JEWJITSU PEPTIDES: GLP‑1RAs in adolescents, boron‑containing peptide chemistry, and peptide assembly at a copper/water interface

This retrospective chart review examined adolescents aged 12–21 with obesity treated with liraglutide or semaglutide at a single academic center between June 2022 and December 2024. Demographic, clinical, and psychosocial data were extracted from the electronic health record and analyses were restricted to patients with paired baseline and follow‑up assessments using the same screening instrument. Among 44 patients meeting inclusion criteria, paired PHQ‑9 data (n=15) showed a median PHQ‑9 decrease from 6 (IQR 2–14) at baseline to 1 (IQR 0–5) at follow‑up (p=0.003) independent of BMI change, and paired ASQ data (n=23) showed no observed increase in suicidality or new suicidal ideation. The authors describe the work as a small, exploratory retrospective review and state that larger prospective case‑control studies are needed to better characterise psychiatric safety and psychosocial outcomes.

A review of biological and medicinal aspects of peptides and sugar‑based boron‑containing compounds summarises how boron has shaped synthetic and medicinal chemistry and highlights boron‑containing peptides and sugar scaffolds. The review notes that the first two boron drugs, bortezomib and ixazomib, are dipeptides and discusses how peptide drugs can enable precise molecular recognition and enzyme targeting. It also describes how sugar conjugates can influence bioavailability, stability and cell targeting via sugar receptors, and how attaching boronic acids or esters to peptides or sugars may affect pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties, provide reversible covalent binding or fluorescent properties, and be applied in imaging tools, preclinical compounds and BNCT delivery strategies.

Researchers combined surface‑sensitive experimental techniques with density functional theory to study small peptide adsorption at a reactive copper/water interface. The study reports formation of CuI‑peptide units generated through interfacial copper oxidation that assemble into an interconnected three‑dimensional network driven by Cu–S coordinative bonds and stabilised by weaker electrostatic and hydrogen‑bonding interactions. AFM force spectroscopy revealed reproducible nanomechanical events with a characteristic length scale of approximately 1 nm consistent with DFT predictions, and time‑lapse AFM documented growth of a thick, hydrated, mechanically soft multilayer extending several tens of nanometres beyond single‑peptide dimensions. The combined experimental and computational evidence is presented as supporting a coupled redox–coordination–assembly–transport‑controlled growth mechanism for the adlayer.