Peptide research, regulation, discovery. Every story links to the peptide it’s about.
RSSA Phase 2b trial in China found a new biweekly GLP-1 drug beat semaglutide 1 mg on HbA1c, but gastrointestinal side effects ran about 30 points higher and the comparator was the lower semaglutide dose.
A pooled analysis of orforglipron, the oral GLP-1 pill, shows a clean dose-response on weight and blood sugar across three trials and 2,505 people. The authors rated several of the key outcomes low certainty.
A Molecular Metabolism study ran obese mice through a five-tastant lick test and found chronic semaglutide left taste sensitivity, taste cells, and taste genes unchanged while still cutting how much they ate. The appetite effect points at motivation, not the tongue.
A Diabetologia study using human donor islets and mouse genetics finds liraglutide's push on insulin runs mostly through a hypothalamic brain gate in healthy bodies, then hands off to a direct pancreatic route as metabolic disease sets in. It is a mechanism for the variability clinicians already see.
A meta-analysis of eight cardiovascular trials and 70,822 patients found GLP-1 drugs cut major heart events by 17 percent whether kidney function was normal or reduced. Because reduced-kidney patients have more events to start with, the same cut prevented more: 39 treated to stop one event versus 62.
A meta-analysis of 11 trials and 25,067 people pooled semaglutide's reduction in major cardiovascular events at 32 percent, and the result held when the obesity and heart-failure trials were removed. The same pooling quantified the costs: more than double the gallbladder events and gut-driven dropouts.
A meta-analysis of seven randomized trials found GLP-1 drugs added about five kilograms of weight loss six months after bariatric surgery, but the benefit was no longer statistically reliable at a year. And every trial tested liraglutide, not the stronger drugs people actually use now.
HRS-7535, a once-daily oral GLP-1 pill, cut body weight up to 9.4 percent over 26 weeks in a 235-person Chinese Phase 2 trial. But the 120 mg dose lost less than the 60 mg dose, and the lowest dose missed placebo entirely.
A Swedish registry of 14,694 people found semaglutide linked to 21 percent fewer psychiatric hospitalizations during the months patients took it. Liraglutide and dulaglutide, which hit the same receptor, showed nothing. The authors say it is not a class effect.
A target trial emulation in All of Us found adults who started semaglutide were about half as likely to develop a new seizure disorder, and the benefit ran through neither glucose control nor weight loss.
A meta-analysis of 12 trials and 91,167 patients found GLP-1 receptor agonists reduced major heart events and cardiovascular death by about a fifth in people with a BMI under 30, the same size of benefit seen in obese patients, with no sign the effect depends on starting weight.
A June 15 systematic review in the American Journal of Clinical Dermatology pooled 19 studies and 67,568 patients and linked GLP-1 receptor agonists to real improvement in hidradenitis suppurativa, a painful inflammatory skin disease. Sixty percent of patients dropped at least one Hurley severity stage, quality-of-life scores improved by 3.83 points, and C-reactive protein and HbA1c both fell. The catch that makes it interesting: average BMI fell only 2.64 kg/m2, too little to explain the skin gains on its own, hinting the drugs' anti-inflammatory side is doing real work, though the mostly observational evidence cannot prove it.
A meta-analysis of 59 real-world studies and 24,859 patients found the pill form of semaglutide lowered blood sugar and weight by about as much as the registration trials promised. The catch: the studies disagreed enormously, so the direction is solid but the exact size is soft.
This week's headline fix for muscle loss on obesity drugs was an antibody, apitegromab, in Nature Medicine. A day later a University of Alberta mouse study showed an oral ketone ester preserved muscle on semaglutide without blunting fat loss. The cheapest answer yet, and still only preclinical.
Innovent's mazdutide beat semaglutide in a head-to-head diabetes trial, with more than twice as many patients hitting both their blood-sugar and weight goals. Its obesity trial, published in JAMA, showed 16.65 percent weight loss.