Researchers are developing a “game-changing” pill that could simultaneously prevent weight gain and promote weight loss all without extreme dieting.
The team of scientists at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio last published a study of their novel drug, called CPACC, in March.
“We’re making a lot of progress here,” Dr. Madesh Muniswamy, a professor of medicine spearheading the research, told The Post on Tuesday.
Clinical trials, he said, could come as soon as two months from now, but the team is awaiting approval from the Institutional Review Board, which oversees biomedical research.
The team plans to test oral, intravenous and intraperitoneal, or a shot, administration, but they don’t necessarily want patients to “poke [themselves] everyday.”
However, taking the drug by mouth may require a higher dosage of CPACC, said Muniswamy, who serves as the director of the Center for Mitochondrial Medicine.
The weight loss drug showed success in mice consuming a diet high in sugars and fats, suggesting that a similar outcome would be possible for humans struggling to shed some pounds.
While most effective when conjoined with a balanced diet and physical activity, the drug has the potential to promote weight loss in those who have difficulty maintaining healthy eating habits or cannot exercise.
“This, standalone or maybe in combination with some minor lifestyle changes, would definitely be game-changing for people that struggle with losing weight,” Travis Madaris, a doctoral student working with Muniswamy, previously told The Post.
While CPACC still needs to undergo several trials, it has the potential to rival celebrity-touted semaglutide jabs once it hits the market.
Where Ozempic and Wegovy target insulin and metabolism, CPACC inhibits the cells’ uptake of magnesium, which plays a critical role in the mitochondria and impacts how cellular energy is produced and used.
The researchers also found that the deletion of the gene that controls the flow of magnesium in cells allowed the mice to better process fats and sugars, resulting in thinner rodents.
CPACC, then, mimics the gene deletion by inhibiting magnesium uptake, according to the team’s research published in Cell Reports.
“These findings are the result of several years of work,” Muniswamy previously said in a statement. “A drug that can reduce the risk of cardiometabolic diseases such as heart attack and stroke, and also reduce the incidence of liver cancer, which can follow fatty liver disease, will make a huge impact.”
The development of CPACC arrives amid a weight loss drug craze, as injectables like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro now reign supreme.
Meanwhile, alternatives that tout better results are beginning to emerge.
The latest, Eli Lilly’s retatrutide, mimics the effects of digestive hormones GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon, a trifecta that has earned the moniker “Triple G.”
While Muniswamy and his team are still testing CPACC, both Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have weight loss tablets in the works.
But the ease of routine injectables or pills has been tarnished by alarming side effects.
Most notably, Ozempic users have complained of sagging skin, nauseating belches, suicidal ideation, and gastrointestinal distress.
Last week, Ozempic and Mounjaro manufacturers Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly and Co. were hit with a lawsuit for “a failure to warn” consumers of the potential to cause gastroparesis or “stomach paralysis.”
