Research
Hormonal
Native GLP-1 has a very short half-life (1-2 minutes) due to rapid degradation by the enzyme DPP-4, necessitating biochemically modified agonists for clinical use.
Your body breaks down natural GLP-1 very quickly. Medications like Ozempic or Wegovy are chemically modified to resist this breakdown, allowing them to work for days instead of minutes.
StrongSupportsVERY_HIGH confidence
Native GLP-1 has a very short half-life, which, depending on the species, is around 1-2 min... and results from two causes: (a) the action of the enzyme dipeptidylpeptidase-4 (DPP-4) and (b) renal elimination.
Why this rating
Clear biochemical mechanism described.
Source
Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1)
Timo D. Müller et al. · Molecular Metabolism · 2019
DOI 10.1016/j.molmet.2019.09.010
narrative_reviewCited 1,709×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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