Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, a class of diabetes drugs also known as gliflozins, could lower the risk for dementia and Parkinson’s disease, a new study finds.
The report was published on Wednesday in Neurology.
Investigators evaluated 358,862 people with type 2 diabetes who began taking an SGLT2 inhibitor between 2014 and 2019 in South Korea. The participants, with an average age of 58, were matched with people taking other oral diabetes drugs. Both medications lower blood sugar by causing the kidneys to remove sugar from the body through urine.
The team followed the participants to see who developed Parkinson’s disease or dementia; they followed the people taking SGLT2 inhibitors for an average of two years, and those taking other drugs for four years. A total of 6,837 people, or just less than 2%, went on to develop dementia or Parkinson’s disease during the study.
The incidence rate for people taking SGLT2 inhibitors who developed Alzheimer’s disease was 39.7 cases per 10,000 person-years, compared with 63.7 cases per 10,000 person-years for those taking other diabetes drugs. The incidence rate for people taking the SGLT2 drugs who developed vascular dementia was 10.6 cases per 10,000, compared with 18.7 for those taking the other drugs.
The incidence rate for those taking the SGLT2 drugs who developed Parkinson’s disease was 9.3 cases per 10,000, compared with 13.7 for those taking the other diabetes medications.
Person-years reflects both the number of people in the study and the amount of time each person spends in the trial.
When the team adjusted for other factors that could affect a person’s dementia or Parkinson’s disease risk (such as diabetes complications), they found that SGLT2 inhibitor use was associated with a 20% reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease and a 20% reduced risk of Parkinson’s disease. Those taking the drugs had a 30% reduced risk for vascular dementia.
“We know that these neurodegenerative diseases like dementia and Parkinson’s disease are common and the number of cases is growing as the population ages, and people with diabetes are at increased risk of cognitive impairment, so it’s encouraging to see that this class of drugs may provide some protection against dementia and Parkinson’s disease,” Minyoung Lee, MD, PhD, the study author from Yonsei University College of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea, said in a statement.
