly’s existing obesity drug tirzepatide, which pairs GLP-1 and the hormone GIP, has shown weight loss rates hovering around 20%.

    These early findings will have to be verified by data from larger trials, of course. But if this research continues to show promise, eloralintide could open up a whole new area of obesity treatment.

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    Ed Cara

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  • LASIK Without Lasers? Scientists May Have Found a Way

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    What if you could fix your damaged eye without having to shoot a laser at it? Scientists have potentially discovered a novel method of repairing the cornea, similar to LASIK, that wouldn’t require a laser or other invasive surgical tool.

    Researchers at Occidental College and the University of California, Irvine, created the technique, which aims to temporarily make the cornea malleable. In experiments with rabbit eyeballs, their method appeared to work while also leaving corneal cells alive. More research is needed to vet the procedure, but if all goes well, it could become a preferred alternative to LASIK, the researchers claim.

    “There’s a long road between what we’ve done and the clinic. But, if we get there, this technique is widely applicable, vastly cheaper and potentially even reversible,” said lead researcher Michael Hill, a professor of chemistry at Occidental College, in a statement from the American Chemical Society.

    Why some people avoid LASIK

    LASIK is routinely used to treat conditions like myopia, farsightedness, or astigmatism. It reshapes the cornea—the transparent, outer layer of the eye that captures and focuses light onto the retina—using a precise cutting laser.

    Though generally safe and effective, the surgery does permanently weaken the structural integrity of the cornea. People will also commonly experience side effects like dry eye and visual disturbances like halos; a small few will even develop serious, if rare, complications like chronic nerve pain. Ideally, the team’s method would avoid these risks.

    A potentially safer method

    The technique is called electromechanical reshaping. Some of the authors had previously used it to manipulate other parts of the body that contain collagen and water, such as ears. It works by altering the pH of the tissue via short bursts of electricity, briefly allowing it to be molded as desired. Once the proper pH is restored, the tissue returns to its original rigid state.

    The researchers used the technique on rabbit eyeballs in the lab, some of which were intended to represent myopia in humans. Special contact lenses made from platinum were placed over the extracted eyes. These lenses served as an electrode, providing a base for how the cornea should be correctly reshaped.

    Once the researchers lightly zapped the eye, the cornea became flexible and contoured to the shape of the lens. Not only did the cornea fill out as the researchers wanted, but the procedure didn’t seem to kill any corneal cells or otherwise affect the cornea’s stability. A YouTube video describing the team’s approach, from the American Chemical Society, can be seen below.

    The team’s results, presented this week at the fall conference of the American Chemical Society, are still preliminary. The researchers admit that it will take more research in animals before they can even think about testing their method in humans. Their next planned step is to try out the procedure on living rabbits.

    But the potential for the team’s work is certainly there, and it may extend beyond treating myopia. The researchers are also hoping to explore whether electromechanical reshaping can help repair farsightedness, astigmatism, and possibly even some forms of cloudy vision.

    Unfortunately, as has been the case for many scientists during the second Trump administration, the researchers say their work has been delayed over concerns in securing additional funding.

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    Ed Cara

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