Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Highlight
  • Published:

Obesity and diabetes

Two-for-one strike at incretins

Nature Reviews Drug Discovery volume 13, pages 18–19 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

Exenatide and liraglutide are agonists at the glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP1) receptor. The authors first showed that administration of a GLP1 analogue together with an analogue of the related incretin hormone, glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP), to obese mice potentiated the weight-lowering effects of GLP1. This drove them to identify a single compound that was a co-agonist of both GLP1 and GIP.

Indeed, structure-based design led to the development of a peptide (named MAR701; also known as RG7685) based on intermixed sequences of GLP1 and GIP residues that had balanced activity — measured by acute glycaemic control — at GLP1 and GIP receptors in mice. Moreover, the co-agonist decreased body weight, food intake, fat mass and blood glucose levels to a greater extent (∼tenfold) than the equivalent dose of exendin 4 (exenatide is a synthetic version of exendin 4).

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Finan, B. et al. Unimolecular dual incretins maximize metabolic benefits in rodents, monkeys, and humans. Sci. Transl. Med. 5, 209ra151 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Charlotte Harrison
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Harrison, C. Two-for-one strike at incretins. Nat Rev Drug Discov 13, 18–19 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd4208

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd4208

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Translational Research newsletter — top stories in biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma.

Get what matters in translational research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Translational Research