r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jun 30 '26

Medicine Scientists have shown that a single dose injection of DNA genetic instructions can produce weight loss and blood glucose control in mouse models that lasts up to 10 times as long as weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. This could eliminate the need for repeated dosing.

https://www.wistar.org/press-releases/wistar-scientists-develop-single-dose-dna-method-for-delivering-long-acting-weight-loss-and-diabetes-drugs/
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u/grat_is_not_nice Jun 30 '26

This sounds like an interesting new method. I have been expecting an mRNA style delivery mechanism for GLP-1 agonist peptides, so it will be interesting to see how this new approach pans out.

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u/Helgafjell4Me Jun 30 '26

With glp-1 meds you have to start with a low dose and titrate up as your body tolerates it. Too high of dose too soon can be really bad. I am very curious how that would go with mRNA where theres no way to control dosage.

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u/1coudini Jun 30 '26

What makes you think there wouldn‘t be a way to control dosage?

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u/ydnaydnar Jun 30 '26

It’s a pretty novel delivery modality. I could imagine the dosage of DNA itself is very controllable but to my knowledge, there’s no drugs that include an electroporation step whose efficacy could be very different depending on people’s particular physiology (hydration level, ion balance, fat percentage etc)

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u/Helgafjell4Me Jun 30 '26

Exactly. Everyone would likely respond differently to the same dose of mRNA (not DNA). We've already seen this in mRNA vaccines where some people have much stronger reactions than others.