Anti-obesity compounds, Semaglutide and LiPR, and PrRP do not change the proportion of human and mouse POMC+ neurons

Sara K. M. Jörgensen; May Surridge-Smith; Kimberley Jones; Lenka Maletínská; Nicholas D. Allen; David Petrik

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0329268

Peer Review History

Original SubmissionDecember 16, 2024
19 May 2025 Decision Letter - Alexandra Kavushansky, Editor Dear Dr. Petrik, Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process. Please submit your revised manuscript by Jul 03 2025 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org . When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file. A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'. 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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript. Kind regards, Alexandra Kavushansky, PhD Academic Editor PLOS ONE Journal Requirements: When submitting your revision, we need you to address these additional requirements. 1. Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming. The PLOS ONE style templates can be found at https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=wjVg/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_main_body.pdf and https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=ba62/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_title_authors_affiliations.pdf . 2. To comply with PLOS ONE submissions requirements, in your Methods section, please provide additional information regarding the experiments involving animals and ensure you have included details on (1) methods of sacrifice, and (2) efforts to alleviate suffering. 3. 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If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice. [Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.] Reviewers' comments: Reviewer's Responses to Questions Comments to the Author 1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions? Reviewer #1: Yes ******** 2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? -->?> Reviewer #1: Yes ****** 3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available??> The PLOS Data policy Reviewer #1: Yes ****** 4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English??> Reviewer #1: Yes ****** Reviewer #1: This study investigated the effects of PrRP, LiPR, and semaglutide on the POMC neuron maturation, but did not find any significant effects of these drugs. The authors need to revise the title because LiPR appears only in Figure 4. They may consider deleting specific drug names or include PrRP as well. ****** what does this mean? ). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files. If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public. Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy Reviewer #1: No ******** [NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.] While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/ . PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0329268.r001
Revision 1
11 Jun 2025 Author Response Response to Reviewers PONE-D-24-58169 Title: “Anti-obesity compounds, Semaglutide and LiPR, do not change the proportion of human and mouse POMC+ neurons” Journal Requirements: When submitting your revision, we need you to address these additional requirements. 1. Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming. Answer: We revised the manuscript and adjusted the subheadings, figure references, and text to style requirements and file naming of PLOS ONE. 2. To comply with PLOS ONE submissions requirements, in your Methods section, please provide additional information regarding the experiments involving animals and ensure you have included details on (1) methods of sacrifice, and (2) efforts to alleviate suffering. Answer: In Methods section, we included details on (1) methods or sacrifice, and (2) efforts to alleviate suffering. The new details are included on lines 261-264 (new text highlighted in red font): “After 21 days of treatment, animals were sacrificed by pentobarbital overdose followed by a complete exsanguination, transcardially perfused with 4% PFA and brain isolated as described before (26). The total anaesthesia was used to nullify suffering.” 3. Please provide a complete Data Availability Statement in the submission form, ensuring you include all necessary access information or a reason for why you are unable to make your data freely accessible. If your research concerns only data provided within your submission, please write "All data are in the manuscript and/or supporting information files" as your Data Availability Statement. Answer: We provided a complete Data Availability Statement in the submission form. We deposited all raw data related to all figures in our manuscript. The data were deposited to a public data depository, OSF, approved by PLOS ONE. The data has following DOI: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/84ZXK This DOI is now linked to the manuscript. 4. We note that the grant information you provided in the ‘Funding Information’ and ‘Financial Disclosure’ sections do not match. When you resubmit, please ensure that you provide the correct grant numbers for the awards you received for your study in the ‘Funding Information’ section. Answer: We provided correct grant numbers to match information provided in the ‘funding information’ and ‘financial disclosure’. 5. We note that you have included the phrase “data not shown” in your manuscript. Unfortunately, this does not meet our data sharing requirements. PLOS does not permit references to inaccessible data. We require that authors provide all relevant data within the paper, Supporting Information files, or in an acceptable, public repository. Please add a citation to support this phrase or upload the data that corresponds with these findings to a stable repository (such as Figshare or Dryad) and provide and URLs, DOIs, or accession numbers that may be used to access these data. Or, if the data are not a core part of the research being presented in your study, we ask that you remove the phrase that refers to these data. Answer: The data related to the phrase “data not shown” are not a core part of the research being presented and the phrase was removed. 6. Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. Answer: We reviewed our reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. Review Comments to the Author: Reviewer #1: This study investigated the effects of PrRP, LiPR, and semaglutide on the POMC neuron maturation, but did not find any significant effects of these drugs. The authors need to revise the title because LiPR appears only in Figure 4. They may consider deleting specific drug names or include PrRP as well. Answer: We included PrRP in the manuscript title as suggested by the reviewer. The new title is “Anti-obesity compounds, Semaglutide and LiPR, and PrRP do not change the proportion of human and mouse POMC+ neurons”. Attachments Attachment Submitted filename: Response to Reviewers PONE-D-24-58169.pdf https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0329268.r002
15 Jul 2025 Decision Letter - Alexandra Kavushansky, Editor Anti-obesity compounds, Semaglutide and LiPR, and PrRP do not change the proportion of human and mouse POMC+ neurons PONE-D-24-58169R1 Dear Dr. Petrik, We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements. Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication. An invoice will be generated when your article is formally accepted. Please note, if your institution has a publishing partnership with PLOS and your article meets the relevant criteria, all or part of your publication costs will be covered. Please make sure your user information is up-to-date by logging into Editorial Manager at Editorial Manager® and clicking the ‘Update My Information' link at the top of the page. If you have any questions relating to publication charges, please contact our Author Billing department directly at authorbilling@plos.org. If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org. Kind regards, Alexandra Kavushansky, PhD Academic Editor PLOS ONE Additional Editor Comments (optional): Reviewers' comments: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0329268.r003
Formally Accepted
Acceptance Letter - Alexandra Kavushansky, Editor PONE-D-24-58169R1 PLOS ONE Dear Dr. Petrik, I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now being handed over to our production team. At this stage, our production department will prepare your paper for publication. This includes ensuring the following: * All references, tables, and figures are properly cited * All relevant supporting information is included in the manuscript submission, * There are no issues that prevent the paper from being properly typeset You will receive further instructions from the production team, including instructions on how to review your proof when it is ready. Please keep in mind that we are working through a large volume of accepted articles, so please give us a few days to review your paper and let you know the next and final steps. Lastly, if your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org. You will receive an invoice from PLOS for your publication fee after your manuscript has reached the completed accept phase. If you receive an email requesting payment before acceptance or for any other service, this may be a phishing scheme. Learn how to identify phishing emails and protect your accounts at https://explore.plos.org/phishing. If we can help with anything else, please email us at customercare@plos.org. Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access. Kind regards, PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff on behalf of Dr. Alexandra Kavushansky Academic Editor PLOS ONE https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0329268.r004

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