Nature: Why can weight loss drugs such as semaglutide treat many other diseases?

Research has shown that GLP-1 drugs can reduce the risk of death, stroke, and heart attack in patients with cardiovascular disease or chronic kidney disease, alleviate sleep apnea symptoms, inhibit addiction, and even slow down the development of Parkinson's disease. At present, hundreds of clinical trials are testing the efficacy of these drugs for these diseases and other diseases, such as fatty liver, Alzheimer's disease, cognitive dysfunction and AIDS complications.

We are at a stage where GLP-1 drugs are seen as potential drugs for treating various diseases, "said Randy Seeley, an obesity expert at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor who has provided consulting services to multiple companies developing obesity drugs and received research funding from them.

It may take several years to prove under what circumstances these drugs are effective. Understanding their mechanisms of action may be more difficult. In some cases, such as for people with cardiovascular disease, the reason seems simple: weight loss almost certainly provides most of the benefits. But the effects observed in diseases such as addiction and Parkinson's disease involve other mechanisms that are far from unraveled.

Leggio pointed out that understanding these issues may help explain why some people respond better to these drugs than others, and how to alleviate potential side effects such as nausea, constipation, decreased muscle mass during weight loss, and (in rare cases) pancreatitis.