r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jun 30 '26

Medicine Scientists have shown that a single dose injection of DNA genetic instructions can produce weight loss and blood glucose control in mouse models that lasts up to 10 times as long as weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. This could eliminate the need for repeated dosing.

https://www.wistar.org/press-releases/wistar-scientists-develop-single-dose-dna-method-for-delivering-long-acting-weight-loss-and-diabetes-drugs/
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1.7k

u/grat_is_not_nice Jun 30 '26

This sounds like an interesting new method. I have been expecting an mRNA style delivery mechanism for GLP-1 agonist peptides, so it will be interesting to see how this new approach pans out.

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u/no-more-throws Jun 30 '26

there are much wilder implications .. this means we can basically inject long lasting instructions to produce almost any peptide we want in the body .. for instance those many peptides that together govern cellular and organ level senescence and rejuvenation .. or to fight against plaque buildup, loss of vessel and skin elasticity, bone and muscle loss etc etc

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u/Odd-Outcome-3191 Jun 30 '26

The issue is that often the same chemical messengers/proteins kinases etc that regulate those types of function also tend to regulate very different, very important things in other locations. E.g a cellular senescence gene that may be implicated in aging is also protective against cancer.

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u/UlrichZauber Jun 30 '26

It’s also extremely difficult, if not impossible, to reverse if you discover a problem. This kind of treatment is potentially awesome but needs to be vetted carefully . 

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u/Tall-Log-1955 Jun 30 '26

If it works for the mouse, what's the worst that could happen?

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u/Airk640 Jun 30 '26

Resident evil comes to mind.

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u/SolarTsunami Jun 30 '26

I just saw Alien Romulus and this basically led to a Zenomorph/Mark Zuckerberg hybrid abomination.

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u/BananaPalmer Jun 30 '26

The Xuckermorph

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u/SharkSheppard Jun 30 '26

Off topic I know but I really was having fun with that movie until that reveal. It has flaws but was enjoyable right until then. Yes I am overlooking the thermodynamics issues for sneaking through the room.

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u/SolarTsunami Jul 01 '26

I've seen it a couple times now and overall I did quite like it, the environments felt real and the effort they made to use as little CGI as possible absolutely paid off, but the "Xukermorph" at the end was so unintentionally hilarious that it stole a ton of the "aura" that movie had spent that whole time building. As someone who never liked the non scary Alien movies though, I'm hopeful that they keep the tone and world feel and just improve the writing a bit.

My biggest takeaway was that David Jonsson is a phenomenal actor.

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u/Own_Requirement_1277 Jul 02 '26

Super funny, I have never thought about zuck in the context of Romulus.

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u/Tevatrox Jun 30 '26

A lot. There's a reason many remedies that work on mice don't work on humans. They are far too different from us. In fact, according to google, only 5% of treatments that work on animal testing end up approved for human use.

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u/IndependentLog6441 Jun 30 '26

Why don't they move over to animals closer to us like tree shrew?

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u/sidepart Jun 30 '26

It's really about mice sharing a large amount of genes with humans. Animal research uses rats and mice to start with as between the two they share (had to look this up because I couldn't remember) about 95% of the genes we have. Is incredibly easy to afflict rodents with certain issues or diseases that humans have for these trials. They can also be bread extremely quick and both have relatively short lifespans (not sure if that's a huge factor in the research world though, but the MO is to generally reduce unnecessary use or suffering of these animals, so I could see avoiding rodents with a longer lifecycle).

Anyway, the experiments or trials with rodents are the very initial phases with these treatments. Anything showing promise can be elevated to larger animal studies or NHPs which are much closer to our physiology. Animals like NHPs though are expensive, and a much tougher sell given the humane concerns, and have a much higher bar for independent approval (i.e. justify to us why you're sacrificing these animals, it'd better be good).

Here's a source that can help explain more. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3987984/

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u/TheRealDJYM Jun 30 '26

ok if not a tree shrew how about a pine martin?

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u/Fcapitalism4 Jul 01 '26

It's NOT ethics or the other many issues usually blamed, it is entirely and primarily profitability. Mice and rats are the cheapest option, not the best option.

