Pythons are extreme when it comes to following a fasting diet. They will swallow an entire antelope and then not eat for months. Research has identified the molecule (pTOS) that enables that diet. It could be the key to a new class of obesity drugs.
The molecule spikes in pythons’ bloodstreams after they have eaten. When it was given to obese mice, they were uninterested in food, and weight melted off of them.
“Obviously, we are not snakes,” said Dr. Jonathan Long, an associate professor of pathology at Stanford Univ. and coauthor of the research. “But maybe by studying these animals, we can identify molecules or metabolic pathways that also affect human metabolism.”
A python can eat its own body weight. After it eats, its heart can expand 25 percent, and its metabolism can speed up 4,000 times to break down the meal. Then they won’t eat again for 12 to 18 months.
The researchers were looking for the molecule that causes the heart to expand. They didn’t find that. Instead, they found a molecule that regulated appetite and eating behavior in mice. The mice ate significantly less and lost nine percent of their body weight.
This could be a new path to medications as the molecule functions differently than GLP-1s. GLP-1s slow down stomach-emptying and keep people fuller longer. The molecule appeared to interact with the hypothalamus and regulate appetite from the brain.
“We’ve basically discovered an appetite suppressant that works in mice without some of the side-effects that GLP-1 drugs have,” said coauthor Prof. Leslie Leinwand, a biologist at the Univ. of Colorado Boulder who has been studying pythons for two decades.
Humans have pTOS in their bodies. It spikes after eating, just like pythons. But the researchers used healthy volunteers and say that it spiked sevenfold after a meal. It spikes a thousandfold in the snake. But, the researchers pointed out, humans only eat one to two percent of their body weight in a meal.
While this finding might not yield new medications immediately, we are thrilled that researchers are looking into it. GLP-1s aren’t for everyone. They can cause serious side effects. And they aren’t effective for everyone, having more options in the toolbox to combat obesity and aid weight loss is essential, as people need different approaches. It’s exciting that nature may be offering a solution.
