Antihyperglycemic drugs are used to lower blood sugar levels in people with high blood sugar or hyperglycemia. These drugs can be used to treat conditions such as diabetes, prediabetes, and gestational diabetes. They work by reducing the amount of sugar produced in the liver, making muscle and fat cells more sensitive to insulin, and helping the body use sugar more effectively.
The Center for Brain Science Innovation at the University of Arizona conducted a study to investigate whether taking medication for type 2 diabetes increases the likelihood of developing multiple sclerosis.
According to a study from University of Arizona According to Health Sciences, people with type 2 diabetes over the age of 45 and treated with antihyperglycemic drugs were at increased risk of developing multiple sclerosis, especially in women. , also found that exposure to antihyperglycemic drugs actually reduced the risk of multiple sclerosis.
“Our findings reinforce the need for precision medicine approaches to prevent MS in these vulnerable populations,” said principal investigator, Translational Neuroscience Center for Brain Science Innovation. Kathleen Rogers, Ph.D., Associate Director of
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an unpredictable autoimmune neurological disorder that affects the central nervous system and causes severe physical and cognitive impairment. It is estimated that nearly 1 million adults in the United States and over 2.8 million adults worldwide have MS.
For patients with type 2 diabetes, there is increasing evidence linking metabolic disorders to MS through a common factor of increased autoimmunity. This calls into question the impact of the antihyperglycemic drugs used to treat his type 2 diabetes, including insulin, on the incidence of MS.
“Previous studies have shown neuroprotective effects of antihyperglycemic agents.[{” attribute=””>Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias,” Dr. Rodgers said. “For MS, we wanted to further examine age and sex differences, particularly among men and women under 45 with Type 2 diabetes.”
They found that men older than 45 years old had a slightly significant increase of MS risk and women older than 45 years exhibited a significant increase in MS incidence after anti-hyperglycemic exposure. In addition to age differences, the risk analysis by drug class showed that exposure to insulin in patients older than 45 years old was associated with a greater increased risk compared with other therapies.
In patients younger than 45, anti-hyperglycemic exposure was protective against the development of MS.
The study utilized a U.S.-based insurance claims database of 151 million participants to identify more than 5 million patients with a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes and either early-onset or late-onset MS. Researchers segmented the data by age – patients diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes prior to or after age 45 – and sex to decode the factors driving MS risk in both populations, especially in women over 45 years of age.
Reference: “Age and sex differences on anti-hyperglycemic medication exposure and risk of newly diagnosed multiple sclerosis in propensity score matched type 2 diabetics” by Gregory L. Branigan, Georgina Torrandell-Haro, Francesca Vitali, Roberta Diaz Brinton and Kathleen Rodgers, 1 October 2022, Heliyon.
DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e11196
The study was funded by the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, both divisions of the National Institutes of Health.
