![]() What drugs like semaglutide, which mimic the actions of GLP-1, seem to do is lower the amount of the substance required-like food or alcohol-to feel satiated. These receptors control the release of the hormone GLP-1, which has a multitude of roles to play in the body, including how we respond to alcohol. ![]() GLP-1 receptors are found dotted around the body, including in the brain structures that control our reward pathways. Over time, that dopamine flurry reinforces a want for alcohol. A thirst for booze is thought to be driven by the rewarding properties that alcohol produces, delivered by a bump of dopamine released in the brain. While scientists aren’t certain how these drugs work to dampen alcohol cravings, it’s suspected to work on the same pathways that produce a shrunken appetite. (Richards receives payment from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, who make GLP-1 receptor agonist drugs, to speak at conferences.) It’ll be at least a year and a half before those trials have publishable data, so this case series was done in order to set the table for the clinical trial data, say study authors Kyle Simmons, professor of pharmacology and physiology at Oklahoma State University, and Jesse Richards, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Oklahoma. The authors are also running a clinical trial in Tulsa, Oklahoma, looking at semaglutide to treat AUD a sister study is being conducted in Baltimore, Maryland. If it were the case that this already-approved, safe drug could stem alcohol cravings, its potential to treat alcohol use disorder, or AUD-estimated to afflict over 280 million people worldwide-was tantalizing. “Some of wanted to have a break going on holidays, because they wanted to be able to enjoy a glass of red wine,” says Mette Kruse Klausen, a postdoctoral researcher at the Psychiatric Centre Copenhagen in Denmark. The first GLP-1 receptor agonist came on the market back in 2005 in the form of exenatide, and the accompanying waning thirst for alcohol has been reported anecdotally over and over ever since. Hints that these kinds of drugs could be used in the treatment of alcoholism go back even further. In fact, nine of the 63 participants surveyed had stopped drinking altogether. In 2011, researchers in India found that a drug called liraglutide, a GLP-1 receptor used to treat diabetes, significantly reduced alcohol intake in a small group of patients. The apparent effectiveness of drugs like semaglutide won’t come as a surprise to doctors who have been prescribing these drugs to patients for years.
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