(Press-News.org) BETHESDA, MD. (May 9, 2024) — A new weight-loss treatment could be on the horizon with an innovative endoscopic procedure that ablates (burns) the stomach lining to reduce production of ghrelin, a hormone that triggers hunger, resulting in decreased appetite and significant weight loss, according to a first-in-human trial to be presented at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) 2024.
The six-month trial involving 10 female patients with obesity resulted in a 7.7% loss of body weight and a reduction of more than 40% in fasting ghrelin levels. Patients reported through validated questionnaires that their hunger was diminished by more than a third. The procedure also caused a 42% reduction in stomach capacity, according to a standard drink test.
“Obesity is chronic, lifelong disease that is predicted to affect nearly half of the U.S. population by 2030. Its effect on overall health, quality of life, and global healthcare costs is massive, and we need as many treatment options as possible,” said lead author Christopher McGowan, MD, a gastroenterologist and medical director of True You Weight Loss, a physician-owned clinic based in North Carolina. “This relatively brief, outpatient, non-surgical procedure can facilitate weight loss and significantly curb hunger, and it could be an additional option for patients who don’t want or aren’t eligible for anti-obesity medications, such as Wegovy and Ozempic, or bariatric surgery.”
The procedure, an endoscopic mucosal ablation, targets ghrelin, the primary hunger hormone that controls appetite, by altering the lining of the stomach where the hormone is produced.
The ablation begins when an endoscopist inserts fluid to protect underlying stomach tissues and then uses a tiny device to ablate – or burn – the mucosal lining of the upper portion of the stomach, known as the gastric fundus. Feelings of hunger originate in the gastric fundus when the chamber empties, leading to increased production of ghrelin. Hunger subsides as the gastric fundus fills with food and ghrelin production dips. Mucosal ablation reduces the number of ghrelin-producing cells.
“Obesity and weight are very complex and regulated by multiple hormone pathways. This procedure alters one of these many pathways that make it difficult for people to lose weight and maintain weight loss,” McGowan said. Levels of ghrelin are typically higher in patients with obesity and rise when people lose weight for any reason, making it hard to maintain weight loss.
Previously, the only proven method of reducing ghrelin was to surgically remove, or bypass, the gastric fundus. There is currently no pharmacologic method of reducing ghrelin. Newer anti-obesity medications, like Ozempic and Wegovy, employ a different hormonal pathway – GLP-1.
If the procedure is proven effective over longer periods of time and in larger trials, it could complement endoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, a non-surgical weight-loss procedure that reduces the size of the stomach, or it could potentially be offered as a one-time procedure that replaces or complements other treatments, McGowan said. “This is just the beginning. The first question was whether we can endoscopically reduce hunger and ghrelin. The answer is: yes, we can.”
DDW Presentation Details
Dr. McGowan will present data from the study, “Endoscopic ablation of the gastric fundus in adults with obesity: A first-in-human study,” abstract 516, on Sunday, May 19, at 2:32 p.m. EDT. For more information about featured studies, as well as a schedule of availability for featured researchers, please visit www.ddw.org/press.
###
Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) is the largest international gathering of physicians, researchers and academics in the fields of gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy and gastrointestinal surgery. Jointly sponsored by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) and the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract (SSAT), DDW is an in-person and online meeting from May 18-21, 2024. The meeting showcases more than 5,600 abstracts and hundreds of lectures on the latest advances in GI research, medicine and technology. More information can be found at www.ddw.org
END
BETHESDA, MD. (May 9, 2024) — Health care professionals attending certain smoke-producing endoscopic gastrointestinal procedures, including a procedure that uses electrical current to remove polyps, could be exposed to dangerous toxin levels equivalent to smoking a cigarette during each procedure and face “significant health risks” over their careers, according to a study scheduled for presentation at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) 2024.
“Surgeons in the operating room have regulations and guidelines to mitigate smoke exposure, but that does not exist for gastrointestinal endoscopy,” said Trent Walradt, MD, a research fellow at Brigham and ...
