Weight-loss drugs like Wegovy could help serious liver condition that has no cure-all treatment
ADVERTISEMENT
The key ingredient in blockbuster weight-loss drugs could help people manage a serious liver condition before it becomes life-threatening, a new trial has found.
The results, published on Wednesday in the
New England Journal of Medicine
, offer the latest evidence that weight loss drugs could help with a host of health issues beyond type 2 diabetes and obesity, which is what they're currently approved for in the European Union.
The drug, semaglutide, belongs to a class of medicines called GLP-1 receptor agonists, which work by suppressing people's appetites. But
research suggests
that they could also help with issues as wide-ranging as addiction, blood clotting, and dementia.
Now, the new study shows they could be a viable treatment for patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), which occurs when fat builds up in the liver and causes inflammation and scarring.
Related
France won't pay for weight loss drug Wegovy. What about other European countries?
If left untreated, it can progress to cirrhosis, which is advanced, irreversible liver damage. MASH isn't linked to alcohol, but it is tied to obesity, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure.
'Hugely exciting' trial results
The late-stage clinical trial was funded by the drugmaker Novo Nordisk, which sells semaglutide as Ozempic and Wegovy. It included 800 patients with MASH and moderate or advanced liver fibrosis, or the build-up of scar tissue in the liver.
After 72 weeks, 33 per cent of patients who took semaglutide once per week saw improvements on both inflammation and scarring in the liver, compared with about 16 per cent of those who got the placebo or dummy treatment.
Considering inflammation and scarring separately, about 63 per cent of semaglutide-taking patients lowered their inflammation, and 37 per cent saw their scarring improve.
That's compared with about 34 per cent and 22 per cent, respectively, in the placebo group.
People on semaglutide also lost 10.5 per cent of their body weight, on average.
The study results are 'hugely exciting,' said Dr Debbie Shawcross, a professor of hepatology and chronic liver failure at King's College London in the UK and vice secretary general of the European Association for the Study of the Liver.
Related
Blockbuster weight loss drugs could help with alcohol cravings, small new study suggests
But semaglutide might not get all the credit, because patients in both the drug and placebo groups also received lifestyle counselling and recommendations on how to manage their other health conditions.
About half of the study participants had type 2 diabetes, and about three in four were obese.
Shawcross said that because 34 per cent of people in the placebo group lowered their liver inflammation – without losing much weight – it suggests that lifestyle changes could also play a big part in helping people manage MASH.
'This is important as any therapy that is licensed for MASH with moderate to severe fibrosis must be used in conjunction with lifestyle interventions,' Shawcross, who was not involved in the new study, told Euronews Health.
ADVERTISEMENT
In the trial, patients taking semaglutide also experienced some side effects, such as nausea, diarrhoea, constipation, and vomiting. Adverse effects prompted 2.6 per cent of them to drop out of the study.
A potential new treatment for MASH
When Novo Nordisk published the trial's topline results in November 2024, the company said it would ask EU and US regulators to approve the drug for patients with MASH by mid-2025.
At the time, company executive Dr Martin Holst Lange said the medicine could help fill a 'significant unmet need' for patients with MASH.
A Novo Nordisk spokesperson did not respond to a Euronews Health request on Wednesday seeking an update on the timeline.
ADVERTISEMENT
Related
Weight loss drugs: New study sheds light on illegal online pharmacies selling Wegovy and Ozempic
No medicines have yet been approved to treat MASH in the EU, but others have also shown promise in recent years.
The drug resmetirom, for example, helped improve liver scarring in a late-stage trial published last year and has since been green-lit in the US.
It's still under consideration by EU regulators.
Shawcross said it is too early to tell whether semaglutide could be a 'game-changer' for MASH patients, but that it is 'certainly a powerful tool in the hepatologist's armamentarium if it is used in conjunction with lifestyle modification programmes'.
