Born as powerful anti-diabetes, they hit the headlines in 2023 in the guise of anti-obesity, for their ability to guarantee significant weight loss and mitigate health problems associated with obesity. The discovery of the year for one of the 'bible' magazines of the scientific community is the promise of drugs from the Ozempic* family, the Glp-1 receptor agonists. 'Science 'elected them'Breakthrough of The Year', the turning point of 2023, precisely because of this year's discovery on the impact they can have for patients with obesity.
The causes of this increasingly widespread pathology include genetic, physiological, environmental and social factors, experts highlight. As a medical problem, the risks associated with obesity can be life-threatening. We talk about heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, liver disease and some types of cancer. On the therapy front, pharmacological treatments for obesity have had “a sad past, often intertwined with social pressure to lose weight and the widespread belief that excess weight reflects weak willpower,” the author writes. of the Jennifer Couzin-Frankel service. However, this new class of weight loss drug therapies has now emerged and is showing “promising results.” Originally developed to treat diabetes nearly 20 years ago, excitement around Glp-1 drugs to treat obesity has recently exploded.
And this year, Science reports, there were two landmark clinical trials that showed in large numbers that Glp-1 agonists “produced significant health benefits beyond weight loss itself.” Furthermore, several trials are currently underway on their use in treatment of drug addiction, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. “For all their promise, Glp-1 agonists have raised more questions than they have answered—a hallmark of a real breakthrough,” notes Science editor-in-chief Holden Thorp in a related editorial. “We recognize that obesity presents medical and social complexities,” remarks Couzin-Frankel.
Both the report and the editorial highlight how the development and implementation of these drugs is prompting important conversations about how obesity is viewed, which could help reduce stigma and judgment about people's weight. Couzin-Frankel's story also highlights concerns about the drugs' cost, availability, associated side effects and their potential need to be taken indefinitely. Doctors also worry that people who are not obese or overweight will resort to using them to lose weight quickly.
Behind Glp-1 agonists in the race for the scientific breakthrough of the year, according to Science, are advances in antibody therapies that could slow neurodegeneration in the brains of people with Alzheimer's. And, again: the discovery of natural sources of hydrogen beneath the earth's surface; the push for systemic changes in how early career scientists are treated in institutions around the world; confirmation of the profound antiquity of human footprints discovered in an ancient lake in New Mexico; discoveries showing that Earth's crucial carbon pump is slowing down; interstellar signals from massive black hole mergers; the development of artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted weather forecasting; new vaccines against malaria and the implementation of 'exascale computing', which promises to bring unprecedented computing power to many fields of science.
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