Semaglutide: The Diabetes Drug That Could Help Fight Cancer - Study Finds Evidence

2023-05-12 10:14:00

By Melanie Hoffmann, Medical Editor | May 12, 2023 12:14 p.m

Actually, the drug Semaglutide is intended to help diabetics with weight loss. Now researchers have discovered that it may also have an amazing side effect. A study provides evidence that it could protect against cancer.

Ever since it became known that semaglutide could also help non-diabetics lose weight, it has been on everyone’s lips. But experts warn against misusing the means (FITBOOK reported). Instead, it should only be taken under medical supervision in the case of type 2 diabetes and obesity. At the same time, scientists are continuing to research the exact effects of semaglutide in the body and have now come to an amazing conclusion in a study: semaglutide could have a cancer-killing effect.

What was examined

The initial question of the current study from Ireland was: Can semaglutide help obese people with their cellular metabolism problems? The focus was primarily on the natural killer cells, which in people who are very overweight usually no longer function as they do in healthy people.

To what extent the active ingredient, which is approved in Germany under the name Ozempic, is useful for the treatment of overweight people and how exactly it works has not yet been extensively researched. Because the weight loss that semaglutide causes was initially just a side effect of its primary effect – the regulation of blood sugar levels in diabetics. The weight loss can be explained by the fact that semaglutide mimics the intestinal hormone GLP1 and thus ensures a longer feeling of satiety and a reduced appetite. But what other processes could be triggered by semaglutide in the body? That’s exactly what the research team around Donal O’Shea, study author and endocrinologist at University College Dublin, wanted to find out.

Also interesting: Sharon Osbourne was so bad with the “weight loss injection” Ozempic

course of the study

For their study, the scientists recruited 20 obese people without diabetes. They started semaglutid therapy with them, in which the subjects took the drug once a week. Over the course of the six-month study period, the researchers collected and analyzed immune cell samples from the 20 study participants to determine the effect on cell metabolism.¹

Also interesting: These popular drugs can damage the kidneys in the long term

Killer cells worked again

In fact, the laboratory tests showed that taking semaglutide had an amazing effect on the subjects’ killer cells. The cells, which are severely altered in obesity and no longer function as they should, worked again.² More precisely: They again produced the signaling molecules that they normally also produce, the so-called cytokines. While the number of killer cells remained constant, they were shown to resume functioning. So they woke up from a kind of deep sleep. It is also noteworthy that only half of the study participants had lost significant weight as a result of semaglutide, but the effect on the killer cells was evident in all test subjects and thus appears to be independent of weight loss.

Also interesting: Cancer cases among under-50 year olds are steadily increasing worldwide – possible reasons

Link between killer cells and cancer

“The current results are very positive news for people with obesity receiving GLP-1 therapy. They suggest that the benefits of this family of drugs could also lead to a reduction in cancer risk,” O’Shea said in a press release on the study.³

The cytokines produced by killer cells are messenger substances that play an important role in the immune system. Because they are involved in the activation of immune cells and have an impact on inflammatory processes, bacterial proliferation – and even the development of cancer.⁴ In connection with cancer – such as colon cancer – cytokines are even used specifically in the context of immunotherapy in the case of an existing disease.⁵

It seems correspondingly positive when killer cells resume the function of cytokine production in obese patients after taking semaglutide. If those affected are previously more susceptible to cancer, the drug seems to be able to give them some protection back.

Critical classification of the study

With 20 participants, the study by the Irish researchers included only a small sample group. In addition, there was no control group. In addition, it has not yet been scientifically proven that reactivated killer cells can actually reduce the risk of cancer. The extent to which semaglutide really helps protect against cancer must now be researched in further, larger studies.