A NEW weight loss drug could hijack the brain like a 'Trojan horse' to double weight loss.
The drug could help the body to lose fat while training the brain to accept the new weight as normal, scientists said.
Scientists tested the experimental new drug on mice and claimed the promising new therapy could lead to greater weight loss that existing medications.
It used technology similar to Ozempic and Wegovy, which are referred to as glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RA).
Aside from work by mimicking a hormone produced naturally by the gut after a meal to slow digestion, dull hunger pangs and shed body weight, the new drug also smuggled neurosplasticity molecules into rodents' brains to make them more responsive to weight loss.
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Researchers with the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research at the University of Copenhagen said increasing brain plasticity - meaning its ability to change - may allow it to adapt better to weight loss.
So piggybacking neuroplasticity-promoting molecules onto GLP-1 medications could enhance their results, they claimed in a study published to the journal Nature.
Lead author Associate Professor Christoffer Clemmensen said: “I consider the drugs available on the market today as the first generation of weight-loss drugs.
"Now we have developed a new type of weight-loss drug that affects the plasticity of the brain and appears to be highly effective.”
Scientists used the NMDA receptor agonist MK-801, which affects neuroplasticity in the hypothalamus and brain stem, to promote weight loss-friendly changes in the brain.
GLP-1 hormones can leak through areas of the blood-brain barrier, so they can serve as “Trojan horses” that sneak the plasticity-promoting molecules into the brain, researchers said.
The blood-brain barrier is a protective layer of cells lining blood vessels in the brain, which filters out harmful substances and germs.
It can make it difficult to administer medications directly to the brain, but GLP-1 medications, however, can make their way through permeable parts in the blood-brain barrier.
According to Prof Clemmensen: “The effect of GLP-1 combined with these molecules is very strong.
"In some cases, the mice lose twice as much weight as mice treated with GLP-1 only.”
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Researchers suggested this breakthrough could mean might allow patients lose weight on lower dosages of weight loss drugs.
The new drug could also serve as an alternative to people who don't respond well to existing weight-loss drugs.
“Our studies in mice show side effects similar to those experienced by patients treated with the weight loss drugs available on the market today, including nausea," Prof Clemmensen said.
"But because the drug is so effective, we may be able to lower the dosage and thus mitigate some of the side effects in the future -though we still don’t know how humans respond to the drug."
The drug has so far only been tested on mice, but the next step would be to test it on humans.
As it would need to undergo three phases of human clinical trials, it might take eight years for the treatment to become available on the market.
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According to researchers, the human body has evolved to protect a certain body weight and fat mass.
Prof Clemmensen told Medical News Today that medications might be more effective when they're combined with drugs that target neuroplasticity in the brain.
“The idea of applying this approach to obesity and weight regulation is very new. This approach is still quite speculative, but something we are intensely working on," he explained.
“The thinking is that using a drug to lower body weight and then coupling it with another drug that consolidates the neuronal wiring at this adjusted lower weight might help patients maintain a lower weight.”
In other words, GLP-1 medications can help the body to lose weight, but enhancing neuroplasticity could help retrain the brain to accept that new weight as the new normal and boost weight loss results.
Researchers suggested that this approach could be used to supercharge treatments for other conditions.
“In this study, we have focused on obesity and weight loss, but in fact this is a completely new approach for delivering drugs to specific parts of the brain," Prof Clemmesen said.
"So, I hope our research can pave the way for a whole new class of drugs for treating conditions like neurodegenerative diseases or psychiatric disorders.”
