What is known,
and what hasn't been shown yet.
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GLP-1 medicines lower inflammation markers
In the SELECT trial, hs-CRP fell by weeks 4 and 8, before major weight loss, and fell even in participants who did not lose weight.1 In a 24-person trial in type 2 diabetes, exenatide lowered TLR2, TLR4, TNF-α and IL-1β mRNA in circulating mononuclear cells over 12 weeks without weight loss.2
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How blood cells could respond
Circulating white blood cells carry little GLP-1 receptor, so the proposed routes are indirect: GLP-1 receptors in the brain, less inflammatory signaling from fat tissue as it shrinks, and effects on the gut barrier. Wong and Drucker review the evidence for each, much of it from animal studies.3
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How the Inflammation Compass produces results
Whole-blood RNA sequencing in a CLIA-certified laboratory. Gene expression is summarized into 38 pathways, 21 for Activation and 17 for Resolution. A statistical model with fixed weights combines them into six readings, and the immune cell mix is estimated from the same data. Each result is placed against a reference group, people whose blood was measured the same way, and from the second sample against your own earlier samples.
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What hasn’t been shown yet
The pathway gene sets come from peer-reviewed research and pathway databases. That they respond to GLP-1 therapy is biologically expected but not yet demonstrated for the six readings. A study of how much results vary within one person from day to day is planned, and the reference group is still growing.
Go deeper
into the evidence and the method.
- GLP-1 therapy and whole-blood transcriptomics
The trial evidence (SELECT, STEP, SURMOUNT and meta-analyses), how whole blood can respond when white blood cells carry little GLP-1 receptor, and the sequencing method behind the six readings.
- How the Inflammation Compass works
The full method: Activation and Resolution, 38 pathways, the six readings, the immune cell mix, the laboratory pipeline and its limits.
- What RNA adds
A shorter explanation of how reading which genes your immune cells are using differs from a routine blood panel.
- Lean mass on GLP-1 therapy
What trials found about lean mass loss (roughly 25–40% of weight lost), and how body-composition scans such as DXA measure it.
Your personal baseline starts with one sample.
See which parts of your inflammation system are active, compared with people measured the same way. Each later sample shows what moved and by how much.