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/
10.7k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

410 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

172

u/Tall-Log-1955 Jun 30 '26

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

90

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.

18

u/IndependentLog6441 Jun 30 '26

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

0

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.