NEWS.

Most STING research tries to switch the innate-immune alarm on to fight cancer. A docking screen of 59,319 peptides went the other way and found one, Peptide-1, that binds STING at 0.15 micromolar and quiets cGAMP-driven inflammation in mouse macrophages. It is the mirror image of a peptide we covered last month.

A protein language model ranked 689 cone-snail peptides, and one of them, named SS1, blocked the alpha-7 nicotinic receptor. Optimized, it works at nanomolar doses, and cryo-EM caught it sitting inside the receptor at 3.3 angstroms. The AI pick and the microscope agreed.

MAX-7 degrades the cancer master-switch MYC through chaperone-mediated autophagy, bypassing the proteasome that most targeted degraders use, and shrank triple-negative breast tumors in mice.

A US claims study emulating a randomized trial found that whichever flagship diabetes drug patients started on, adding the other modern class lowered heart events more than adding an older pill.

In colorectal cancer cells and mice, the stapled peptide i7-01s-20 reactivated Beclin1 and degraded both EGFR and beta-catenin at once, and the effect vanished when Beclin1 was silenced.

A drug-target Mendelian randomization study put major depression 18 percent lower and bipolar disorder 39 percent lower for genetically predicted GLP-1 receptor activation, cutting against two years of psychiatric-safety scares built on observational data.

A TriNetX analysis of 1,688 matched pairs found GLP-1 receptor agonists cut major heart events, death, and even sepsis in dialysis patients with type 2 diabetes, a group the big outcome trials left out.

A study of more than 192 million records found tirzepatide and semaglutide carried the same risk of depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts, and semaglutide came out lower than the earlier GLP-1 drugs.

An audited language-model pipeline read clinical notes from 29 million patients and put 18-month GLP-1 persistence at 42 to 43 percent, about 13 points below what prescription records implied.

A meta-analysis of 11 in-vitro studies found GLP-1 drugs raised cellular energy output and cut oxidative exhaust in human cells with no body attached, then graded the evidence very low.

Mephedrone built a place preference in rats only when dosed socially, not alone. Blocking that reward took opposite moves on two peptide receptors: turning the oxytocin receptor up (carbetocin) or the vasopressin V1A receptor down (SR49059). Peripheral vasopressin did nothing, so the switch is central.

A prespecified SUMMIT secondary analysis split 731 obesity-related HFpEF patients by sex. Women arrived sicker and men more remodeled, but tirzepatide cut worsening-HF-or-death risk about a third in both (HR 0.66 vs 0.61, interaction P 0.81). The one sex difference: in women, symptom relief tracked weight loss.

Integrins share the same RGD binding address, so PET probes built on it cannot tell the subtypes apart. A Journal of Medicinal Chemistry study tuned the shape of cyclic RGD peptides instead of their sequence, building a 25-member ring library. Two of three lead probes imaged their target integrin in tumor-bearing mice; the third stayed selective in cells but failed in the animal.

GLP-1 drugs slow the stomach, and food left behind before an upper endoscopy can be inhaled under sedation. A retrospective study of 16,067 scopes found that keeping the drug on board raised the odds of retained stomach contents about tenfold, while a two-week hold brought them back near normal. Obese patients stayed high-risk even after holding.

Researchers scored 26 peptide medicines on how suitable each would be for on-demand manufacturing during a multi-year spaceflight, published July 9 in npj Microgravity. Teriparatide, the bone-building osteoporosis shot, ranked first at 17 of 20 points, with abaloparatide and amylin tied at 16 and a 14-point cluster that included GLP-1 agonists. The traits that make a peptide easy to brew far from a pharmacy, short chain and no exotic chemistry, run almost opposite to what the blockbuster market rewards.