Overview
- Researchers found more than 200 meal-associated metabolites in pythons, with para-tyramine-O-sulfate (pTOS) spiking about 1,000-fold after feeding.
- Obese mice dosed with pTOS ate less and lost about 9% of body weight over 28 days without changes in energy expenditure or observed nausea or muscle loss.
- Experiments indicate pTOS arises from gut bacterial metabolism of tyrosine and communicates satiety by acting on hypothalamic feeding neurons.
- The effect appears distinct from GLP-1 drugs, as pTOS did not reduce stomach emptying or alter common feeding hormones in the reported tests.
- Human datasets show pTOS is detectable at low levels and typically rises only two- to five-fold after meals, with translation uncertain as Arkana Therapeutics pursues synthetic analogs backed by seed funding.