Potential Cognitive Benefits of Using GLP-1 Analogs for Alzheimer Disease Treatment: Paul Edison, MD, PhD

WATCH TIME: 5 minutes

"This is very encouraging considering that the GLP-1 analogs, even though we used liraglutide as a daily injection, now have different compounds available as weekly injections or oral drugs which show great potential for Alzheimer treatment."

Preclinical studies in Alzheimer disease (AD) suggest liraglutide (Novo Nordisk), a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analogue licensed for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus, may offer neuroprotective effects. These effects would potentially include reduction of amyloid oligomers, normalization of synaptic plasticity and cerebral glucose uptake, and increasement of the proliferation in neuronal progenitor cells. In a recent phase 2b trial assessing liraglutide in patients with mild to moderate AD, the treatment showed a slower decline of temporal lobe volume and total grey matter volume compared with placebo in the MRI analysis.¹

Conducted by lead author Paul Edison, MD, PhD, and colleagues, all the participants in the study (n = 204) had MRI scans performed at baseline and 12 months after treatment with liraglutide or matching placebo along with neuropsychometric assessment and [18F]FDG PET. In a voxel-based morphometry analysis, results revealed that liraglutide-treated patients had a slower reduction in whole cortical grey matter, frontal, temporal, and parietal lobe volume in compared with placebo. Recently presented at the 2024 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, July 28 to August 1, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, these results suggest that liraglutide shows promise in slowing the progression of AD although further research is warranted to confirm these findings and explore its long-term benefits.

Prior to the conference, Edison, a professor of neuroscience at Imperial College London and a consultant of a memory clinic at the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, sat down with NeurologyLive^® in an interview to discuss the primary cognitive and neuroimaging outcomes observed among patients with AD treated with liraglutide in the phase 2b trial. He also talked about how the findings of this study might influence future research or development of GLP-1 analogs for neurological conditions. Furthermore, Edison spoke about the implications of using semaglutide, an oral GLP-1 analog, in the treatment of AD.

Click here for more coverage of AAIC 2024.

REFERENCES
1. Edison P, et al. Evaluation of Novel GLP-1 analogue in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Presented at: 2024 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference; July 18 to August 1; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Abstract 89799.