Does intervention with GLP-1 receptor agonist semaglutide modulate perception of sweet taste in women with obesity: study protocol of a randomized, single-blinded, placebo-controlled clinical trial

What Was Tested

This clinical study looks at Semaglutide.

This local paracrine GLP-1 signalling seems to be specifically involved in the perception of sweets.

However, the role of GLP-1 in taste perception remains largely unaddressed in clinical studies.

Who Took Part

The study group was 30 women.

PubMed tags the participants as women only.

The researchers will enrol 30 women with obesity and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind, single-blind and placebo-controlled study.

The women were allocated by chance, so the Semaglutide group and the comparison group should start out alike.

As a double-blind Semaglutide study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

Only one side, usually the women, was kept unaware of whether Semaglutide was given.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Semaglutide group a baseline to be compared against.

This is an investigator-initiated, randomized single-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial.

Secondary endpoints include change in neural response to visual food cues and to sweet-tasting substances as assessed by functional MRI, change in body weight, change in fat mass and change in eating behaviour and food intake.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor, Glucagon-Like Peptides, Hypoglycemic Agents, Obesity, Perception and Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Gustatory coding, PCOS, Semaglutide and Taste.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and single-blind study of Semaglutide in 30 women.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Results are reported in around 2 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2021 (Trials), a journal based in England.

More context: the Semaglutide compound page, all human trials.