A genetic test might mark the beginning of personalized medicine for obesity.
A recent investigation showed that approximately 1 in 7 individuals who used semaglutide, which is accepted for weight loss under the moniker Wegovy, had not shed at least 5% of their starting weight after a year, suggesting the medicine wasn't effective for them.
Now, it seems these results could be attributed to a person's genetics.
The study reveals that a novel test, which assigns a genetic risk score, may allow people to determine if they will probably be successful on injectable weight loss treatments.
"We believe that the test can predict who will be able to lose weight, and we can predict with 95% accuracy who will lose more than 5% with this genetic test," stated Dr. Andres Acosta, a gastroenterologist and researcher at the Mayo Clinic, who aided in creating the test.
Acosta emphasized that these drugs aren't inexpensive. They're not frequently covered by insurance and may have heavy copays. Predicting whether the drugs will work could save individuals considerable aggravation and funds.
The test, known as MyPhenome, was created by researchers at the Mayo Clinic and was licensed last year by a firm named Phenomic Sciences. It costs $350 and must be ordered by a healthcare provider.
It seeks 6,000 alterations in 22 genes connected to the signaling pathway for the GLP-1 hormone and assigns each individual a risk score indicating them as either "hungry gut"-positive or "hungry gut"-negative.
People with "hungry gut"-positive status have normal reactions to hormone signaling in the brain, but individuals with "hungry gut"-negative status don't appear to respond as well to stomach hormonal signals that inform the brain to stop eating. Acosta contended that the test categorizes those people as having a "hungry brain," and they may need different methods of intervention for weight loss, like bariatric surgery.
In a recent modest study of 84 individuals in a weight loss registry at the Mayo Clinic, researchers executed the test on stored blood or saliva samples. After nine months on semaglutide, individuals classified as "hungry gut"-positive had substantially more weight loss than those designated as "hungry gut"-negative.
After a year, individuals categorized as "hungry gut"-positive had lost an average of 19% of their starting weight, which is nearly twice as much, on average, as the 10% total body weight lost by persons categorized by the test as "hungry gut"-negative.
The study is designated to be announced Monday at the Digestive Disease Week conference in Washington, DC. These outcomes are perceived as preliminary, considering they haven't been examined by external specialists or published in a medical journal.
"We do need to conduct these in a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial -- that's the highest standard," Acosta said. "But at this point, we can say that these outcomes were in individuals who were blinded to the results as well as the research."
Read also:
- No food or coffee for three days, just juice, juice, juice instead: a field report
- How to get rid of the flu if you have caught it
- Doctors warn of penis fractures and other injuries during the Christmas season
- Corona or flu epidemic? These pathogens are making us cough and sniffle right now
The results suggesting semaglutide's ineffectiveness for some individuals might be due to genetic factors. With the new genetic test, people can predict their likelihood of success on injectable weight loss treatments with a high degree of accuracy.
Source: edition.cnn.com
