Shortages of GLP-1 medications, like Ozempic and Wegovy, are common occurrences. These shortages will likely continue into the future and will make it hard for patients dealing with Type 2 diabetes and obesity to receive consistent treatment.
At the most recent meeting of the American Chemical Association, a research team presented their findings that could solve the GLP-1 shortage. They suggest that an improvement in GLP-1 drug delivery, a process they call “painting,” could reduce the amount of medication needed for effective treatment.
Improvements in Drug Delivery
In studies with mice, the research team, led by Bradley Pentelute, a professor of chemistry at MIT, found that their new drug delivery system resulted in sustained weight loss and extended blood sugar management. More significantly, only one-fourth of the typical dose of a GLP-1 injection was required to see these results.
On this lower dose, the mice exhibited both continued blood glucose management and weight loss. A single, low-dose treatment also showed better and longer-lasting results in these two areas. On average, the mice experienced the effects of the drug up to 15 days after injection.
This method solves one of the common problems with peptide-based therapies, like GLP-1s. Although peptide-based therapies tend to be extremely effective, they are also short-lived and often easily degrade once inside the body.
Read More: Ozempic and Other GLP-1s May Have Broader Health Benefits but Greater Risks
How Do GLP-1s Work?
For a long time, scientists have been trying to combat this peptide degradation. One of the main answers they’ve looked into is combining peptides directly with people’s antibodies. Although peptide-fused antibodies are an excellent vehicle for drug delivery, they also tend to be quite costly. Before treatment, a person would need to have their antibodies removed and modified in order for the delivery system to be effective.
Pentelute and his team have created a technology to make the peptide-to-antibody attachment process easier. They call this process peptide painting, and it involves GLP-1 receptor agonists.
GLP-1s work by improving certain biological processes in the body. An agonist is a chemical that produces a biological response through activating the receptor. Once activated, the receptor causes the targeted cells to modify their behavior.
Peptide Painting
In the painting process, the GLP-1 receptor agonists become directly attached to antibodies within a patient’s body. The technology works in two ways, both effectively carrying the GLP-1 medication through the body and also painting the drug onto the antibodies.
The team has tested the technology on both mouse and human subjects. In both cases, the painting process resulted in almost half of the targeted antibodies successfully attaching to the GLP-1 receptor agonists.
After continued successful trials, this painting technology could change the future of GLP-1 drug delivery by reducing the amount of the drug needed for effective treatment and thus reducing shortages and overall costs.
The team also has bigger goals for the future.
“We’re also expanding this technology to make antibody drug conjugates for cancer. And we’re modifying this technology to be able to paint multiple drugs onto one antibody,” said Pentelute in a press release. “With new technology like this, the future of peptide-based therapies could see reduced costs and enhanced effectiveness.”
This article is not offering medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only.
Read More: Here's How Ozempic Actually Works for Weight Loss
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
American Chemical Association. ACS 2025
As the marketing coordinator at Discover Magazine, Stephanie Edwards interacts with readers across Discover's social media channels and writes digital content. Offline, she is a contract lecturer in English & Cultural Studies at Lakehead University, teaching courses on everything from professional communication to Taylor Swift, and received her graduate degrees in the same department from McMaster University. You can find more of her science writing in Lab Manager and her short fiction in anthologies and literary magazine across the horror genre.
