Ozempic and Similar Drugs Could Help Ward Off Dementia, Study Suggests

The lawsuit for Ozempic arsenic a dementia buster is building. Research published this week has recovered that GLP-1 drugs are associated with a little hazard of dementia successful radical with benignant 2 diabetes.

Researchers successful Ireland led the study, a reappraisal of the existing evidence. Compared to controls (like different forms of medicine oregon a placebo), radical connected GLP-1 therapy were importantly little apt to beryllium diagnosed with dementia, the researchers found. Other scientists and pharmaceutical companies person already begun to trial these drugs successful objective trials for dementia prevention.

Ozempic, Wegovy, and akin drugs mimic the hormone GLP-1, which helps modulate our humor sweetener and appetite (the drugs are made with the progressive constituent semaglutide). These drugs were archetypal approved to little humor sweetener successful radical with benignant 2 diabetes, but are present commonly besides utilized to dainty obesity.

People with poorly controlled diabetes are astatine higher hazard for Alzheimer’s and different forms of dementia, and caller objective trials person additionally shown that GLP-1 therapy tin reduce the odds of cardiovascular disease, different hazard origin for dementia. But according to the researchers down the caller study, determination has been a “lack of robust evidence” supporting the usage of heart-protective, glucose-lowering drugs similar GLP-1s to forestall dementia successful people.

The researchers analyzed information from 23 randomized, placebo-controlled trials of GLP-1 drugs and different glucose-lowering medications similar SGLT2is. These trials progressive astir 160,000 volunteers and explicitly tracked whether anyone developed dementia oregon cognitive impairment during the survey period.

The squad failed to find a nexus betwixt the wide usage of these drugs and a little hazard of dementia oregon cognitive impairment compared to controls. But erstwhile they looked astatine cause classes separately, they recovered that GLP-1 drugs did look to basal retired from the rest.

“In this meta-analysis of randomized objective trials, glucose-lowering therapy with GLP1-RAs, but not SGLT2is oregon pioglitazone, was associated with a statistically important simplification successful dementia oregon cognitive impairment,” the researchers wrote successful their paper, published Monday successful JAMA Neurology.

The findings are not the archetypal to suggest a imaginable dementia-buffering effect from GLP-1 therapy. A survey published earlier this January, for instance, recovered immoderate grounds that liraglutide (an older GLP-1 drug) could trim the complaint of encephalon shrinkage successful radical with Alzheimer’s (Gizmodo covered the survey past twelvemonth erstwhile its preliminary results were archetypal disclosed). Another reappraisal published past twelvemonth besides concluded that GLP-1 drugs whitethorn person imaginable “metabolic and neuroprotective benefits” successful radical with Alzheimer’s.

It’s not precisely wide however GLP-1s mightiness support the brains of radical with aboriginal dementia oregon astatine higher hazard for it, though immoderate scientists person speculated that these drugs whitethorn trim inflammation oregon amended however our encephalon cells communicate. It besides remains to beryllium seen however impactful this protective effect volition truly be, if it is genuine. But bolstered by the aboriginal data, Novo Nordisk, the makers of Ozempic and Wegovy, person launched 2 large-scale signifier III trials investigating semaglutide for radical with aboriginal Alzheimer’s disease, which are expected to wrapper up adjacent year. So soon enough, we’ll hopefully person immoderate factual answers to these questions.