reduce the suffering of hunger
Lauren J. Young’s article “Cutting Down the Food Noise” about the influence of satiety pathways on food intake and how glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists such as Wegovy work, I enjoyed the new science of health and appetite). I can intervene successfully. In 2002, I participated in a Phase 3 trial of Regeneron’s drug candidate Axokine, which also suppressed the desire to overeat. Axokine was never approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration because it failed to meet the trial’s endpoint of weight loss in all participants.
But when I was participating in a clinical trial, it had a dramatic effect on me. I lost about 90 pounds within about 9 months. Somehow, I was a super responder. Therefore, I have been following the development of other appetite suppressants with great interest, but have not found the need to use them. Drugs that make you feel fuller can be truly life-changing.
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John P. Moore Weill Cornell Medicine and scientific americanadvisory board of
I realized that the sensations people reported in Young’s paper were not due to the GLP-1 drug, but to my gastric bypass surgery 19 years ago. The first time I noticed a change was at Thanksgiving. I ate a small portion and noticed that everyone at the table was eating for seconds or threes. I was surprised that I didn’t want to do that. I lost nearly 200 more pounds and continued to lose weight without feeling like I needed to use willpower. Did the paper’s researchers investigate possible changes in GLP-1 in my cohort?
Alan Morin via email
“Thank you for writing about synesthesia and giving me a name for the subtitles in my mind!” —Schuyler V. kentucky
In discussing the search for longer-lasting structures for GLP-1, Young notes that success has been found in the saliva of the Gila monster monster. I’m pretty sure the saliva wasn’t tested because someone said, “Okay, let’s test the Gila monster. Let’s test it.” I tested everything else. ”Could you kindly explain to me how this discovery was made, or by what scientific method?
Steven M. Zelman new york city
Young people respond: Morin’s observation came during an interview with Giles Yeo of the University of Cambridge. Mr Yeo explained that gastric bypass reduces the size of the stomach and shortens the length of the intestine, reducing food absorption and leading to weight loss. However, the relocation of the part of the small intestine that is the main source of GLP-1 also changes the production of intestinal hormones. “Suddenly, food is delivered further into the intestine in a form that is less digestible than normal,” says Yeo. “As a result, various hormones are released, including GLP-1.” Some studies have shown that GLP-1 levels increase almost immediately after gastric bypass surgery, and before recipients lose weight, In some cases, it has been shown to increase by nearly 10 times. These findings suggest that the influence of GLP-1 on satiety may play an important role in the weight loss effect of surgery.
Reply to Zelman: Scientists have long studied ways to develop drugs from the powerful chemicals of a variety of venomous organisms, including snakes, cone snails, and lizards like the Gila monster. Research from the 1980s suggested that Gila monster venom irritates the pancreas. I’ll be impressed later Endocrinologist John Eng has cracked the molecular recipe for saliva. He thus discovered exendin-4, a peptide similar in structure and function to GLP-1, but more durable and longer lasting. Exendin-4 served as a template for a new class of GLP-1 therapeutics, first as the diabetes drug exenatide and more recently as semaglutide.
see spoken words
I was thrilled to read Emily Murkowski’s article on ticker-tape synesthesia, “Speech Transforms into Text I ‘See'” (Mind Matters). Ever since I was a child, I have watched the words I and others speak appear and scroll before my eyes like ticker tape. I remember being surprised that not everyone had experienced this. My parents were always amused by my ability to spell words backwards.
As mentioned in the article, I find it difficult to concentrate on reading when there is conversation, TV, or music with lyrics in the background. Like Makowsky, I won my elementary school spelling bee. All too often, my third grade teacher revised the rules to allow for multiple winners. As far as I know, I have never met anyone else with ticker synesthesia.
Ann Prussia Winter Springs, Florida
I’ve been experiencing this same speech-to-text conversion for as long as I can remember. I thought everyone was going through this until a conversation with a friend from college revealed to me that no, I was pretty unique. This was the first time I came across anything written about this phenomenon. Thank you for writing about synesthesia and giving a name to the subtitles in my mind!
Schuyler V. kentucky
Asteroid Bennu
The book “Asteroid Secrets” by Robin George Andrews explains that material from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu has much in common with our planet’s geology. When I think about it, I wonder if this asteroid really came from Earth and is a remnant of the great impact that created the moon. The article states that “some of the sample’s microscopic particles reveal” that Bennu is older than the Sun and, of course, the Moon. But how do those ancient grains confirm Bennu’s age? Aren’t they just material deposited over the billions of years the asteroid spent roaming around our solar system? Or?
Steve Wise Charlotte, North Carolina
Andrews replies: If Bennu came from Earth, scientists would expect its samples to have chemical signatures that match very, very closely those of Earth or the Moon, but that’s not what they see. It’s not a thing. Water-rich objects are actually quite common in the solar system, so it’s not all that strange that Bennu is hydrated. But obtaining primitive asteroid material from an ancient water world is very exciting.
Samples of Bennu were taken from beneath its surface. And these particles have clear chemical signatures that show they weren’t forged by the sun.
round and round we go
“There’s Too Much Debris in Space” (Science Agenda), by the editors, discusses the problem of orbital debris. Half a century ago, my colleagues and I were working on a small NASA contract to look at ways to remove such debris. We took the unusual step of not seeking ongoing funding because we couldn’t think of anything that would work. Shortly after that, I also managed a contract called Space Industrialization, where we tackled the same problem and devised only a partial solution. Our plan allows entrepreneurs to lease a “pad” and pay for the utilities provided by a space-based facility. Even if it went bankrupt, management would be able to get the hardware safely off the rails.
charles gold Las Vegas, Nevada
Errata
The Mangrove March by Michael Adno should have depicted William “Chess” Verbeik and Scott F. Jones as using a GPS device instead of a GPS transmitter.
The cover image credit for the November issue should have read “John Gurche/Created for the Institute of Human Origins/Arizona State University.”
