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Could Python Blood Lead to the Next Generation of Weight-Loss Drugs?

Latest articles | smithsonianmag.com·Latest articles | smithsonianmag.com·2 months ago
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Researchers discovered an appetite-suppressing molecule in python blood. If one day turned into a medication, it might lack some of the common negative side effects of GLP-1s Ball pythons (shown), along with Burmese pythons, were studied in the new research. Patrick Campbell / CU Boulder Burmese pythons have pretty irregular eating habits. One of these giant reptiles can swallow an entire antelope whole and then go up to a year and a half without additional meals. Now, scientists have identified an appetite-suppressing molecule that plays a big role in the animals’ extreme fasting. The findings, published March 19 in the journal  Nature Metabolism , could lead to new weight-loss therapies that don’t have some of the negative side effects of popular existing drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. “Obviously, we are not snakes,” says  Jonathan Long , a study co-author and pathologist at Stanford University, to Hannah Devlin at the  Guardian .…

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