Recently, "Science" magazine announced the top ten scientific breakthroughs in 2023.Top the year's breakthroughs with the development of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists and the discovery this year of drugs that can alleviate obesity-related health problems.
Weight loss and obesity have always been hot topics around the world, but unfortunately, the global obesity population continues to grow.
A report released by the World Obesity Federation shows that among people aged > 5 years old globally, the overweight/obesity rate will rapidly increase from 38% in 2020 to 51% in 2035, and the number will climb from 2.6 billion people in 2020 to more than 4 billion people in 2035.
Now, a new drug therapy for weight loss has emerged, and clinical trials have proven thatGLP-1 receptor agonists, originally developed to treat diabetes, were later found to be equally effective in weight loss.
It is reported that GLP-1 agonists have been used to treat type 2 diabetes since 2005, and in 2014, GLP-1 related drugs began to be approved for the treatment of obesity.
2021,A GLP-1 drug called semaglutide (trade name: Wegovy) was approved by the US FDA.It is the first new drug it has approved to control general obesity, or overweight.
In clinical trials in patients with obesity,Weekly semaglutide treatment can reduce patients' weight by an average of about 15%.Significantly higher than the 2.4% in the control group.
Patients can observe weight loss as early as the fourth week after randomization, and the effect appears quickly. Moreover, other metabolic-related indicators of patients during treatment, such as blood pressure and glycosylated hemoglobin levels, have also been significantly improved.
Additionally, the annual list of scientific breakthroughs includes: an antibody therapy that may slow neurodegeneration in the brains of Alzheimer's patients; the discovery of a natural source of hydrogen below the Earth's surface; and a push for systemic changes in the treatment of early career scientists by global institutions;
Confirmation of the antiquity of human footprints found in an ancient lake in New Mexico, USA; Earth's vital carbon pump is slowing down; Interstellar signals from massive black hole mergers; Development of artificial intelligence-assisted weather forecasting; New malaria vaccines; Deployment of exascale supercomputers.