The drug relies on analysis carried out at MIT by Giovanni Traverso, a gastroenterologist and mechanical engineer, and Robert Langer, a chemical engineer who has launched greater than two dozen biotech firms.
The 2 found the mechanism when engaged on a strategy to develop liquid drug formulations that may very well be given to youngsters. They quickly realized they may make this momentary artificial coating kind of permeable, to both improve absorption or gradual it down. That latter potential was interesting as a remedy for weight problems.
“This materials is one thing you’ll take as a capsule or liquid, however the subsequent day it is gone due to the pure turnover of our mucosal floor within the GI tract,” Traverso says. He and Langer cofounded Syntis with Dhanda in 2022. He likens this coating to what mussels and different shellfish use to stay to rocks or the ocean flooring.
Within the outcomes Syntis introduced, the drug was delivered in a liquid type by way of a tube on to the small gut in order that researchers might verify that the polymer coating shaped as anticipated. A pill type has already been examined in pigs and canines, and it’s what Syntis plans to check in future human research.
In rats, the drug produced a constant 1 p.c weekly weight reduction over a six-week examine interval whereas preserving 100% of lean muscle mass.
In a first-in-human pilot examine of 9 contributors, the drug was secure with no opposed results. Tissue samples taken from the gut have been used to verify that the coating shaped and was additionally cleared from the physique inside 24 hours. The examine wasn’t designed to evaluate weight reduction, however blood testing confirmed that after the drug was given, glucose ranges and the “starvation hormone” ghrelin have been decrease whereas the degrees of leptin, an appetite-regulating hormone, have been greater.
“When vitamins are redirected to later within the gut, you are activating pathways that lead in direction of satiety, power expenditure, and total wholesome, sustainable weight reduction,” Dhanda says.
Syntis Bio’s findings in animals additionally trace on the drug’s potential for weight reduction with out compromising muscle mass, one of many considerations with present GLP-1 medication. Whereas weight reduction on the whole is related to quite a few well being advantages, there’s rising proof that the type of drastic weight reduction that GLP-1s induce may also result in a lack of lean muscle mass.
Louis Aronne, an weight problems drugs specialist and professor of metabolic analysis at Weill-Cornell Medical School, says that whereas GLP-1s are wildly widespread, they might not be proper for everybody. He predicts that within the not-so-distant future there shall be many medication for weight problems and remedy shall be extra customized. “I feel Syntis’ compound matches in completely as a remedy that may very well be used early on. It’s a type of factor you would use as a first-line treatment,” he says. Arrone serves as a scientific adviser to the corporate.
Vladimir Kushnir, professor of drugs and director of bariatric endoscopy at Washington College in St. Louis, who isn’t concerned with Syntis, says the early pilot information is encouraging, however it’s exhausting to attract any conclusions from such a small examine. He expects that the drug will make individuals really feel fuller however might even have a few of the identical uncomfortable side effects as gastric bypass surgical procedure. “My anticipation is that that is going to have some digestive uncomfortable side effects like bloating and belly cramping, in addition to doubtlessly some diarrhea and nausea as soon as it will get into a much bigger examine,” he says.
It’s early days for this novel approach, but when it proves efficient, it might sooner or later be another or add-on drug to GLP-1 drugs.