Peptide research, regulation, discovery. Every story links to the peptide it’s about.
RSSA meta-analysis of 20 studies and 546,668 patients found no rise in eight surgical complications for GLP-1 drug users after spine surgery, and about 50 percent higher odds of a successful bone fusion.
In a 280-person Phase 2 trial, the oral GLP-1 drug HRS-7535 cut albuminuria 32 percent more than placebo in diabetic kidney disease, even though most patients were already on SGLT2 inhibitors and finerenone.
A data firm's analysis of nearly 30,000 adults 65 and older on tirzepatide found progressive muscle loss in 0.16 percent, with most frailty signals emerging only after six months.
A Cell Reports team acetylated the N-terminus of GLP-1 and semaglutide to build G protein-biased receptor agonists that recruit less beta-arrestin, and a 2.64 angstrom cryo-EM structure pins the bias to an outward swing of extracellular loop 3. Ac-semaglutide kept lowering glucose in obese mice three days after one dose.
A JAMA Health Forum secret-shopper study found 75 clinics in West Virginia and Oklahoma still selling compounded copies of Ozempic and Mounjaro after the shortages ended, more than half mixed with B vitamins and nearly one in five suppliers unlicensed to compound sterile injectables.
A target trial emulation of 57,456 weight-management patients found semaglutide users had a 12 percent lower one-year risk of new diabetes than liraglutide users (HR 0.88). The gap was absent in the first six months (HR 0.99) and only emerged after (HR 0.80). With just 57 cardiovascular events, the study had no power to compare heart risk.
A pooled analysis of five studies and 1,186 people with metastatic neuroendocrine cancer found that removing the primary tumor before peptide receptor radionuclide therapy tracked with 38 percent lower progression risk (HR 0.62) and 54 percent lower death risk (HR 0.46). The authors call it an association, not proof, and name the two biases that could explain it.
Kids carrying one version of the GLP1R gene, the target Ozempic hits, were more insulin-sensitive and made less GLP-1, before any drug. An association, not a prescription.
A quarter-million-patient database found GLP-1 drug users were no more likely, and often less likely, to have mouth problems. Reflux was the one exception worth watching.
COURAGE-2, a Phase 3 trial published July 16 in the Journal of Clinical Neuroscience, gave 188 acute ischemic stroke patients standard care or standard care plus intravenous EGF and GHRP-6, a growth-hormone-releasing peptide. In the full population it missed its primary endpoint: no difference in disability, function, or survival. Among the 27 most severe strokes (NIHSS 15 and up) the treated patients were less disabled at six months (Rankin 2.6 vs 4.7) and far less likely to die (HR 0.18). A subgroup that small, carved out after a flat main result, is a lead for a future trial, not a verdict.
The FDA approved Merck's LIPFENDRA (enlicitide) on July 16 as the first oral PCSK9 inhibitor, a once-daily macrocyclic peptide tablet that cut LDL cholesterol 56 and 59 percent against placebo in two Phase 3 trials, matching injectable antibodies at a $315-a-month list price, roughly a third of the injections. The approval rests on LDL, not heart-attack prevention; the cardiovascular outcomes trial does not report until 2029. An approved, priced, once-daily macrocyclic peptide is the clearest sign yet the oral-peptide class has cleared its chemistry problem.
A glucagon-receptor antibody raised sperm counts and motility in diabetic, aged, and healthy mice by restoring a lactate fuel line that glucagon had been throttling inside the testis.
In 235,200 matched adults, starting tirzepatide tracked with about three-quarters lower pulmonary embolism risk than lifestyle changes alone. The edge shrank to near even against semaglutide.
Inspired by spider silk, a self-assembling peptide folded into nanofibers around glioma mitochondria and, under ultrasound, produced 3.7 times more of a cell-killing molecule than the loose peptide.
SS-31, a mitochondrial peptide already cleared for a rare heart disease, cut the share of irradiated heart-muscle cells showing an aging marker from 67 percent to 38 percent.