OVIEDO (EFE).— The work of five experts in the field of endocrinology that has led to the development of drugs that have been shown to be effective for the first time in combating obesity and diabetes was recognized yesterday in Spain with the Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research.
Canadian physician Daniel J. Drucker, Danish chemist Jens Juul Holst, molecular biologist Jeffrey M. Friedman and endocrinologist Joel F. Habener, both Americans, as well as chemist Svetlana Mojsov (Macedonia-United States), were recognized as the fathers of the endocrine bases of diabetes and obesity, which allowed for the first time the development of effective drugs to combat both pathologies with “an enormous clinical and social impact.”
This is acknowledged by the jury’s decision in Oviedo, which awarded the prize, which highlights “a global public health problem with no effective treatment to date” and which, according to the World Health Organization, in the case of obesity, affects 900 million people, including some 159 million children and adolescents.
Research that began five decades ago has led to the development of “treatments that are already available and that are improving the quality of life of hundreds of millions of people around the world,” said the jury, which unanimously selected this candidate from among the 48 candidates for the award.
The award is part of the progress made in recent years in the treatment of type 2 diabetes with the development of drugs that use semaglutide as an active ingredient, which plays a role in counterbalancing insulin in the balance of blood sugar, and in controlling appetite through another hormone, leptin.
Semaglutide also produces a significant reduction in appetite, which has made injectable drugs using this active ingredient a success and marketed under brands such as Ozempic, which, according to the journal “Science”, were the greatest scientific advance of 2023.
The physician Drucker, the endocrinologist Habener and the chemists Holst and Mojsov share the recognition of having studied the effect of certain hormones that regulate insulin secretion and consequently glucose levels, such as somatostatin and variants of glucagon, known as GLP-1 and GLP-2.
Semaglutide acts as an agonist of the GLP-1 glucagon receptor, thereby inhibiting the production of this hormone, reducing blood sugar levels and producing protective effects against stroke in obese adults.
Friedman was the first to establish the genetic basis of the hormone that regulates appetite and to discover that leptin, another hormone generated in fat cells, acts on the brain region that controls appetite.
The award recognises the “truly amazing journey” that has taken us from identifying a gut peptide capable of stimulating insulin secretion “to today’s extraordinary results, where unprecedented efficacy in treating obesity and diabetes is accompanied by highly significant improvements in cardiovascular, renal and cerebral health and survival,” said Holst after the jury’s decision was made public.
The Danish scientist acknowledged being “enormously grateful” for this distinction, as did Drucker, for whom the award for scientific and technical research is “extremely exciting and a great honour”.
The candidacy of the five scientists was proposed by Philip Felgner, one of the seven researchers awarded in 2021 for their contributions to the development of vaccines that made it possible to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.
Last year, the award was related to the health field, as American biologists Jeffrey Gordon and Peter Greenberg were recognized along with biochemist Bonnie L. Bassler for their achievements in the search for new effective treatments against antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Winners Details
The winners of the Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research were announced yesterday.
Jobs
Jeffrey M. Friedman pioneered the genetic basis of the hormone that regulates appetite. Daniel J. Drucker, Joel F. Habener, Jens Juul Holst and Svetlana Mojsov studied the effect of certain hormones that regulate insulin secretion and, consequently, glucose levels.
Drug development
Their research has led to the development of new drugs, initially for the treatment of diabetes, which have subsequently been successfully applied to combat obesity and overweight, and also to mitigate associated pathologies, such as cardiovascular diseases.
#obesity #diabetes
2024-08-20 01:02:29
