People with a specific type of gene that researchers have referred to as the "sweet tooth gene" are more likely to successfully fight obesity using weight loss drugs, the Cleveland Clinic concluded in a study published in early September.
The study found that individuals with certain variations of Neurobeachin, called the the "sweet tooth gene" by researchers because it's associated with a preference to eat more sweets, are more likely to have success losing weight when using GLP-1 agonist medications, including Ozempic and Trulicity. These are a class of medications that mainly help manage blood sugar levels for people with Type 2 diabetes, but some have also been shown to treat obesity.
This research could change the way obesity is treated, Daniel Rotroff, one of the authors and chair of the Department of Quantitative Health Sciences at the Cleveland Clinic, said.
"We want to pick treatments for patients that are going to work best for them," he said. "Also, it's expensive. It just requires resources of patients hoping for a treatment when there could be another option for them [that's] more effective."
Weight loss drugs can range from $100 to $1,000 per month without insurance coverage, said Marcio Griebeler, director of the Cleveland Clinic's Enterprise Obesity Center.
Isolating specific genes associated with successful weight loss using these drugs could also be the first steps toward personalized treatments for obesity, Griebeler said.
"The future of medicine is gonna be target therapies, personalization of care," he said. "If I can know how the patient is gonna respond, that's a significant advantage. We predict the final weight loss, and we could predict comorbidities. That will be amazing.”
In 2025, 41% of Cleveland residents were classified as obese, higher than both the statewide and national averages, according to the Cleveland Health Survey.
Obesity is linked with a number of health issues, including diabetes and heart disease, and any progress can make a difference, Griebeler said.
"We have a research saying that even five percent of weight loss will be very helpful to manage hypertension. Ten percent will help patients with diabetes and things like that, but any weight lost is great," Griebeler said
This study is the first step toward isolating which people could benefit the most from these drugs, but more research is needed, Rotroff said. The Cleveland Clinic plans to further study how the gene works over the next two years, he said.