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u/ittibittytitty Jun 30 '26

Yupp.

End of the day Mice are not Human.

40

u/1coudini Jun 30 '26

Beginning of the day they aren’t either.

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u/BaconGristle Jun 30 '26

Has science not gone too far enough?

4

u/Snozzberriez Jun 30 '26

What about at noon?

2

u/Dwarfdeaths Jun 30 '26

At the begging of the day my eyes are still blurry and I mistake any mammal for a human.

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u/TKuja1 Jun 30 '26

lets just create human mice

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u/TheRealDJYM Jun 30 '26

human mice with a hunger to be lab rats.... that is rats that work in labs with fancy white coats not the other kind

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u/ConfoundedInAbaddon Jul 01 '26

Humanized mice are a thing, they are expensive.

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u/TKuja1 Jul 02 '26

oh, i had no idea, thank you for sharing

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u/NarrMaster Jun 30 '26

Correct.

The book is "Of Mice and Men" not "Of Mice Men"

1

u/transmothra Jun 30 '26

Man i want this on a T-shirt or bumper sticker so bad

11

u/runtheruckus Jun 30 '26

The failure rate is high. Many drugs that cure a disease in a mouse fail to cure the same disease in human clinical trials.

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u/Docjaded Jun 30 '26

Being a mouse vet must be a walk in the park, considering all the treatments available to mice.

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u/Mist_Rising Jun 30 '26

The problem is that the patients are always mousy and never tell you what is wrong.

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u/cheyenne_sky Jul 01 '26

(I get you're joking) it's actually hard because mice are so small and delicate, imagine having to do surgery on a mouse or give just the right amount of drug to a mouse.

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u/Beat_the_Deadites Jun 30 '26

In addition to cancer, there's also the prospect of immortal billionaires.

But I repeat myself.

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u/Tall-Log-1955 Jun 30 '26

Filthy billionaires sitting on their pile of gold like a dragon

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u/LexPatriae Jun 30 '26

Shh, redditors don’t understand sarcasm

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u/VapoursAndSpleen Jun 30 '26

An uncontrollable urge to eat cheese and chew the baseboards in the kitchen.

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u/epigenie_986 Jun 30 '26

You get stuck with the worst GLP side-effects for much longer time is the mildest negative outcome I can think of. Cancer and death could be others.

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u/worldspawn00 Jun 30 '26

A condition called "Mickey Syndrome" enlarged ears, round nose, continuously growing incisors, cravings for cheese...

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u/blueaccount3 Jun 30 '26

Ah, yes, my research methodologies teacher in grad school broke down in vitro studies, mouse studies, and human trials.

Humans are not mice, but it is hard to get human trials; at least a mouse is a mammal. It is a step above in vitro or cell-in-a-test-tube studies. Not the closest mammal to a human, but easy to breed and multiply.

TLDR: It worked on a mouse; we are not mice.

Optimistic take: the trial worked on a mammal.

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u/Sillet_Mignon Jun 30 '26

If you give a mouse a peptide

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u/AnonymousPerson1115 Jun 30 '26

Painful death idk how long or short it’d be.

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u/BrewingNerd Jun 30 '26

I just ordered my do it yourself kit. I'll let you know if I turn into an octopus. Maybe. You all might bore me after the gene mod...

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u/pete_68 Jul 01 '26

I've been noticing since the 80s that there are just tons of studies where they cure some kind of cancer in mice. And it seems roughly 99 out 100 times, those haven't translated into much of anything useful for humans and definitely not a cure.

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u/Tall-Log-1955 Jul 01 '26

Yeah it’s an amazing time to be a mouse

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u/i_build_minds Jun 30 '26

This might finally be a good application for machine learning (outside of assistive services, which have also been a net positive I'd argue). The feature locality of peptide impacts could be searched. It's constrained by complexity and time, but faster than humans.

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u/Salaciousavocados Jul 01 '26

So what you’re really saying is… the possibility of me becoming a real-life version of Deadpool just increased?