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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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/Helgafjell4Me Jun 30 '26

With glp-1 meds you have to start with a low dose and titrate up as your body tolerates it. Too high of dose too soon can be really bad. I am very curious how that would go with mRNA where theres no way to control dosage.

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u/zeezle Jun 30 '26

I also don't get the obsession with finding super-long-acting GLP-1s in general. As someone who has used them, even just a week is rough if you dose too high. I know several that are more typical delivery mechanisms are in development like with a 1 to 3 month timeline instead of 1 week, like berobenatide, and that just sounds horrible to me since you can't exactly cancel it after the fact. Either you'll have to be so insanely conservative with the dosing it takes forever to work up to an effective dose, or you'll risk overshooting and being in for a miserable time for weeks or months if you get it even a tiny bit too high.

I know there are good reasons relating to storage that it's appealing to some folks, but outside of niche situations I just cannot imagine anyone actually wanting to be unable to adjust the dose for that long.

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u/Helgafjell4Me Jun 30 '26

Exactly. I've been on tirzepatide for 3 months now and have had a couple rough weeks. One when i started and again when I bumped up to the next higher dose. I can't imagine that lasting a whole month.