Semaglutide, the active ingredient in the diabetes and weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, could lower the risk for Alzheimer’s disease, a new study shows.
People with type 2 diabetes who took semaglutide had a significantly lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s compared with those who were on any one of seven other diabetes drugs, according to the study published Thursday in Alzheimer’s & Dementia.
Semaglutide is a glucagon-like peptide receptor agonist (GLP-1RA), a molecule that mimics the GLP-1 hormone, which controls insulin and blood sugar levels, lowers appetite and slows digestion of food.
The other drugs included in the study were insulins, metformin, dipeptidyl-peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP-4i), sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2i), sulfonylureas (SUs), thiazolidinediones (TZDs), and other GLP-1RAs such as albiglutide, dulaglutide, exenatide, liraglutide, and lixisenatide.
Researchers evaluated three years’ worth of health records in about one million people with Type 2 diabetes who had no history of Alzheimer’s disease. Those taking semaglutide had a significantly lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease — from 40% to 70% lower — than those taking the seven other diabetes medications. Similar reductions were seen across obesity status, gender, and age groups.
“While the underlying mechanisms of the observed association of semaglutide and reduced risk of [Alzheimer’s disease] are unknown, they could also reflect semaglutide’s improvement of [Alzheimer’s disease] risk factors such as [Type 2 diabetes mellitus], obesity, cardiovascular diseases, smoking, alcohol drinking, and depression, among others,” the authors wrote.
Rong Xu, PhD, the lead researcher and a biomedical informatics professor with Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, noted the potential importance of this research in a statement.
“This new study provides real-world evidence for its impact on Alzheimer’s disease, even though preclinical research has suggested that semaglutide may protect against neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation,” Xu said.
The team still wants to see more evidence before drawing a causal conclusion, Xu said.
“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.