ADVERTISEMENT
She noted that many people who take weight-loss drugs don't make lifestyle changes that could help boost health outcomes if they wean off the medicines, which is a 'significant concern for us all'.
'There are many motivations for patients closely followed-up within trials to make positive adjustments to their lifestyles which may not be seen in the real world,' Shawcross said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euronews
2 hours ago
- Euronews
Mental health innovations take centre stage at VivaTech Paris
VivaTech opened its doors this Wednesday in Paris, marking the start of Europe's most important tech and startup annual event. With more than 165,000 expected visitors and nearly 14,000 startups from over 50 countries, the ninth edition of the event is set to be the biggest yet. Just like last year, artificial intelligence (AI) is the star of the show. But this time, some of the most attention-grabbing innovations are those applying AI and tech to health care and mental well-being. 'Artificial intelligence is moving from science fiction to real-life application. And visitors will discover with the more than 13,000 start-ups what it is going to mean for business, for our everyday lives and our democracies," said François Bitouzet, Director General of VivaTech. There is a geopolitical context that is incredible in which tech and AI play a role, and we will analyse this during the next four days," he told Euronews. In a year marked by increasing geopolitical tensions and debates around technological sovereignty, Europe is looking to assert itself as a key player in AI innovation. But the tech fair also serves as a platform to explore how this technology can help address deeply human challenges. One such example is Emobot, a French startup developing an AI-powered tool that helps monitor mood disorders through a patient's facial expressions and voice. 'It's an app that is installed on the phone and on the computer. We analyse facial expressions every second while the patient uses their phone throughout the day," explained Antony Perzo, co-founder and CTO of Emobot. "We also analyse their voice. Then, we aggregate this data to monitor for symptoms of depression. All this data, we put it together and then make a dashboard for the doctor that allows them to follow the evolution of the mood disorder symptoms," he told Euronews. All this information is combined to generate a dashboard for doctors, allowing them to track the evolution of symptoms remotely. 'Psychiatry is one of the few disciplines where we can't visualise disorders. In other areas of medicine, we have MRIs or imaging tools. We wanted to create the first device capable of tracking and visualising mood symptoms over time. Think of it as a sort of thermometer for mental health', he said. Another mental health startup, AMOI, blends neuroscience with perfume to shift a person's mood in just minutes. Whether you're looking for focus, calm, energy or joy, AMOI claims its neuro-fragrances can deliver results within five minutes. With more than one in four people reporting feeling mentally unwell, AMOI's founder Pascale Fontaine, says her project is about offering accessible and enjoyable tools for emotional well-being. VivaTech runs until 14 June at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in Paris. The European debate on children's access to social media networks has begun, with three EU Member States promoting the idea of a "digital majority" or the age below which it would be forbidden to connect to such platforms. For France, Spain and Greece, the goal is to protect minors from dangerous online content. "Today, in the terms and conditions of use of these platforms, there is already a minimum age of 13," explains Clara Chappaz, the French Minister Delegate for Artificial Intelligence and the Digital Economy. However, Chappaz says: "We've all been children, it's very easy to change your date of birth. And so the current system means that, on average, children are logging on and creating accounts from the age of 7-8." France, Spain and Greece believe that the algorithms used by social networks expose the very young to addictive content that can ultimately lead to increased anxiety or depression. They also argue that excessive exposure may limit the development of certain skills and impair cognitive abilities. The EU currently has legislation in place in the form of the Digital Services Act (DSA), which tackles illegal online content such as hate speech, terrorism and child pornography. The law has been in place for almost two years for larger platforms and search engines, and just over a year for smaller organisations. But for industry representatives in Brussels, new legislation appears premature. "We believe that the new rules must first be properly applied. We haven't yet seen all the effects," says Constantin Gissler, Managing Director of Dot Europe, which represents online services and platforms in Brussels. "I think it's a bit hasty at this stage to be already discussing new rules and I think it's also very important that we take more account of the reality and implications for minors of such a ban," he adds. Paris, Madrid and Athens are also proposing the integration of age verification and parental control systems for devices connected to the Internet. The European Commission is currently working on an age verification application. Last month it published draft guidelines to protect minors, such as measures to verify the age of users or to set children's accounts as private by default. It is also conducting investigations against TikTok, Instagram and Facebook in relation to the protection of minors.
