Dr Masud Haq BSc (Hons), MBBS (Hons), MRCP, MD

Dr Masud Haq is a Consultant Physician in Diabetes & Endocrinology at Kent & Sussex Hospital, Royal Tunbridge Wells, and a former graduate of Guy’s & St.Thomas’s Hospital, London. As a trainee he studied HIV & chest medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School, USA, and modern vascular surgical techniques at St.Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. He completed a Bachelor Degree in Biochemistry assessing novel cardiovascular risk markers and was awarded a Wellcome Scholarship. He later completed a Doctorate in Medicine at the Royal Marsden Hospital studying the effects of radioiodine dosimetry treatment in patients affected by thyroid cancer. His work has been presented at numerous international meetings and was shortlisted for the European Marie Curie prize in 2007.

A former Consultant at St.George’s Hospital and Chelsea & Westminster NHS Foundation Trust, Dr Haq presently is a member of West Kent Diabetes Clinical Advisory Panel, Diabetes UK, The British Thyroid Association and UK Society of Endocrinologists. His main interests lie in thyroid disease and endocrine effects seen in ageing.

2012 - Injectable GLP-1 therapy - weight loss effects seen in obesity with and without type 2 diabetes

Recent advances in the understanding of peptide signalling of hunger and satiety from the gastrointestinal tract have opened new possible therapeutic targets to treat obesity. Various peptides have been studied and include ghrelin, cholecystokinin (CCK), peptide tyrosine-tyrosine (PYY) and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), and homeostatic mechanisms related to leptin.

GLP-1 is a prohormone that is produced from gastrointestinal tract in response to ingestion of food and results in insulin release in a glucose-dependant manner, inhibition of glucagon secretion, delayed gastric emptying and suppression of the appetite centre in the brain. Numerous clinical studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of injectable GLP-1 analogues in the treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes resulting in improved glycaemic control and weight loss. This group of drugs has also proven to be successful in promoting weight loss in obese non-diabetic subjects.

A review of this subject together with clinical results will be presented.