Login | May 08, 2026
Can the body produce a natural “Ozempic”
PETE GLADDEN
Published: May 11, 2026
In as much as GLP-1 drugs have been a godsend for individuals with weight control/diabetes issues, they can still produce a number of unwanted and sometimes dangerous side-effects.
We’re talking about side-effects like fatigue, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation and hair loss, not to mention more serious maladies like gallbladder issues, low blood sugar, kidney injury and/or diabetic retinopathy (retina damage).
Add to that individuals who cannot take these drugs as a consequence of medical situations like pancreatitis, gastrointestinal issues, pregnancy/breast feeding and certain allergies.
Then to there’s an estimated 10% of the population who cannot take these medications due to their genetic resistance to them.
All of those issues are why medical science has been attempting to ascertain whether there’s an entity produced by the human body which might be used to somehow mimic the beneficial aspects of the synthetic GLP-1 drugs without the negative side effects.
And according to a recent study conducted by Stanford University, its researchers just might have discovered that illusive entity.
The Stanford study was conducted with the help of AI, whereby a massive collection of inactive prohomone molecules (an inactive precursor molecule from which a hormone is derived) could be combed through in order to find smaller peptide fragments which could then be cut out to use as hormones to influence metabolic processes.
So rather than use the time intensive protocol called “Protein Analysis,” researchers created an AI assisted program called “Peptide Predictor” which scanned some 20,000 human protein-coding genes in order to quickly ascertain where the prohomones could be split into smaller peptide fragments.
Their program eventually deemed 373 out of those 20,000 prohormones to be promising.
And of the 373 promising prohormones the program then calculated that there were 2,683 possible peptides to explore.
Finally, the program identified 100 peptides which, along with a GLP-1 drug, could be tested for their influence on lab-grown brain cells.
Now what they found was rather interesting, because one of the smaller of these 100 peptides, a peptide called BRP, increased neural activity ten times more than a GLP-1 drug.
Their next step was to actually test the BRP peptide on mice.
So the researchers used both lean and overweight mice, with the thesis that the mice could mimic normal and unhealthy human eating patterns.
Their findings revealed that when the mice received a single BRP injection approximately an hour prior to eating, their food consumption was cut in half.
What’s more, after two weeks of receiving daily injections the overweight mice lost an average of 3 grams - mostly fat - as opposed to a control group of overweight mice which continued to gain weight.
Even more promising was the fact that the mice on BRP displayed improvements in glucose and inulin tolerance.
And better yet, another important finding in this study has to do with the negative side-effects issue that’s associated with GLP-1 drugs.
So the Stanford researchers found that the mice which received the BRP didn’t display changes in digestion, water intake or anxious behavior, which seems to indicate that the BRP peptide affects completely different brain and metabolic pathways than do GLP-1 drugs.
So what’s next?
Several things.
First, the researchers hope to identify the receptors that are involved in the binding action with BRP such that they could then understand exactly how this pathway works.
The next crucial step is to test the BRP peptide on human cells.
After that studies need to be conducted that involve various dosing scenarios, this due to the fact that safe, effective and convenient dosing schedules have to be dialed in thoroughly before any kind of BRP treatment could be available for commercial use.
Thus, we’re still a ways down the road from actually seeing this BRP treatment used as an alternative to GLP-1 drugs.
But the really good news is the fact that this BRP peptide discovery and its influence on hormonal regulation is the only substance that medical researchers have come across which can even remotely compare with a GLP-1’s ability to reduce both appetite and body weight.
And it’s AI’s assistance here that may have put us that much closer to discovering the human body’s equivalent to synthetic GLP-1 drugs.