Study published in The Lancet found phenotype-tailored lifestyle interventions can produce twice as much weight loss as standard lifestyle interventions.
Menlo Park, Calif. — March 28, 2023 — Phenomix Sciences (Phenomix), a precision biotechnology company on the mission to overcome obesity, today announced the results of a new study titled “Phenotype Tailored Lifestyle Intervention on Weight Loss and Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Adults with Obesity: Preliminary Proof of Concept Study,” published online by The Lancet. The study was funded by the Mayo Clinic and co-authored by the Phenomix co-founders, Andres Acosta, M.D., Ph.D. and Michael Camilleri, M.D., and is the first to prove that when a diet is based on a patient’s individual physiology the patients lose twice as much weight with a phenotype tailored diet. The study compared the effect of a standard lifestyle intervention to a phenotype-tailored lifestyle intervention on weight loss, cardiometabolic risk factors and physiologic variables contributing to obesity pathophysiology, and the findings are significant. Phenomix has licensed the rights to the data and related technology generated in the study from Mayo Clinic.
Lifestyle interventions for weight loss are currently not individualized to underlying pathophysiology and behavioral abnormalities in obesity, which this study sought to investigate.
The non-randomized 12 week clinical trial looked at two forms of lifestyle interventions in separate cohorts of adults with obesity. All participants completed in-person phenotype testing and were assigned to standard lifestyle intervention with a low-calorie diet, moderate physical activity, and weekly behavioral therapy sessions. In a second phase, other participants were assigned to phenotype-tailored intervention according to their phenotype: abnormal satiation (time-restricted volumetric low-calorie diet); abnormal postprandial satiety (low-calorie diet with pre-meal protein supplementation); emotional eating (low-calorie diet with intensive behavioral therapy); and abnormal resting energy expenditure (low-calorie diet with post-workout protein supplementation and high-intensity interval training).
Results of the study showed that of the 165 participants, 81 on a standard lifestyle intervention and 84 on a phenotype-tailored lifestyle intervention, 146 completed the 12 week treatment program. The phenotype-tailored lifestyle compared to standard lifestyle intervention resulted in significant reductions in body weight of 6.9 kg vs 3.5 kg (15.2 lb vs 7.7 lb), respectively, which equates to nearly twice as much weight loss with a tailored lifestyle. Differences in waist circumference, lean mass and triglycerides also favored a phenotype-tailored lifestyle intervention.
Phenomix is working to eliminate obesity through precision medicine, the science of tailoring interventions such as drugs and surgical techniques to each person based on their individual
genetic or phenotypic profiles. This study demonstrates that in obesity medicine, diet and lifestyle interventions can also be tailored to individual patients, providing additional clinical value to physicians whose patients are phenotyped with the company’s tests. The company’s first therapy selection test, the Hungry Gut™ test, will be released this month and can predict patient response to diet, GLP-1 treatments, such as Wegovy(R) and Ozempic(R) (semaglutide), and intragastric balloons. The Hungry Gut test will use a variety of inputs including genetic information obtained from an easily provided saliva sample.
“Phenotyping is a personalized experience that allows the provider to get to the root of a patient’s obesity,” said Dr. Andres Acosta. “Neither one size fits all approaches nor medication will work if it is not the right solution for what is causing obesity in an individual’s body. With a phenotype tailored lifestyle plan the patient is equipped with the tools that are specific to their type of obesity, and this study demonstrates that impact on effective weight loss.”
For more information, visit www.phenomixsciences.com.
About Phenomix Sciences
Phenomix Sciences is a biotechnology pioneer on a mission to conquer obesity globally through the science of phenotyping, the understanding of how genes combined with environmental and behavioral factors can inform obesity treatment plans. Mayo Clinic physicians, scientists, and researchers, Drs. Acosta and Camilleri, founded the company under the belief that the key to understanding obesity is unprecedented access to its clinical and molecular information throughout all stages and phenotypes of the disease. Phenomix leverages data intelligence to yield better accuracy in predicting individual patient response to specific weight loss interventions and reducing the variability in weight loss results for patients. For more information, please visit www.phenomixsciences.com.
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