Developmental Clinical Studies - Curing Obesity with the 'Medical Bypass'

四分之一的英国人患有肥胖症，不幸的是，这一数字仍在上升。肥胖与成熟期糖尿病密切相关。肥胖也是癌症、心脏病、中风和其他疾病的主要原因。目前还没有治疗肥胖症的有效药物。唯一有效的治疗方法是胃旁路手术，这种手术可以大幅减轻体重，治愈糖尿病，降低癌症和心脏病的发病率。不幸的是，手术是一项重大的事业，费用高昂，不可逆转，与并发症相关，而且风险很大。这种手术的好处是由于肠道分泌的化学物质大大增加，这种化学物质被称为肠道激素。它们是胰升糖素样肽-1、氧合酶调节蛋白和YY肽。我们已经开发了两种基于这些胃肠激素的新药，由天然氨基酸制成，并将它们结合在一起，通过细针每周一次注射，模拟搭桥手术的效果。我们称之为“医疗搭桥”，因为它的工作原理与外科搭桥相同。这种治疗与搭桥手术一样有效，但它的成本更低，风险也更小。医用旁路的一个部件，我们称之为Y242，今年已经在试验中进行测试。在这里的项目中，我们将开发另一个组件，我们称之为G3215。我们将首先测试G3215以确保其安全性，然后在人类志愿者身上进行测试，以检查其耐受性良好。然后，我们将Y242和G3215混合在一起，并在人类志愿者和糖尿病患者身上进行测试，以证明医疗旁路在帮助患者减肥和控制血糖水平方面是有效的。如果我们的医疗搭桥有效，这将是肥胖症和糖尿病治疗的一大进步，并将有助于挽救每年因这些严重疾病的并发症而失去的许多人的生命。

A quarter of the UK population is obese and unfortunately this number is still rising. Obesity is strongly associated with maturity onset diabetes. Obesity is also a major cause of cancer, heart attacks, strokes and other illnesses. There is no effective drug therapy for obesity. The only effective treatment is gastric bypass surgery which causes a large weight loss, cure of diabetes and a reduction of rates of cancer and heart attacks. Unfortunately surgery is a major undertaking, is expensive, is irreversible, is associated with complications, and is risky. The benefits of this surgery are due to the much increased secretion of chemicals by the gut, called gut hormones. These are glucagon-like peptide-1, oxyntomodulin and peptide YY. We have developed two new drugs based on these gut hormones, made with natural amino acids, and combined them together to mimic the effect of bypass surgery in a single weekly injection through a fine needle. We call this the 'medical bypass' as it works by the same mechanism as the surgical bypass. This treatment will be as effective as bypass surgery but it will be less expensive and will be much less risky. One of the components of the medical bypass, which we call Y242, is already being tested in trials this year. In the project here, we are going to develop the other component, which we call G3215. We will first test G3215 to make sure it is safe before testing it in human volunteers to check that it is well-tolerated. We will then mix the Y242 and G3215 together and test this in human volunteers, as well as in patients with diabetes, to prove that the medical bypass is effective in helping patients lose weight and control their blood sugar levels. If our medical bypass is effective, this would be a great advance in the treatment of obesity and diabetes, and would help to save the many lives lost each year to the complications of these serious conditions.