An experimental antibody may help people on GLP-1 meds preserve muscle mass
An experimental antibody may help people on GLP-1 meds preserve muscle mass
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When people drop weight on GLP-1 meds, they can also lose muscle. But a proof-of-concept drug might help preserve this lean tissue.
When taken at the same time as a powerful weight loss medication, the experimental antibody let patients hang on to lean body mass, scientists report June 8 in *Nature Medicine*.
The drug has not yet been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is available only via intravenous infusions, so it’s not something consumers are likely to get their hands on any time soon, says study coauthor Richard Pratley, a clinician and metabolic disease researcher at the AdventHealth Translational Research Institute in Orlando, Fla. But the work cracks open the door on how to save muscle that might otherwise be lost. That may be good news for GLP-1 users, but important questions remain.
[**Read more here**](https://www.sciencenews.org/article/glp1-tirzepatide-muscle-lean-mass?utm_source=Reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=rmh) **and the** [**research article here.** ](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-026-04440-4)
Phase 2 (N=102) study with pretty good results. If I’m reading correctly, it prevents half of the normal lean body mass loss.
Take this drug to alleviate symptoms of this other drug your taking to alleviate….
I have read that a lot of what people perceive as muscle loss is actually intramuscular fat that increases muscle volume.
An alternative solution is eating a high protein diet and working out while on the glp1
‘From 18 June to 17 September 2024, 102 participants were enrolled and randomized to receive apitegromab 10 mg kg−1 every 4 weeks with tirzepatide (n = 51) or placebo every 4 weeks with tirzepatide (n = 51) (Fig. 1). ‘
This is a total of (for 100kg participants) 1g every 4 weeks, or perhaps 10g over an extended course.
$20000 at a bare minimum unless they do something really unusual with pricing.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19420862.2025.2451789#d1e180 is interesting in that it goes into cost of production and sale for monoclonal antibodies.
‘When converted into price per gram of drug substance (DS) used in the treatment, it ranges from $4,650 per gram to a remarkable $114,318,850 per gram.Citation6 As a more recent example at the low-price end, a mAb treatment for COVID-19 was mass procured by the US government at $2,100/dose, equivalent to ~$2,000 per gram. ‘
‘On the other hand, over the past few decades, cost of goods (COGs) for manufacturing mAbs has decreased significantly from ~$1,000s to $10s-$100s per gram due to improved manufacturing technology.Citation12–16 A gap between the price of ~$2,000s per gram (or higher) for mAb therapeutics and the current best-practice COGs $10s-$100s per gram implies a huge potential for mAb price reduction. Unlocking this potential requires careful examinations of all cost drivers and their contributions, including but not limited to, R&D spend and COGs. As the biosimilar market becomes increasingly competitive, along with rising demand for cost-effective antibodies for chronic and infectious diseases,Citation17–19 a clear understanding of the price structure will help industry players to identify directions to reduce the cost and price, stay competitive, and make mAbs affordable to more patients.’
(I need to read this paper in full)
Loss of muscle mass is not some sort of side effect of GLP-1 so much as it’s just a side effect of weight loss. And there are solutions that don’t involve yet another medication.
This could be a game changer for bodybuilders/wrestlers/fighters who are cutting weight
If you just strength train while on GLP1s you can minimize muscle loss. It’s sedentary obese people using GLP1s and staying sedentary that causes a lot of muscle loss.
Working out while on GLP-1 also does that same thing.
One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small…
Personally in the 3 years on it I’ve not lost any. In fact I’m stronger. I started Pilates and went through PT. I have been measured at the PT office for muscle and they like that it’s gaining. And I have done it slow staying on smaller doses and it seems to really help
People will do anything to avoid just living in a calorie deficit and lifting weights to lose weight.
The world doesn’t need more medicine or drugs for general use.
Is the experimental antibody “eating protein and getting off your ass”? Because that works just fine already
Just invent a new medicine to combat the old medicine, why not
Just another bandaid to avoid addressing the real problem (lifestyle)
It’ll be interesting to see the difference between this drug vs the regeneron approach, since apitegromab is way more selective than trevogrumab and garetosmab.