Novo Nordisk GLP-1 liraglutide may slow Alzheimer’s progression

An older, once-daily drug for diabetes and obesity from Novo Nordisk called liraglutide may slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease by protecting patients’ brains, in keeping with data from a mid-stage trial released on Tuesday. 

Novo Nordisk sells liraglutide as a diabetes and obesity drug under the brand names Victoza and Saxenda, respectively. Quarterly sales of those each day injections have been declining as patients shift toward the Danish drugmaker’s blockbuster weekly injections, Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for weight reduction.

The outcomes add to growing evidence that the highly popular class of obesity and diabetes medications called GLP-1s could have significant health advantages beyond promoting weight reduction and regulating blood sugar. As GLP-1 demand skyrocketed over the past two years, Novo Nordisk and rival Eli Lilly have been studying their drugs’ potential in patients with chronic conditions starting from fatty liver disease to sleep apnea. 

Researchers from the Imperial College London followed greater than 200 patients within the U.K. with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s who were randomly assigned to receive either a each day injection of liraglutide or a placebo. The study was partly funded by Novo Nordisk. 

Patients who received liraglutide had an 18% slower decline in cognitive function after one yr of treatment in comparison with those that received the placebo. 

The phase two trial found that liraglutide slowed the shrinking of certain parts of the brain which are critical for memory, decision-making, learning and language by nearly 50% in comparison with the placebo, based on MRI exams. Alzheimer’s disease often causes the brain to shrink because the illness progresses because crucial nerve cells break down and stop working properly. 

Researchers presented the outcomes on Tuesday on the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Philadelphia, the world’s largest meeting for dementia research. 

The brand new data demonstrates the variety of therapies being developed or tested for Alzheimer’s disease, which is paving the way in which for brand spanking new and potentially more personalized approaches to treating the condition, said Dr. Heather Snyder, vice chairman of medical and scientific relations on the Alzheimer’s Association.

Nearly 7 million Americans have the condition, the fifth-leading reason behind death for adults over 65, in keeping with the Alzheimer’s Association. By 2050, the variety of Alzheimer’s patients is projected to rise to almost 13 million within the U.S.

The Alzheimer’s treatment space reached a breakthrough over the past yr, with two newly cleared drugs proven to slow disease progression by targeting a toxic protein within the brain called amyloid, an indicator of the condition. That features Kisunla from Eli Lilly and Leqembi from Biogen and Eisai. 

Snyder told CNBC the brand new data on Tuesday “opens up the door” for scientists to explore combining those amyloid-targeting drugs with GLP-1s comparable to liraglutide. 

Notably, existing research shows that GLP-1s don’t bring the chance of brain swelling and bleeding, two unwanted effects which were linked to Leqembi and Kisunla. Patients who receive those amyloid-targeting treatments undergo routine MRIs to watch for those unwanted effects. 

Within the mid-stage trial, patients who received liraglutide mostly experienced gastrointestinal unwanted effects related to other GLP-1s, comparable to nausea. 

That could be one advantage of using GLP-1s to treat Alzheimer’s patients – only a small share of whom are currently receiving amyloid-targeting drugs. 

“Having a drug which has got a excellent safety profile and could possibly be used widely – it should change the sphere significantly,” Dr. Paul Edison, professor of neuroscience on the Imperial College London and the trial’s lead writer, told CNBC. 

He said GLP-1s, if approved for Alzheimer’s, “could possibly be administered just about anywhere on the planet with out a huge amount of monitoring” for unwanted effects, which shows that there may be “an important potential” for those drugs. 

But more research is required, he noted. 

Edison is involved in Novo Nordisk’s phase three “EVOKE” and “EVOKE+” trials. The continued EVOKE is examining semaglutide, the lively ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic, in nearly 2,000 Alzheimer’s patients. 

In an announcement, Novo Nordisk said it welcomes independent research investigating its GLP-1s as treatments for other conditions, but noted that those products usually are not currently approved for Alzheimer’s disease.

The trial’s primary goal was measuring how much glucose the brain consumes, which is significant for assessing cognitive function. As Alzheimer’s disease progresses, the so-called glucose metabolic rate in certain parts of the brain declines. 

Edison said he and his team consider they didn’t have enough participants within the trial to exhibit a major change in that rate. But he called it encouraging that liraglutide met the study’s second goal of demonstrating a profit in cognitive function, together with one other goal of a change in brain volume. 

Those findings suggest that GLP-1s comparable to liraglutide can protect the brain, Edison noted. 

“I feel demonstrating that cognitive improvement is the important thing, because that’s what the patients are desirous about,” he told CNBC. 

He said liraglutide likely achieves that through various ways, comparable to reducing inflammation within the brain, improving how the brain’s nerve cells communicate and lowering insulin resistance in addition to reducing two hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease: toxic proteins called amyloid plaque and tau. 

More research is required to verify that, Edison said.