The Right Chemistry: Ripples of discovery created a new wave of weight-loss medications

When it comes to pharmacology, the big story these days is the development of the “glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) mimics,” the first truly effective medications to treat obesity. It’s a fascinating story to be sure, but get set for a bumpy ride. We are not playing Tiddlywinks here.

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The year was 1902. Physiologists William Bayliss and Ernest Starling had just injected an acid extract from the lining of a dog’s duodenum, the first part of the small intestine, into the animal’s bloodstream. To their surprise, the dog’s pancreas began to produce digestive juices. Why the surprise? Because they had carefully cut all nerves surrounding the pancreas.

It was understood at the time that acid secretions triggered by food entering the digestive tract stimulate the pancreas to release digestive juices. The assumption was that the message to the pancreas from the intestine was delivered through nerves. Clearly, with the nerves having been severed, this was not the case. The message must have been delivered by some substance secreted by the intestine that then made its way to the pancreas through the bloodstream.

It was this “secretin,” as Bayliss and Starling called it, that stirred the pancreas into action. Later, Starling would coin the term “hormone” from the Greek for “set in motion” for such........

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The Right Chemistry: Ripples of discovery created a new wave of weight-loss medications

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