The drugs also affect neural pathways that govern taste, reward and value — a property that neuroscientists call salience, says Allison Shapiro, a specialist in neurodevelopment at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora. The neurotransmitter dopamine has an important role in these pathways, but it’s not the only player: the circuits are complex and not fully understood.
“What we found was that semaglutide, as expected, improves glucose metabolism. But all the other reproductive and metabolic improvements were because of the weight loss,” says Melanie Cree, a paediatric endocrinologist at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus who led the trial.