On July 10th, researchers from the Jerlhag and Schmidt laboratories published groundbreaking findings in European Neuropsychopharmacology demonstrating that semaglutide—a GLP-1R medication currently used for diabetes and weight management—significantly reduces cocaine-seeking behaviors in laboratory studies. The study, titled “Semaglutide suppresses cocaine taking, seeking, and cocaine-evoked dopamine levels in the nucleus accumbens,” reveals that this long-acting GLP-1 receptor agonist may offer new hope for treating cocaine use disorder (CUD). Using established cocaine self-administration models in male rats, researchers tested various doses of semaglutide and found it effectively reduced voluntary cocaine consumption, decreased motivation to seek cocaine, and prevented relapse-like cocaine-seeking behavior. Importantly, neither of the tessted doses altered kaolin intake, a measurement of malaise, in cocaine-experienced rats. These findings strengthen the evidence for GLP-1 receptors playing a crucial role in addiction mechanisms and provide compelling support for advancing semaglutide to clinical trials as a potential treatment for cocaine use disorder.

Keywords: Cocaine use disorder, GLP-1 receptor, addiction treatment, semaglutide, dopamine, relapse prevention
link to the paper: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40644799/