The ‘fathers’ of drugs like Ozempic or Wegovy, Princess of Asturias Research Award

They are the ‘fathers’ of the therapy of the moment. Thanks to their work, treatments such as Ozempic, Wegovy or Mounjaro, indicated against disorders such as diabetes or obesity and that are causing a revolution in endocrinology. And, for this reason, the scientists Daniel J. Drucker, Jeffrey M. Friedman, Joel F. Habener, Jens Juul Holst and Svetlana Mojsov have been awarded the Princess of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research 2024.

This family of drugs, GLP-1 agonists, are changing the way different metabolic diseases are addressed. Not in vain, the magazine Science chose them as the breakthrough of the year in 2023.

But these medications didn’t appear in the pharmacy overnight. It has taken decades of work and the contribution of different scientists that allowed, first, the identification of this fundamental hormone in our body, GLP-1later find out its role, and finally manage to emulate its action through therapy.

The first indication that these drugs had was diabetes. As he recently explained to this newspaper Olga Gonzalezhead of the Endocrinology Service at the Gregorio Marañón Hospital in Madrid, this is because the therapy “acts at the level of the pancreas, promoting the secretion of insulin, which patients with high blood glucose levels, such as diabetics, experience. benefit from the drug. In addition, the drug inhibits another hormone in the pancreas, glucagon, which increases glucose levels; that is, by increasing insulin and lowering glucagon, it normalizes blood glucose levels.

But in addition, the medication, in different doses than the one used against diabetes, has other mechanisms of action that are catapulting its use against obesity. “For example, at the level of the stomach it slows down gastric emptying. It makes the passage to the digestive tract and intestine slower when you eat food, which provides a feeling of fullness. And another very powerful mechanism is its ability to act on the satiety centers in the brain. The drug is capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier, reaching the central nervous system and acting on the satiety and appetite centers,” González continues.

The investigation has indicated that the semaglutide (the active ingredient in Wegovy) can produce a 15% reduction in total weight. And new formulations of this family of drugs are expected to achieve even greater weight loss.

In addition, endocrinologists especially praise the benefits on the cardiovascular system that are also associated with the use of these drugs. A recent study has shown that these medications reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes by up to 20% in overweight individuals.

The Princess of Asturias award recognizes the work of five fundamental scientists in ensuring that patients can benefit from GLP-1 agonists today. One of them, biochemistry Svetlana Mojsov, which played a fundamental role in the identification and characterization of the hormone, has suffered for years from an unfair lack of recognition for its work. This year the magazine Nature chose her as one of the 10 most relevant personalities in science and this award once again places her in the place she deserves.

The jury, chaired by Pedro Miguel Echenique, highlighted that “the award-winning scientists have established the endocrine bases of diabetes and obesity, prominent pathologies that are a global public health problem without effective treatment to date.”

Jeffrey M. Friedman, the text highlights, “has been a pioneer in establishing the genetic basis of the hormone that regulates appetite. Daniel J. Drucker, Joel F. Habener, Jens Juul Holst and Svetlana Mojsov have studied the effect of certain hormones that They regulate insulin secretion and consequently glucose levels. These investigations have led to the development of treatments that are now available and that are improving the quality of life of hundreds of millions of people around the world. These works are having an enormous impact. clinical and social, since they have allowed for the first time the development of effective drugs to combat diabetes and obesity. In addition, they make it possible to mitigate associated pathologies such as cardiovascular diseases.

For Christopher Moralesmember of the Board of Directors of the Spanish Obesity Society (Seedo), “this recognition of great scientists who have changed the lives of many people is a joy.”

“Beyond science, the impact that this new pharmacological group has had, first on type 2 diabetes, then on overweight/obesity and the complications of overweight and obesity, is enormous,” says the endocrinologist at the Virgen Macarena and Vithas hospitals in Seville. , who also praises “all the data that is appearing in cardiovascular protection, kidney protection and the new contribution in protection against neurodegenerative diseases. All of this makes this a great scientific discovery with a great impact on clinical care practice and that It improves the lives of many people. Those of us who work in the metabolic area, as endocrinology, are very happy because we are very aware of the authentic revolution that we have experienced in this area thanks to your contribution,” he concludes.

Trajectories

Daniel J. Drucker (Montreal, Canada, June 26, 1956), senior researcher at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital and professor at the University of Toronto. He is one of the pioneers in this field of study. In the mid-1980s, he identified the hormone GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide 1) in cell line experiments and has pioneered the genetic basis of the hormone that regulates appetite.

Jeffrey M. Friedman (Orlando, USA, July 20, 1954), holder of the Marilyn M. Simpson Professorship at the Howard Hughes Institute at Rockefeller University. In 1994 she discovered the role of leptin, a hormone that acts on the brain region that controls appetite.

Joel F. Habener (United States, June 29, 1937), professor of Medicine at Harvard University and director of the Laboratory of Molecular Endocrinology at Massachusetts General Hospital (USA).

Jens Juul Holst (Copenhagen, Denmark, August 1, 1945), scientist in the Department of Medical Physiology at the University of Copenhagen and scientific director of the Center for Basic Metabolic Research at Novo Nordisk Laboratories. Independently, in the mid-1980s he identified the hormone GLP-1 and pioneered exploring its role.

Svetlana Mojsov (Skopje, today North Macedonia, December 8, 1947), professor of Biochemistry at Rockefeller University (USA) Despite her role in the discovery and study of GLP-1, her name was not recognized until she started a claim claiming to correct articles that appeared in The New York Times, Nature and Cell.