Diabetes Drug Linked to a Decreased Risk of Dementia

In accordance with the scientists, it could be value prioritizing these medication for future redirection analysis.

In accordance with a long-term research lately revealed within the open-access journal Open Diabetes Analysis and Care BMJ, use of the diabetes drug often called glitazones is related to a 22% decrease threat of dementia. Glitazones are also known as thiazolidinediones or TZDs for brief and are an older class of medication for sort 2 diabetes.

In accordance with the researchers, these medication can successfully stop dementia in high-risk individuals with delicate to reasonable sort 2 diabetes, and it could now be value prioritizing them in future scientific trials to see if they will work. be reused.

Researchers started to check whether or not diabetes medication may probably assist stop or treatment dementia since sort 2 diabetes and dementia share a number of physiological patterns. Nevertheless, outcomes have been inconsistent to this point.

The researchers in contrast the incidence of dementia in older individuals with sort 2 diabetes who acquired sulfonylurea or thiazolidinedione (TZD) with these receiving metformin alone to shed some mild on this.

They used knowledge from 559,106 individuals with sort 2 diabetes who had been recognized within the Nationwide Veterans (VA) Well being System between January 2000 and December 2019.

Solely aged sufferers (at the very least 60 years previous) who acquired a primary prescription for metformin, a sulfonylurea (tolbutamide, glimepiride, glipizide or glyburide) or a TZD (rosiglitazone or pioglitazone) between January 2001 and December 2017 had been included (559,106) within the research. Their well being was tracked for a mean of virtually 8 years.

After at the very least 1 12 months of drug remedy, the usage of a TZD alone was related to a 22% decrease threat of dementia from any trigger, in contrast with the usage of metformin alone.

Particularly, it was related to an 11% decrease threat of[{” attribute=””>Alzheimer’s disease and a 57% lower risk of vascular dementia. Given that vascular diseases increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, TZDs may also help to reduce dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in part through their favorable effects on the vascular system, say the researchers.

While the risk of dementia from any cause was 11% lower for the use of metformin and TZD combined, it was 12% higher for the use of a sulfonylurea drug alone, prompting the researchers to suggest that supplementing a sulfonylurea with either metformin or a TZD may partially offset these effects.

Further in-depth analysis indicated that those younger than 75 benefited more from a TZD than older patients, highlighting the importance of early prevention for dementia, note the researchers. And these drugs also seemed to be more protective in overweight or obese patients.

This is an observational study, so definitive conclusions can’t be drawn about cause and effect. And the researchers acknowledge that certain potentially influential information wasn’t available, including kidney function and genetic factors, and that study participants were predominantly male and White.

But they suggest that future studies for repurposing diabetes drugs for dementia prevention might want to consider prioritizing TZDs, based on their findings.

And they conclude: “These findings may help inform medication selection for [older] sick with [type 2 diabetes] at excessive threat of dementia.

Reference: “Use of oral diabetes medicines and threat of incident dementia in US veterans aged ≥60 years with sort 2 diabetes” by Xin Tang, Roberta Diaz Brinton, Zhao Chen, Leslie V. Farland, Yann Klimentidis , Raymond Migrino, Peter Reaven , Kathleen Rodgers and Jin J Zhou, October 11, 2022, Open Diabetes Analysis and Care BMJ.
DOI: 10.1136/bmjdrc-2022-002894

The research was funded by the Nationwide Human Genome Analysis Institute, the Nationwide Science Basis, the Nationwide Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Illness, and the Nationwide Coronary heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.