Ozempic Literally Came From a Monster – And It's Not Alone
owl writes:
https://www.sciencealert.com/ozempic-literally-came-from-a-monster-and-its-not-alone
The toxic bite of a Gila monster can kill a human, but a specific ingredient in the cocktail of the lizard's venom is the reason we have glucagon-like peptide (GLP-1) agonists like Ozempic and Wegovy.
At the end of the 20th century, endocrinologist Daniel Drucker was looking for a hormone similar enough to the human gut's GLP-1, which would have similar appetite-suppressing and blood sugar-regulating qualities, without being broken down by the human body so quickly.
Drucker had read about the work of endocrinologist John Eng, gastroenterologist Jean-Pierre Raufman and biochemist John Pisano, who had sequenced the proteins in Gila monster (Heloderma suspectum) venom and found two that looked like human GLP-1.
Drucker and his team from the University of Toronto acquired a Gila monster from the Utah Zoo's breeding program to dissect for further research. This work confirmed that the lizard species' unique genes produce a protein, Exendin-4, that fit the bill, mimicking GLP-1 while hanging round in the human body for far longer.
A synthetic version was created in the years after, but it took until 2005 for this GLP-1 agonist to become an FDA-approved treatment for type 2 diabetes. It's now also become a popular treatment for obesity, with further potential applications on the horizon.
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