Ozempic and Wegovy are self-administered injectables. Rybelsius is a pill. The drug classification is called a Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Agonist. These are administered to patients along with advice to use with dieting and more exercise. These drugs control blood sugar levels making them effective for the treatment of diabetes. They can also be used to prevent major cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes.
Earlier this year I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic. My blood sugar levels were above the normal range. In the three-plus years of COVID-19, I had gained over 15 kilograms (33 pounds). That’s when my new and very young family doctor offered to put me on Ozempic telling me she was seeing great results in terms of weight loss and reversing blood sugar levels. I knew people who had been put on Ozempic after being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. They described the side effects which included significant weight loss along with some very negative effects. They suffered from nausea, extreme bowel discomfort, vomiting, diarrhea or constipation. I politely told my doctor, no thanks. Instead, I went on a diet and exercise program and have shed all the weight in the last six months. I am no longer pre-diabetic.
The World Health Organization (WHO) describes obesity as one of the most neglected public health problems. Being overweight is malnutrition’s opposite of which the latter is related to food insecurity. But obesity which the WHO calls globesity is a growing threat not just to Global North countries but also to those in the Global South.
Close to 2 billion out of nearly 8 billion today on this planet are considered overweight with 13% of adults classified as obese. In the United States today, 34% of adults and 15 to 20% of children and adolescents are obese.
Diet and exercise, plus a plethora of pills have been the traditional ways humans have approached weight loss. This has spawned a global weight-loss industry which in 2021 was valued at US $224 billion annually with projected growth to $405 billion by 2030.
Semaglutides have made Novo Nordisk a very rich company and possibly the biggest disrupter to the weight-loss industry. The side effects, however, remain the biggest inhibitor to growth in use. Based on current sales, however, it appears doctors and patients have fully bought into using semaglutides to drop significant body mass.
At the University of Massachusetts Amherst, S. Thai Thayumananavan, Professor of Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering, has invented a treatment for obesity and Type-2 Diabetes using a nanogel infused with a synthetic thyroid hormone or thyromimetic. Thyromimetics are drugs first developed to treat liver disease. But in this case, they are being used to treat obesity, high cholesterol and metabolic disease.
The test subjects for the study were mice fed a high-fat diet for weeks. They soon became obese. When given the thyromimetic packaged inside a nanogel and delivered daily by intraperitoneal injection (the needle goes directly into the liver, a much deeper injection than a typical vaccine) the mice quickly lost weight even though they were still being fed a high-fat diet.
Delivered this way, the thyromimetic activates the beta receptor hormone which causes fat oxidation, reverses cholesterol levels and increases metabolic rate. Originally intended for liver disease treatment, the results point to a “nanopartical-mediated pharmaceutical” alternative for treating weight loss.
For this to become a weight loss treatment, the delivery mechanism will have to be less invasive than intraperitoneal injection. If this issue can be solved, then move over semaglutide, you have a strong competitor in the wings.
The study results were published in August this year in an issue of PNAS Nexus, a journal of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States.
]]>Now consider what three researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently invented, a material with a consistency described by one of the Amherst team, Alfred Crosby, as equivalent to a “super rubber band.” Crosby is one of the authors of a paper that appeared on January 4, 2022, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). He along with his two colleagues are on the faculty of the Polymer Science and Engineering Department at the University. The paper’s lead author is Xudong Liang, also a professor at the Harbin Institute of Technology, in Shenzhen, China. The third member of the team is Honbo Fu.
The material they invented is described as being “elasto-magnetic.” It contains tiny embedded magnets and a rubber-like consistency. The material phase shift occurs when the polarity of the magnets is altered. This can happen with the application of external input which can be physical, electromagnetic, or heat.
In a University press release issued on February 2, 2022, Crosby is quoted stating, “To amplify energy release or absorption, you have to engineer a new structure at the molecular or even atomic level.” This is exactly what has been done. In addition, the researchers have made the material programmable.
What is the inspiration behind the invention? It comes from examining the properties of the jaws from Venus Flytraps and various animals that snap their jaws shut when triggered by subtle pressure changes. In the case of the plant when a fly lands on it. And in the case of some large ant species, when their jaws encounter a desired object or prey. States Liang, “By embedding tiny magnets into the elastic material, we can control the phase transitions…And because the phase shift is predictable and repeatable, we can engineer the metamaterial to do exactly what we want it to do: either absorbing…energy from a large impact or releasing great quantities of energy for explosive movement.”
What are the practical applications of this invention? Providing more capability to machines and products without needing a lot of additional energy input. For example, using the metamaterial in robots, or putting it into protective equipment to dissipate the energy from an impact. With the Super Bowl coming up next weekend, imagine football helmets made containing this metamaterial that could dampen the force caused by forceful tackles and helmet-to-helmet impacts leading to fewer concussions and head and neck injuries.
In the PNAS paper, the inventors describe in their conclusions the ultimate potential of the metamaterial stating that what they have developed provides “a platform for high-performance materials in energy storage and release, achieving programmable material properties.” Interested in seeing just how this material works in a demonstration? Watch this video. The dampening recoil reaction occurs in milliseconds.
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