Weight Control at WeightControl.com

23andMe Study Underscores How Genes Influence Weight Loss and Side Effects of GLP1 Drugs.

The main takeaway is that your genetics can influence how well these medications work for you and what side effects you might experience.

WeightControl.com Interview with:
Dr. Adam Auton, PhD, MSc
Lead author and Vice President of Human Genomics
23andMe Research Institute

WeightControl.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: GLP-1 medications like semaglutide and tirzepatide have transformed the treatment of obesity, but there’s enormous variation in how people respond. In clinical trials, some people lose more than 25% of their body weight while others lose almost nothing. Before our study, some of the non-genetic factors that influence response were understood – sex, age, whether someone has type 2 diabetes – but even after accounting for those, there was still a lot of unexplained variation. We suspected genetics might play a role.

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Monell Scientists Locate Region of Brain Activated by GLP1 drugs That Can Reduce Food Intake Without Nausea

Because we found that GLP1 drugs can activate a neuron population in the brain to reduce food intake without nausea, the implication is that future obesity drugs could be developed to selectively promote satiety without the negative side effects.

WeightControl.com Interview with:

Amber L. Alhadeff, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Monell Chemical Senses Center &
Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104

WeightControl.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: GLP1-based weight loss drugs have become extremely popular, but we don’t have a good understanding of how they work. Further, many people who take these drugs experience nausea and other gastrointestinal side effects – some more severe than others.

Because of this, we became interested in understanding whether the appetite loss and weight loss stem from the same or different neural circuits as those that mediate the nausea.

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