The secret that pythons hide and that could offer clues for weight loss

Science Writing.- Pythons are animals with an extreme metabolism, based on long periods of fasting followed by massive intakes, and scientists have found in that metabolism some keys that may be very relevant for biomedical research and especially for weight loss.

Unlike humans, who eat small amounts several times a day, these snakes can ingest prey equivalent to almost their entire body weight and then go for months without feeding again, a behavior that causes drastic physiological changes.

Your Metabolism

After eating, their organs can increase in size by more than 50 percent, their energy expenditure increases noticeably, and certain cell types, such as the beta cells of the pancreas, multiply rapidly.

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Researchers from the American universities Stanford Medicine, Colorado Boulder, and Baylor have discovered an appetite-suppressing compound (a metabolite) in the blood of pythons that helps these snakes consume enormous amounts of food and go for months without eating, while maintaining good metabolic health; they publish the results of their work today in the journal Nature. Scientists have found that this metabolite, which increases a thousandfold in pythons after a large meal, causes obese laboratory mice to reject their food pellets and lose weight, thus mimicking the effect of drugs like ‘semaglutide’ (marketed as Ozempic or Wegovy). It’s too early, researchers have warned, to know if that metabolite can be converted into a new weight-loss drug in humans, but the study does reinforce the importance of investigating extremes in the animal kingdom, and in that area reptiles have provided humanity with drugs of great clinical relevance. For example, snake venom is full of biologically active compounds that have been used to make medicines for blood pressure and anticoagulants, and ‘semaglutide’ emerged from the discovery of a hormone in a venomous lizard (the ‘Gila monster’) that regulates blood sugar levels. An appetite suppressant without the side effects of Ozempic Pythons, which are not common lab animals, can weigh up to 90 kilos and live for more than 20 years in the wild, far from being lab mice, but their drastic physiological response to abundant and sudden meals has caught the attention of researchers. Hours after eating, the organs of pythons, including the heart, begin to increase in size by 50 percent or more; their energy needs increase by more than 40 percent and cells that normally do not divide, such as insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas, multiply exponentially.

The metabolite that caught the attention of the researchers – very little studied in humans and known primarily as a molecule excreted in urine – was administered to laboratory mice at levels similar to those observed in pythons after eating, and they saw no effect on energy expenditure, beta cell proliferation, or organ size, but it was regulating the appetite and eating habits of the mice.

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Researchers found that obese mice treated with it ate significantly less than control mice and, after 28 days, had lost 9 percent of their body weight, without having modified either water intake, energy expenditure or physical activity during treatment. Although still far from a hypothetical clinical translation, scientists have pointed out that the research could serve as a basis for new weight loss therapies that promote satiety without the nausea and muscle loss that existing drugs can cause, as it is an appetite suppressant that has demonstrated effectiveness in the laboratory (in mice) without showing the side effects of drugs such as Ozempic or Wegovy.