BETHESDA, MD. (May 9, 2024) — Colorectal cancer incidence has steadily increased among younger people in the U.S. over the last two decades, with the youngest seeing the most dramatic jumps, according to a study scheduled for presentation at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) 2024. Between 1999 and 2020, the rate of colorectal cancers grew 500% among children ages 10 to 14, 333% among teens aged 15 to 19, and 185% among young adults ages 20 to 24, researchers said.
“Colorectal cancer is no longer considered just ...
Higher consumption of most ultra-processed foods is linked to a slightly higher risk of death, with ready-to-eat meat, poultry, and seafood based products, sugary drinks, dairy based desserts, and highly processed breakfast foods showing the strongest associations, finds a 30-year US study in The BMJ today.
The researchers say not all ultra-processed food products should be universally restricted, but that their findings “provide support for limiting consumption of certain types of ultra-processed food for long term health.”
Ultra-processed ...
An investigation published by The BMJ today raises concerns about financial entanglements between US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chiefs and the drug and medical device companies they are responsible for regulating.
Regulations prohibit FDA employees from holding financial interests in any FDA “significantly regulated organisation” and the FDA says it takes conflicts of interest seriously, but Peter Doshi, senior editor at The BMJ, finds that financial interests with the drug industry are common among its leaders.
Doshi reports that nine of the FDA’s past 10 commissioners went ...
Last month, Dr Sarah Benn became the first doctor to be suspended from the medical register after being convicted and jailed for actions relating to climate activism.
In an interview with The BMJ today, she says the activism that led to her suspension was necessary to raise the alarm over the climate crisis, and also in keeping with a doctor’s mission to promote health and save lives.
“The world is facing an unprecedented crisis due to the danger of climate and ecological collapse, and I believe that my actions are a justified and proportionate effort to raise an alarm about the severity and urgency of the situation,” she tells journalist Adele Waters.
Benn ...
EMBARGOED UNTIL 6:30 p.m. EST Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Contact:
Jillian McKoy, jpmckoy@bu.edu
Michael Saunders, msaunder@bu.edu
##
Preventive treatment for tuberculosis (TB) can stop latent TB infections from developing into deadly TB disease. Despite TB infection being fully treatable, there is no global consensus as to which subgroups of individuals exposed to TB should be prioritized for preventive treatment, nor whether the benefits of this treatment vary based on factors such as age or confirmed infection.
A new study led by a Boston University ...
A major clinical trial has found that an additional COVID 19 vaccine dose led to the majority of clinically extremely vulnerable people mounting defensive antibodies against Covid-19.
New research published in The Lancet Rheumatology from the OCTAVE DUO research trial co-led by the University of Birmingham and University of Glasgow found that vaccine boosters led to improved antibody responses among many groups of immunocompromised and immunosuppressed patients.
Co-funded by the Government and Blood Cancer UK and supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), this ...
A new Cochrane review has found that taking zinc may help to reduce the duration of common cold symptoms by about two days, but the evidence is not conclusive and potential benefits must be balanced against side-effects.
Since the 1980s, zinc products have been marketed as treatments for the common cold and are particularly popular in the USA. Zinc is an essential mineral naturally found in many foods and plays a role in immune function. Most people in high-income countries get enough zinc through their diets, although aging and some chronic diseases may lead to deficiency.
The theory behind zinc-based lozenges, sprays and syrups is that the zinc may interfere ...
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 2024
MINNEAPOLIS – Neuropathy, the nerve damage that causes pain and numbness in the feet and hands and can eventually lead to falls, infection and even amputation, is very common and underdiagnosed, according to a study published in the May 8, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
“More than one-third of people with neuropathy experience sharp, prickling or shock-like pain, which increases their rates of depression and decreases quality of life,” said study author Melissa ...
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) today announced two special honorands for its Bicentennial Commencement celebrations. Astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman ’97 will return to RPI as the Bicentennial Commencement Speaker, and Emily Warren Roebling, who led the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge to completion, will receive a posthumous honorary degree, the first to be awarded in the history of RPI.
Reid Wiseman ’97
Reid Wiseman ’97, decorated naval aviator, test pilot, and commander of the Artemis II mission — which will ...