Euronews
9 hours ago
- Euronews
From plastics to sunscreen: The battle to clean our oceans
On March 18, 1967, the supertanker SS Torrey Canyon struck a reef off the coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom, spilling 100,000 tonnes of crude oil into the English Channel. Beaches in southern England, the French region of Brittany, and Guernsey in the Channel Islands were submerged in thick sludge. More than 15,000 seabirds were killed, and the spill caused innumerable long-term damages to the marine environment. The Torrey Canyon disaster was the first major oil spill in European waters. It marked a turning point in the way people interacted with oceans, revealing how vulnerable marine ecosystems are to human-induced threats. To mark World Oceans Day on June 8, Euronews Tech Talks talked to two ocean experts to better comprehend the state of our oceans and the high and low-tech innovations that can help protect them. Over the past four decades, global plastic production has more than quadrupled, yet recycling has failed to keep pace, with rates remaining below 10 per cent. Simon Bernard is the CEO and co-founder of Plastic Odyssey, a project dedicated to tackling ocean plastic pollution. Bernard and a group of researchers embarked on a tour around the world aboard a research vessel to explore the best solutions for reducing plastic pollution. "The idea of a research vessel is to be a scientific platform to study, do research, and development... The vessel acts as a laboratory, so for example, the aft is dedicated to recycling with various machines used to recycle plastic, test different solutions and technologies, and train local entrepreneurs," Bernard explained to Euronews. Plastic Odyssey has been sailing for two and a half years. During the journey, the crew stops for three weeks in locations affected by plastic pollution, meets the locals, institutions, and entrepreneurs to learn about their solutions, and helps support them. "That's quite shocking to realise that there is no pristine environment anymore, because plastic pollution has impacted all the places," said Bernard. Throughout the Plastic Odyssey's journey, Bernard has met many people tackling plastic pollution and has been impressed by the cleverness of the simplest solutions. "We've visited maybe 150 factories and initiatives, and what's most interesting to us is the ingenuity and the use of low-tech solutions," he said. "We met a guy in Lebanon who made the equivalent of a food delivery app but for waste connection... and I'm thinking about Silvio in Colombia who was building houses out of plastic waste," Bernard said. While plastic pollution is a visible threat to marine ecosystems, oceans are also damaged by hazards that are much harder to detect, like chemical pollutants. Researcher Anneliese Hodge from the University of Plymouth is studying these complex pollutants, and one of her most recent studies focuses on sunscreen. The most harmful components of sunscreen are its UV filters designed to block, absorb, or reflect the sun's ultraviolet rays. "A recent estimation has suggested that approximately 10 million tonnes of UV filters are produced annually for the global market, of which an estimated 6,000 to 14,000 tonnes are released into coral reef zones alone annually," Hodge told Euronews. "So this is quite a widespread issue," she continued. Hodge explained that UV filters in sunscreen can affect marine ecosystems at a molecular, cellular, individual, and community level. For instance, sunscreen can damage the DNA of marine organisms and cause coral bleaching. Despite the need for further research into this topic, Hodge highlighted several potential solutions to reduce the threats sunscreen poses to marine environments. Among them is the encapsulation of UV filters in biodegradable capsules that activate only upon contact with the skin. In addition, Hodge cited the possibility of reducing UV filters and instead using Sun Protection Factor (SPF) boosters, specialised ingredients that could replace UV filters. She also pointed to the introduction of some regulations to make corporations reduce the UV filters or ban the use of certain products.
