Snake metabolite as obesity drug

Researchers report para‑tyramine‑O‑sulfate (pTOS), a metabolite found in python blood and produced by snake gut bacteria, spikes after feeding and, when given to mice, suppressed appetite and caused weight loss without the typical GLP‑1 side effects. pTOS is detectable at low levels in humans but absent in mice, and the finding was published in Natural Metabolism (Mar 19, 2026) by CU Boulder with follow‑up experiments at Baylor. — If translatable to humans, microbiome‑derived metabolites like pTOS could create a new class of obesity treatments, changing medical practice, drug markets, and debates about access and safety for weight‑loss therapies.