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Clinical Advances in the Management and Treatment of Obesity

A special issue of Journal of Clinical Medicine (ISSN 2077-0383). This special issue belongs to the section "Gastroenterology & Hepatopancreatobiliary Medicine".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 March 2025) | Viewed by 1683

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Studium Patavinum and Department of Medicine, University of Padova, 35128 Padova, Italy
Interests: functional evaluation; physical activity; exercise prescription; cardiovascular risk; cardiovascular prevention; chronic diseases; cardiopulmonary exercise testing; hypertension and arterial stiffness

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Obesity is a chronic, relapsing, and multifactorial disease that affects billion of people worldwide. It is characterised by several complications, involving multiple organs and systems. The numerous pathophysiological processes involved and the cumulative multi-system damage may lead to a generalised impairment of the organism, resulting in reduced functional capacity and progressive disability.

In people with obesity, functional evaluation with cardiopulmonary exercise testing and a strength assessment may reveal specific ventilatory, cardiovascular and peripheral limitations. From a therapeutic point of view, the tools are diverse and rely on diet therapy, behavioural therapy, exercise, and bariatric surgery. However, most of the information on the effectiveness of these treatments is based on a primary outcome, namely weight loss, and secondarily on some cardio-metabolic or osteo-articular complications.

This Special Issue aims to draw attention to therapeutic innovations that demonstrate how the treatment of obesity can go beyond weight loss and provide an overall health benefit to people suffering from this disease. In particular, the focus is on the beneficial effects of various therapeutic strategies, including structured exercise, on obesity-related functional limitations. Priority will be given to papers demonstrating the role of exercise prescription alone or in combination with dietary, pharmacological and surgical therapy on improving obesity complications. This Special Issue will also welcome papers dealing with the effects of all the therapeutic strategies on physical fitness and functional limitations. In addition, papers presenting innovative approaches in the treatment of obesity and personalized medicine will complete the spectrum of interest of this Special Issue.

The goal of this project is to show that the benefits of obesity therapy go beyond weight loss and that, as a multifactorial condition, all aspects of this disease (including functional ones) must be addressed by therapeutic interventions.

Dr. Francesca Battista
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • obesity
  • therapy
  • weight loss
  • diet
  • surgery
  • exercise
  • personalized medicine

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 2123 KiB  
Article
Clinical Data Mega-Collection of Obesity and Obesity-Related Trials: Primary Inclusion Criteria from All Studies and Highlights of Clinical Efficacy Analysis of GLP-1 Drugs
by Trung Tin Nguyen and David R. Elmaleh
J. Clin. Med. 2025, 14(3), 812; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm14030812 - 26 Jan 2025
Viewed by 1359
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Obesity is heterogeneous and considered a chronic epidemic with significant un-met needs for management, treatment, and prevention. Methods: In this study, we used LizAI’s software TAITAN (alpha version) for the mega-collection and analysis of clinical data from 10,407 trials addressing obesity and [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Obesity is heterogeneous and considered a chronic epidemic with significant un-met needs for management, treatment, and prevention. Methods: In this study, we used LizAI’s software TAITAN (alpha version) for the mega-collection and analysis of clinical data from 10,407 trials addressing obesity and obesity-related diseases and their associated publications, mainly on PubMed. Results: We report an intensive growth of clinical trials until the end of 2024 and highlight the use of the body mass index (BMI) as a critical criterion in clinical participant selection despite its limitations. The significant disparities in races, regions, and the sites of trials across all studies have not been addressed, posing the possibility of research in the far future on the applications of precision medicine in weight management. In the latter parts of this paper, we analyze and discuss the clinical efficacy, mainly focusing on the primary endpoints and benchmarks of the recently FDA-approved once-weekly injectable glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) drugs, including semaglutide and tirzepatide. Both drugs have functioned comparably when considering the 5% weight loss FDA threshold. Tirzepatide outperforms semaglutide and impacts fewer participants as the weight loss level increases from 5 to 20% and has greater effects in different populations, especially in people with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Conclusions: We would, however, like to highlight that (i) the weight loss level should be dependent on the clinically relevant needs of patients, and faster and greater weight loss might not be a win, and (ii) the clinical benefits, safety, and quality of life of patients should be carefully assessed when the weight loss is significant in a short period. In our search, we found that the specificities and impacts of weight loss therapies on organs like the kidneys and heart, different muscle types, bones, and fat accumulation in different parts of body were not investigated or disclosed during the clinical study period and longer term monitoring. In light of scientific needs and remarkable public interest in weight loss, our report provides findings on the buzz around losing weight in clinical trials, and our TAITAN software continues to collect data in real time and enrich its knowledge for future updates. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Clinical Advances in the Management and Treatment of Obesity)
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