Like Ozempic, only better: New active ingredient for fat removal injection causes fewer side effects
Ozempic, Wegovy and Co. make the pounds fall away. Many people discontinue therapy because of the common side effects such as muscle loss and vomiting. An active ingredient that has just been discovered is causing people to sit up and take notice.
A woman injects herself with a weight loss medication.
Bild: Getty
The formula for losing weight is actually simple: you have to consume fewer calories than you burn. The weight loss injections that are currently in high demand help the pounds fall off by reducing hunger and appetite in patients and prolonging the feeling of satiety. This means you automatically consume fewer calories.
In the journal “Nature” Researchers led by Zach Gerhart-Hines, professor at the University of Copenhagen, are now presenting an active ingredient for the first time that addresses both sides of the equation: not only does it reduce calorie intake, but at the same time it also stimulates metabolism, so that the body uses more energy. The active ingredient also apparently does not allow muscles to be broken down. This is a shortcoming of current weight loss injections: Patients usually not only lose fat tissue, but also lose muscle mass.
Like Carlos Ardanaz and Sophie Steculorum from the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in a commentary accompanying the study write, the new active ingredient could particularly help people who, even though they eat little, still do not lose weight. This applies, for example, to older people whose basal metabolic rate – i.e. the calories that the body needs when resting – is lower than that of young people. So if you eat as you did as you get older, you will gain weight almost automatically. The basal metabolic rate also decreases when muscle mass is lost. Even when resting, muscles use more energy than fat cells.
Combination preparations are the most promising
Metabolism expert Zach Gerhart-Hines and his team have so far tested the active ingredient, which activates the so-called neurokinin 2 receptor (NK2R), on mice and rhesus monkeys. NK2R appears to play an important role in maintaining energy balance as well as glucose control.
In the animal studies, the researchers observed that the mice and monkeys excreted diarrhea-like stools. However, they showed no signs of nausea and did not vomit (although, according to brain scans, the “vomiting center” in the brain was activated). Nausea and vomiting are two common side effects of medications available today. Some patients even stop therapy because of this.
However: With current medications such as Wegovy and Co., weight loss of over 20 percent is possible. However, the new active ingredient only reached 15 percent in mice and only 8 percent in rhesus monkeys. Therefore, the researchers note in the study, a drug based solely on the newly discovered mechanism would be out of the question. Rather, the researchers are aiming to connect the various mechanisms.
That wouldn’t be new. The active ingredient tirzepatide, present in the drug Mounjaro, mimics two intestinal hormones, namely the glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and the glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide (GIP). This means that significantly greater weight loss is possible with Mounjaro than with semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, which only mimics GLP-1. Ultimately, Gerhart-Hines and his colleagues note, clinical studies are needed to determine the true potential of the new NK2R active ingredient.
