A new paper released in Nature this week discusses a new therapy for obesity that researchers say leads to more weight loss in mice than existing GLP-1 weight-loss medications, such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound, alone.

The medication works a little differently than those injections by specifically smuggling molecules into your brain and changing how it thinks about food. This “Trojan horse” of weight-loss drugs might one day be available for human use.

“I consider the drugs available on the market today as the first generation of weight-loss drugs,” says the new study’s senior author Christoffer Clemmensen, an associate professor from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research at the University of Copenhagen.

In the group’s study, a “Trojan horse” is used to smuggle a molecule into the brain, where it’s then able to change the brain’s plasticity, ultimately leading to weight loss. The molecule works by blocking a receptor protein called the NMDA receptor.

“The effect of GLP-1 combined with these molecules is very strong,” explained Clemmensen. “In some cases, the mice lose twice as much weight as mice treated with GLP-1 only.”

Researchers think that by using the drug in the future, patients will potentially be able to get the same effect from GLP-1 medication with a lower dose. They also think that the new drug might work for patients who haven’t responded well to drugs like Ozempic, which is name-branded semaglutide; or Monjaro, name-branded tirzepatide.

According to Columbia University, Ozempic and similar drugs currently yield an average weight loss of 15% to 20%. However, many patients lose a lot more. Roughly a third of those who take the drugs lose 10% of their body weight. All of the semaglutide- and tirzepatide-based medications on the market today also require lifelong use in order to maintain the weight loss associated with them. They also have some undesirable side effects.

Researchers say that their drug causes similar side effects to the existing medications; however, since patients will be able to take lower doses to achieve the same results, they may be able to mitigate some of those side effects.

The next step is taking the drug to human trials. The drug will have to undergo three different phases of clinical trials on human participants. If it makes it through those trials, it could be eight years or more before it starts getting prescribed to the public.