Peptide research, regulation, discovery. Every story links to the peptide it’s about.
RSSA two-photon imaging study in mouse cortex found that a small set of neurons carrying the substance P receptor drive local blood flow by releasing nitric oxide. Astrocyte calcium surges, long suspected as a cause, arrived after the vessels had already widened.
A 75,000-patient TriNetX cohort tied GLP-1 use to a 41 percent lower rate of atrial fibrillation in chronic kidney disease. The reduction held in people who were neither diabetic nor obese, where the usual metabolic explanation runs out.
A TriNetX study of GLP-1 receptor agonists found autoimmune thyroiditis went opposite directions by diabetes type: down in type 1 (hazard ratio 0.41), up in type 2 (1.23), with the type 2 signal holding against SGLT2 inhibitors. Thyroid cancer showed no change in any group.
In ten adults with type 2 diabetes, a glucose drink raised blood flow through the main intestinal artery by 57 percent. Infusing a GIP-receptor blocker cut that surge about 15 percent (p=0.012), pinning a vascular job on the gut hormone tirzepatide is built around.
A meta-analysis of 186,598 pregnancies found no significant rise in gestational diabetes, preterm birth, preeclampsia, or hypertension among women exposed to GLP-1 receptor agonists around conception.
A real-world study in the NIH All of Us database compared the two most common migraine preventives and found the newer CGRP antibodies were non-inferior to Botox for stroke risk, though the event count was small.
Chemists built a six-amino-acid peptide called RKLAHE around a manganese ion, then used the particle to force cancer cells to leak their own mitochondrial DNA. The leak switches on the cGAS-STING pathway, the cell's alarm for misplaced DNA, and in mice with breast cancer the particle made an anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy work better. It is a mouse-stage result, but the design logic is the point.
An Israeli cohort of 2,721 matched pairs followed for up to 12.5 years found that, setting aside the price of the drugs and the operations themselves, GLP-1 patients cost the health system about $109 more per month than bariatric surgery patients. Hospital stays and other medications drove the gap, and it complicates the claim that the drugs are the cheaper path for people eligible for both.
Neurotensin, known as a brain-and-gut peptide, turned out to be produced by the heart's own lymphatic vessels after injury, where it braked muscle thickening and scarring through the NTSR2 receptor. A selective agonist reproduced the effect in mice and in human heart-failure tissue.
In a records study of more than 4,200 patients, adults with type 2 diabetes and peripheral artery disease had about half the major amputations and a quarter fewer deaths on a GLP-1 drug versus metformin. The heart attacks, strokes, and kidney events the class usually moves did not differ.
A Korean national cohort ran the same GLP-1 patients against two comparison drugs and got two answers: no mental-health difference versus DPP-4 inhibitors, a 20 percent higher depression risk versus SGLT2 inhibitors. The comparator, not the drug, is driving the headline.
In 51,540 older adults with type 2 diabetes, tirzepatide was tied to about 35 percent less new open-angle glaucoma over two years than GLP-1-only drugs. The comparison isolates the drugs, not the disease, and the signal still needs a trial to confirm it.
Ahead of the July 23-24 compounding vote, FDA reviewers concluded that none of the seven peptides (BPC-157, KPV, TB-500, MOTS-c, DSIP, Semax, Epitalon) has sufficient evidence for the 503A list, citing missing human data and impurities. Seven of the fourteen panelists who decide have peptide-business ties.
A four-amino-acid peptide called CAQK, given by IV, concentrated at the lesion and left treated rats using the injured forelimb close to normal (median 7 of 9 versus 3) while cutting glial scarring. Small and preclinical, and a test of delivery-first peptide design.
FOXM1 is a transcription factor overactive across many cancers and long considered hard to drug because it lacks a pocket small molecules can grip. A screen-derived peptide, M1-NP1, disrupted two of FOXM1's protein partnerships and blocked its entry to the nucleus, with anti-cancer activity and a clean early safety profile in mice.