Researchers discovered an appetite-suppressing molecule in python blood. If one day turned into a medication, it might lack some of the common negative side effects of GLP-1s

Ball pythons (shown), along with Burmese pythons, were studied in the new research. Patrick Campbell / CU Boulder

Burmese pythons have pretty irregular eating habits. One of these giant reptiles can swallow an entire antelope whole and then go up to a year and a half without additional meals.

Now, scientists have identified an appetite-suppressing molecule that plays a big role in the animals’ extreme fasting. The findings, published March 19 in the journal Nature Metabolism , could lead to new weight-loss therapies that don’t have some of the negative side effects of popular existing drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy.

“Obviously, we are not snakes,” says Jonathan Long , a study co-author and pathologist at Stanford University, to Hannah Devlin at the Guardian .…