Semaglutide, the lively ingredient in common diabetes and weight problems medication Ozempic and Wegovy, may enhance folks’s style buds, preliminary analysis suggests. The researchers discovered that ladies taking semaglutide had improved style sensitivity, particularly to sweetness. The outcomes could make clear one more reason why this and comparable medication may be so efficient in serving to folks reduce weight, the authors say.
The examine was performed by scientists from the College Medical Heart in Ljubljana, Slovenia. They have been intrigued by animal research that confirmed that GLP-1, a hormone liable for the physique’s management of blood sugar and starvation, additionally performs an essential function in influencing the notion of sweetness. For instance, in mice that have been bred to not produce GLP-1, their sensitivity to sweets was considerably decreased.
Semaglutide and different incretins are designed to imitate GLP-1, and a few research have proven that individuals taking the drug expertise a decreased want to eat candy, spicy and salty meals. Nonetheless, the mechanisms behind this shift usually are not fully clear, so the researchers wished to see if the same change in style sensitivity may happen in people and mice taking semaglutide.
It might appear counterintuitive, however rising style sensitivity can really assist with weight reduction by lowering cravings for overly candy and high-calorie meals. By perceiving sweetness extra intensely, folks could really feel glad with much less sugar, resulting in decrease general calorie consumption.
The crew performed a 16-week examine with 30 feminine volunteers, half of whom obtained the drug and the opposite half a placebo. Volunteers had style sensitivity measured utilizing strips containing all 4 primary tastes (candy, salty, bitter and bitter) positioned on the tongue. Moreover, a few of their tongue cells have been collected to check gene expression, they usually underwent MRI scans earlier than and after they tasted one thing candy after a regular meal.
“The current examine demonstrated that semaglutide improved style sensitivity in overweight ladies, that means that the brink for detecting completely different concentrations of the 4 primary tastes was improved,” examine lead writer Moika Jensterle Sever advised Gizmodo.
The crew additionally discovered that tongue cells of these taking semaglutide confirmed adjustments within the expression of genes related to the notion of sweetness and style bud renewal. And utilizing MRI, they discovered adjustments in how shoppers’ brains responded to sweetness, notably within the angular gyrus of the parietal cortex. angular gyrus It’s thought to assist combine our completely different senses to higher perceive the world round us and remedy issues, whereas the parietal cortex is understood to have cells bearing GLP-1 receptors.
The crew’s outcomes might be introduced this weekend at ENDO 2024, so that they haven’t but gone via the standard peer evaluation course of. North notes that their examine is only a proof-of-concept examine designed to indicate that there’s something extra to check, to not definitively verify a phenomenon. As a result of style notion can range considerably between people, it’s attainable that GLP-1 medication is not going to have an effect on each individual’s style buds in the identical manner.
However analysis has proven that no less than some overweight folks understand sweetness much less intensely than normal, which can contribute to their cravings for even sweeter, usually higher-calorie meals. GLP-1 medication are thought to assist deal with weight problems in a number of methods, reminiscent of by making you’re feeling full earlier than meals sooner than earlier than. And it is attainable that one other issue may very well be folks’s elevated sensitivity to sweets, the authors say.
North stated.
Future research, which can hopefully handle the restrictions of the present examine, “will make clear whether or not the effectiveness of semaglutide in treating weight problems can be a matter of style,” she added.