BRP, a 12-amino-acid appetite-suppressing molecule discovered by a team at Stanford Medicine in California, might help to achieve weight-loss effects with fewer drawbacks. It mainly acts in the part of the brain that regulates appetite, known as the hypothalamus.<\/p>\n
How does BRP seem\u00a0different?<\/p>\n
Giles Yeo, professor of molecular\u00a0neuroendocrinology\u00a0at the UK Medical Research Council’s Metabolic Diseases Unit, told DW that, because of the blood-brain barrier, only two parts of the brain sense circulating hormones \u2014 the hypothalamus and the hindbrain.<\/p>\n
“Ozempic and all of these gut hormones have their primary effect through the back of the brain,”\u00a0he explained.<\/p>\n
“The hypothalamus is the hunger sensor. It operates from dealing with starvation to no starvation. It’s trying to detect within your body. Am I starving or not? How hungry am I?”<\/p>\n
“The hind brain does something different. It targets the visceral effect. It targets fullness,\u00a0uncomfortably full:\u00a0‘Oh my God \u2014 I am Christmas full!\u00a0I’m so full, I feel like puking.'”<\/p>\n
It’s hoped that BRP can tame appetites without inducing feelings of fullnessImage: Dominic Lipinski\/empics picture alliance<\/p>\n
Current weight-loss jabs do affect the hypothalamus, but they mostly\u00a0target the hindbrain \u2014 and the feelings of fullness it generates. “The problem with targeting here is that the side effects are then nausea,”\u00a0said Yeo. “In other words, the big reason why the side effects of these Ozempic-type drugs is nausea is because of the part of the brain it influences.”<\/p>\n
BRP appears to act on\u00a0a different pathway, affecting only the hypothalamus. That could lead to fewer unpleasant\u00a0side effects. Another potential advantage of BRP is that in animal trials with the compound, mice appeared to lose fat but not muscle\u00a0\u2014 another potential side effect of GLP-1 imitators<\/a>.<\/p>\n ‘Breathtaking’ search for a peptide<\/p>\n BRP could prove to be a big breakthrough, but just as groundbreaking was the way it was discovered.<\/p>\n In the search for alternatives to GLP-1 mimics,\u00a0the Stanford researchers built an AI tool called Peptide Predictor that scanned about 20,000 human genes. It identified 2,683 potential hormone-like peptides \u2014 short chains of amino acids.\u00a0 The researchers whittled down candidates further and tested about a hundred of them.<\/p>\n BRP stood out as a winner. Obese mice given daily injections of the peptide lost weight, while untreated animals gained it.<\/p>\n “The sheer audacity to sort through the huge number of peptides is truly breathtaking,”\u00a0said Randy J. Seeley,\u00a0a professor of surgery at\u00a0the University of Michigan in the US. “I am in awe of the work.”<\/p>\n How likely is a human BRP drug?<\/p>\n Katrin Svensson, the senior author of the Stanford study, has co-founded a company that plans to begin human clinical trials in the near future. But Seeley said it’s hard to predict whether success chalked up in animal trials will translate to humans.<\/p>\n “The hardest thing to know is whether a drug based on this will have adequate safety to become an approved obesity therapeutic,” he said. “Obesity is a chronic condition that needs to be treated chronically. That means such drugs need to be quite safe so that people can use them for a long time.”<\/p>\n GLP-1-type drugs are themselves adapted versions of a natural hormone \u2014 the modification just makes them last longer in the body. BRP could also be altered in a similar way.<\/p>\nThe existing injections have proved a valuable tool in fighting a mounting problemImage: Niall Carson\/empics\/picture alliance<\/p>\n