Introduction: With obesity rates growing globally, there is a paramount need for new obesity pharmacotherapies to tackle this pandemic.
Areas covered: This review focuses on the design of therapeutics that target the glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide receptor (GIPR) to aid weight loss. The authors highlight the paradoxical observation that both GIPR agonism and antagonism appear to provide metabolic benefits when combined with glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1 R) agonism. The therapeutic potential of compounds that target the GIPR alongside the GLP-1 R and the glucagon receptor are discussed, and the impressive clinical findings of such compounds are reviewed.
Expert opinion: In this area, the translation of pre-clinical findings to clinical studies appears to be particularly difficult. Well-designed physiological studies in man are required to answer the paradox highlighted above, and to support the safe future development of a combination of GLP-1 R/GIPR targeting therapies.
Keywords: Glucose dependent insulinotropic polypeptide; glucagon like peptide-1; gut hormones; obesity; type 2 diabetes.