Semaglutide Use Correlates with Reduced Alzheimer's Risk in Type 2 Diabetes Patients
Near all patients exhibiting type 2 diabetes have the condition as a result of being overweight. Losing weight will improve the diabetic metabolism; studies have shown that type 2 diabetes is reversible even into fairly late stages. The primary outcome of taking GLP-1 receptor agonists such as semaglutide is weight loss. Excess visceral fat in individuals who are overweight or obese contributes to chronic inflammation and a variety of other mechanisms that are known to accelerate the onset and progression of age-related disease. The brace of recent papers lauding GLP-1 receptor agonists as treatments for age-related disease, focusing heavily on changes in cellular biochemistry in their discussions of the topic, are really just a new way of advocating for the evident benefits of weight loss in those who are overweight.
Emerging preclinical evidence suggests that semaglutide, a glucagon-like peptide receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and obesity, protects against neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation. We conducted emulation target trials based on a nationwide database of electronic health records (EHRs) of 116 million US patients. Seven target trials were emulated among 1,094,761 eligible patients with T2DM who had no prior Alzheimer's disease (AD) diagnosis by comparing semaglutide with seven other antidiabetic medications.
Semaglutide was associated with significantly reduced risk for first-time AD diagnosis, most strongly compared with insulin (hazard ratio [HR], 0.33) and most weakly compared with other GLP-1RAs (HR, 0.59). Similar results were seen across obesity status, gender, and age groups. Semaglutide was associated with significantly lower AD-related medication prescriptions. Our findings provide real-world evidence supporting the potential clinical benefits of semaglutide in mitigating AD initiation and development in patients with T2DM.