Semaglutide has been associated with “slowing dementia development” among people living with type 2 diabetes, new research has underscored.
A new study from Case Western Reserve School of Medicine has found that the popular type 2 diabetes drug is more likely to combat the development of dementia compared to other antidiabetic medications, particularly among women and older adults.
Dementia is the loss of cognitive functioning — thinking, remembering, and reasoning — to such an extent that it interferes with a person’s daily life and activities.
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Typically worsening over time, dementia can be triggered by several modifiable factors, such as cardiovascular diseases, stroke, obesity, type 2 diabetes and traumatic brain injury.
In the US, more than six millon people are diagnosed with dementia each year, and the condition is responsible for more than 100,000 deaths per year, the National Institutes of Health has revealed.
Previous studies have shown that nearly 50% of dementia cases could be combatted if people addressed modifiable risk factors.
Semaglutide is an anti-diabetic medication used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and an anti-obesity medication used for long-term weight management.
During the trial, the team of researchers assessed the medical records of almost 1.7 million people, all of whom had type 2 diabetes.
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They discovered that the participants using semaglutide were less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease-related dementia compared to those using other anti-diabetic medications, including other types of GLP-1R-targeting medications.
First author Rong Xu said: “There is no cure or effective treatment for dementia, so this new study provides real-world evidence for its potential impact on preventing or slowing dementia development among at-high risk population.
“Our results indicate that research into semaglutide’s use for dementia prevention will need to be further investigated through randomised clinical trials.”
Read the study in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
