‘A true breakthrough’: The eye-opening potential of GLP-1 agonists to treat heart, kidney disease in addition to obesity
Science, a popular journal published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), has announced that ongoing research into the benefits of GLP-1 agonists such as semaglutide is its 2023 Breakthrough of the Year.
While GLP-1 drugs were originally developed to treat diabetes, researchers keep finding additional ways these medications can potentially benefit patients. The most famous example of this trend, of course, is the discovery that GLP-1 drugs represent a legitimate treatment for patients who are overweight or obese.
“Drug treatments for obesity have a sorry past, one often intertwined with social pressure to lose weight and the widespread belief that excess weight reflects weak willpower,” wrote Jennifer Couzin-Frankel, a longtime Science writer, in her breakdown of this massive trend. “From ‘rainbow diet pills’ packed with amphetamines and diuretics that were marketed to women beginning in the 1940s, to the 1990s rise and fall of fen-phen, which triggered catastrophic heart and lung conditions, history is beset by failures to find safe, successful weight loss drugs.”
Now, Couzin-Frankel added, GLP-1 drugs appear to be “breaking the mold”—and there are signs that they could also provide significant benefits for patients with a wide range of other conditions, including heart disease and chronic kidney disease.
Semaglutide, sold by Novo Nordisk under the brand names Wegovy and Ozempic, has been the GLP-1 agonist at the center of most of these studies. One study presented at ESC Congress 2023, for example, found that semaglutide was associated with significant benefits among heart failure patients. A separate study published in The New England Journal of Medicine linked semaglutide to multiple cardiovascular benefits. And this appear to be just the beginning.
“The reach of GLP-1 drugs is now widening in ways its inventors couldn’t have imagined,” Couzin-Frankel wrote. “Trials are underway for drug addiction, after people with obesity and diabetes described less longing for wine and cigarettes while on the treatment. Researchers theorize the drugs bind to receptors in the brain that mediate desire for other pleasures in addition to food. Clinical trials are also testing GLP-1 drugs to treat Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, based in part on evidence they target brain inflammation.”
The Science rundown also emphasized that the latest research into these drugs is not yet complete. In a separate editorial, Holden Thorp, the publication’s editor-in-chief, noted that these drugs have “raised more questions than they have answered—a hallmark of a true breakthrough.”[1]
More research is needed into the potential side effects of the long-term use of these drugs, for example, and fears are growing that patients will abuse GLP-1 agonists, taking them when they aren’t clinically necessary. Costs are also a primary issue—these medications are not cheap, and current evidence suggests patients may need to keep taking them without stopping to see the most benefits.
As this story continues to develop, the Science team will surely be watching closely along with the rest of the world.
“These new therapies are reshaping not only how obesity is treated, but how it’s understood—as a chronic illness with roots in biology, not a simple failure of willpower,” Couzin-Frankel concluded. “And that may have as much impact as any drug.”
Click here for more on the Science 2023 Breakthrough of the Year.
Michael has more than 18 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.