Euronews
2 days ago
- Euronews
'Day of the Jackal' author Frederick Forsyth dies at 86
Frederick Forsyth, the author of "The Day of the Jackal" and other bestselling thrillers, has died after a brief illness, his literary agent said on Monday. Jonathan Lloyd, his agent, said Forsyth died at home early on Monday at the age of 86 surrounded by his family. "We mourn the passing of one of the world's greatest thriller writers," Lloyd said. Forsyth served as a Royal Air Force pilot before becoming a foreign correspondent and a novelist. "The Day of the Jackal," published in 1971, propelled him to global fame. The political thriller about a professional assassin was made into a film in 1973 and more recently a television series starring Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch. He wrote more than 25 books including "The Afghan," "The Kill List," and "The Fist of God" that have sold over 75 million copies, Lloyd said. The disparity of sperm donor laws in Europe has been called into question after a Danish sperm donor with an inherited cancer mutation is said to have helped conceive at least 67 children across Europe, mostly in Belgium. The European Sperm Bank (ESB) allegedly used gametes from a Danish donor who unknowingly carried a rare variation of the TP53 gene that increases the risk of early cancer. Out of the 67 children he helped to conceive, 23 of them are carriers of the variant, 10 of whom have developed cancer. The case was revealed at the end of May by Dr. Edwige Kasper, a biologist at Rouen University Hospital, at a meeting of the European Society of Human Genetics in Milan. "It's a syndrome called Li-Fraumeni syndrome, which will give rise to multiple cancers with a very broad spectrum, so children who are carriers of this variant need to be monitored very closely," the specialist in hereditary predispositions to cancer told Euronews. Of the 10 children who have developed a form of cancer, the doctor counts four haemopathies, four brain tumours and two types of sarcoma that affect the muscles. The case has highlighted the shortcomings of sperm donation policies across Europe. While most European countries limit the number of children fathered by a single donor, or the number of families that can be helped by a single donor, there is no limit at international or European level. The conditions around anonymity also vary from country to country. "We will end up with an abnormal spread of a genetic pathology, because the sperm bank involved in this case has set a limit of 75 families from the donor. Other sperm banks have not set a limit," explained Kasper. Although donors are subject to medical examinations and genetic tests, "there is no perfect pre-selection," explained Ayo Wahlberg, researcher and a member of the Danish Council on Ethics. "Technology is developing so fast. Genetic testing technologies and their costs are falling so fast that, if we compare 10 or 15 years ago and today in terms of recruitment and the types of genetic tests that can be carried out as part of the screening process, a lot has changed," the professor explained. The rules governing sperm donation vary from one European country to another. The maximum number of children from a single donor varies from 15 in Germany to one in Cyprus. Other countries prefer to limit the number of families that can use the same donor to give them the opportunity to have brothers and sisters. For example, the same donor can help 12 families in Denmark and six families in Sweden or Belgium. In addition, donations are kept anonymous in countries such as France and Greece. In other member states such as Austria, the person born of a gamete donation may have access to the identity of his or her parent. In Germany and Bulgaria, donations may or may not be anonymous, depending on the circumstances. In the Netherlands, the process is not anonymous. Danish, Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian National Medical Ethics Councils raised concerns over a lack of regulation at an international and European level, claiming it increases the risk of the spread of genetic diseases and consanguinity. "The risk that a genetic disease will unknowingly spread much more widely (with a large number of offspring) than if the number (of offspring) had been smaller," Wahlberg said. "The first step is therefore to establish or introduce a limit of families per donor. The second step is to create a national register. And the third step is of course to have a European register based on the national registers," Sven-Erik Söder, President of the Swedish National Council on Medical Ethics, told Euronews. In the age of social media and thorough DNA testing, donor anonymity can no longer be 100% guaranteed, which some have argued could put off people from donating. When asked if the introduction of regulations could lead to a shortage of sperm donations, Söder said the solution is not the absence of restrictions, but instead encourage people to donate.
