(This is an excerpt of the Health Rounds newsletter, where we

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By Nancy Lapid

Aug 22 (Reuters) - GLP-1 drugs for diabetes and

weight loss may influence patients' cancer risk, usually

lowering it but sometimes possibly increasing it, new findings

suggest.

U.S. researchers reviewed 10 years of medical records from

43,317 users and 43,315 similar nonusers of Novo Nordisk's type

2 diabetes drugs Victoza and Ozempic or its weight-loss

medication Wegovy, or Eli Lilly's ( LLY ) Mounjaro for diabetes or

Zepbound for weight loss.

All volunteers were at risk for obesity-related cancers.

Each year, out of every thousand participants, 13.6 users of

GLP-1 drugs were diagnosed with any of 14 types of cancer,

compared to 16.6 nonusers, the researchers reported in JAMA

Oncology.

After accounting for individual risk factors, the overall

cancer risk was 17% lower in GLP-1 users.

In particular, GLP-1 use was associated with a 25% lower

risk of endometrial cancer, a 47% lower risk of ovarian cancer

and a 31% lower risk of meningioma.

GLP-1 drugs were also associated with a slight increase in

risk for kidney cancer. The increase was not statistically

significant, meaning it could have been due to chance - but an

earlier study also found a higher risk of kidney cancer with use

of GLP-1 drugs for diabetes, the authors note.

Observational studies like this one cannot prove cause and

effect, and it's impossible to know whether any reductions in

cancer risk were due to the GLP-1 drugs themselves or to

drug-induced weight loss.

Still, the researchers said, "Given that more than 137

million individuals in the U.S. are currently eligible for GLP-1

therapies, even modest changes in cancer risk could have

substantial public health implications."

CONDENSING HOURS-LONG IV INFUSIONS INTO QUICK INJECTIONS

New technology may allow quick injections of drugs that

currently require slow intravenous infusions, researchers say.

The high volume of fluid required to administer so-called

antibody drugs - often used for cancer, autoimmune diseases and

metabolic disorders - means patients must submit to

time-consuming intravenous drips. That's because the antibodies,

which are proteins, only remain stable in fluids at low

concentrations.

A new method of coating the proteins, however, allows them

to be stored in the high concentrations necessary for

administration with a standard syringe or autoinjector device,

researchers reported in Science Translational Medicine.

To pack the proteins into liquid at high concentrations but

keep them stable and functional, the researchers encased tiny

particles in a substance they developed called MoNi.

The coating prevents particles from dissolving or sticking

together in fluid and keeps them dry and stable, the researchers

said.

"We ended up with something that looks like a candy-coated

chocolate, where the protein is on the inside and our special

polymer forms a solid, glassy coating on the outside," study

leader Eric Appel of Stanford University said in a statement.

In tests using three different proteins - albumin, human

immunoglobulin and a monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID -

the researchers were able to inject a solution with more than

double the concentration of typical liquid injections.

The new method "potentially works with any biologic drug, so

that we can inject it easily," Appel said.

"That takes these treatments from a several-hour ordeal at a

clinic with an IV infusion to something you can do in seconds

with an autoinjector at your house," Appel said.

BOBA TEA-LIKE BEADS BEING DEVELOPED FOR WEIGHT LOSS

Plant-based microbeads resembling boba tea pearls helped

rats lose weight on a high-fat diet and may one day become an

option for drug-free weight loss, Chinese researchers say.

The microbeads are made from green tea and vitamin E, then

coated with molecules derived from seaweed. Once ingested, the

coating expands, and the green tea molecules and vitamin E bind

to and trap partially digested fats in the intestine.

Rats on a high fat diet lost 17% of their total body weight

when they also consumed the microbeads for a month, while rats

fed the high-fat diet but without the microbeads didn't lose

weight.

The rats fed the microbeads also had less liver damage than

rats fed the high-fat diet without microbeads, the researchers

found.

The microbead group excreted the same amount of fat in their

stool as another group of rats on a high-fat diet who received

the weight-loss drug orlistat, which also works to remove partly

digested fat in the intestines - but without the

gastrointestinal side effects seen in the orlistat group.

Orlistat is sold over the counter as Alli by GlaxoSmithKline

and by prescription as Xenical by Roche.

The researchers will present their results at the American

Chemical Society Fall 2025 Digital Meeting.

In the meantime, they have begun to test the microbeads in

humans.

The beads are nearly flavorless and could be easily

integrated into people's diets, the researchers say.

"We want to develop something that works with how people

normally eat and live," study leader Yue Wu, a graduate student

at Sichuan University, said in a statement.

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