When compared to seven other anti-diabetic drugs, semaglutide may significantly lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in people with type 2 diabetes, according to new research from the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. These results, which were based on data from a national health records database, were consistent across different subgroups— including obesity status, gender, and age.
“This new study provides real-world evidence for its [semaglutide’s] impact on Alzheimer’s disease, even though preclinical research has suggested that semaglutide may protect against neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation,” said Rong Xu, senior author of the study. Xu also directs the medical school’s Center for AI in Drug Discovery and is a member of the Cancer Genomics Epigenomics Program at the Case Cancer Comprehensive Center.
The study was published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.
The researchers looked at three years of medical records, from the TriNetX Analytics platform, for more than one million patients with Type 2 diabetes ages 60 and up who had just begun using one of the drugs, but otherwise had not taken a diabetes drug within the past six months. Participants also had to have at least one other underlying condition—such as obesity, hypertension or heart disease. The researchers used a statistical approach that mimics a randomized clinical trial.
They found patients prescribed semaglutide (a glucagon-like peptide receptor, or GLP-1R) had a significantly lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease, compared to those who had taken any of seven other anti-diabetic medications, including other types of GLP-1R-targeting medications.
Semaglutide, which decreases hunger and helps regulate blood sugar in type 2 diabetes, is the active component in Novo Nordisk’s diabetes and weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Ozempic. It was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for type 2 diabetes mellitus in 2017 and for weight loss in 2021.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia. Over 55 million people worldwide were estimated to be living with dementia in 2020, according to Alzheimer’s Disease International. The Alzheimer’s Association reports that nearly seven million Americans 65 and older are living with the disease. About 120,000 Americans die from Alzheimer’s disease each year, with the disease listed as the seventh-leading cause of death nationally, according to the CDC.
There is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s disease. The FDA has approved Biogen’s Leqembi and Lilly’s Kisunla. But these only marginally slow the disease’s progression by targeting the hallmark Alzheimer’s amyloid plaques in the brain.
The Case Western researchers point out that both type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity are significant modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer’s Disease. “Furthermore, semaglutide has demonstrated benefits in managing various other health conditions such as cardiovascular factors, alcohol use, smoking, and depression, many of which are also linked to AD risk,” they wrote.
“Our results indicate that further research into semaglutide’s use will need to be further investigated through randomized clinical trials so alternative drugs can be tested as potential treatment for this debilitating illness,” Xu said.
