Therapeutics

Liraglutide

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Overview

Name: Liraglutide
Synonyms: Victoza™, Saxenda™
Therapy Type: Other
Target Type: Other (timeline)
Condition(s): Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease
U.S. FDA Status: Alzheimer's Disease (Phase 2), Parkinson's Disease (Phase 2)
Company: Novo Nordisk A/S
Approved for: Diabetes, weight loss

Background

Liraglutide is an analog of glucagon-like peptide 1. GLP-1 is a hormone that is produced in the gut and activates receptors in the gut, liver, and pancreas to control blood-sugar levels and reduce insulin resistance. Liraglutide and related GLP-1 mimetics cause body weight loss and reduce the risk of cardiovascular events, stroke, and dementia in people with diabetes.

GLP-1 crosses the blood-brain barrier and may improve insulin signaling in the brain (Hölscher, 2018). GLP‐1 was also reported to promote hippocampal synaptic plasticity, cognition, and cell survival (During et al., 2003).    

Diabetes, high blood sugar, and insulin resistance are all associated with dementia. In Alzheimer’s disease, there is evidence for insulin resistance in the brain. Thus, there has been much interest in testing liraglutide and other GLP-1 analogs, such as exendin-4semaglutide, and lixisenatide, as potential therapeutics for AD.

Liraglutide has been tested in preclinical AD models. In the APP/PS1 transgenic mouse, liraglutide reduced amyloid deposition, glial activation, and synapse loss, increased neurogenesis, and improved memory (McClean et al., 2011). Memory reportedly improved regardless of whether liraglutide was given before or after amyloid plaques were established (McClean and Hölscher, 2013McClean et al., 2015). The same group reported improvements in cerebral blood vessel structure in liraglutide-treated AD mice, resulting in fewer microaneurysms, and less vascular leakage (Kelly et al., 2015). A different group found no effect of liraglutide on amyloid load in the same APP/PS1 model, and one other transgenic model (Hansen et al., 2016). In a mixed model of AD and Type 2 diabetes, liraglutide improved insulin levels, and reduced brain atrophy, amyloid plaque, Aβ aggregates, and tau phosphorylation, while improving cognition (Carranza-Naval et al., 2021).

Liraglutide reduced tau pathology and cognitive impairment in two different models, APP/PS1/Tau triple transgenic mice and mice with Aβ oligomers infused into the brain (Chen et al., 2017; Qi et al., 2016). In mice expressing mutated human tau, the drug reduced phosphorylation of tau and improved a motor phenotype (Hansen et al., 2016). It lessened tau hyperphosphorylation and Aβ overproduction, and normalized insulin signaling in rats with high blood homocysteine, a risk factor for AD (Zhang et al., 2019).

In nonhuman primates, liraglutide partially restored a loss of insulin receptors and synapses caused by Aβ oligomer infusion into the brain (Batista et al., 2018).

Liraglutide also shows activity in mouse models of Parkinson's disease (Liu et al., 2015; Hansen et al., 2016Badawi et al., 2017), stroke (He et al., 2020), spinal cord injury (Zhang et al., 2020), and traumatic brain injury (Bader et al., 2019).

Among GLP-1 mimetics, liraglutide appears to enter the brain poorly (Salameh et al., 2020).

A peptide drug, liraglutide is injected once a day using a prefilled disposable pen. Gastrointestinal side effects are common, including nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, decreased appetite, indigestion, and constipation. Liraglutide can cause hypoglycemia and dizziness. In mice and rats, liraglutide caused thyroid tumors, and it should not be taken by people at risk for thyroid cancer.

Findings

A study of liraglutide in 34 people with clinically diagnosed AD began in January 2012 at Aarhus University, Denmark. The primary outcome was change in cerebral amyloid deposition, measured by PiB-PET at baseline and after six months of 1.8 mg liraglutide or placebo per day. Secondary outcomes were the Wechsler Memory Scale-IV for cognition and FDG-PET to measure cerebral glucose metabolism (Egefjord et al., 2012). In the study, amyloid load increased and cognition remained unchanged in both liraglutide and placebo groups. FDG-PET declined in the placebo but not in the liraglutide group (May 2016 news on Gejl et al., 2016). Liraglutide boosted FDG-PET in the AD patients by increasing glucose transfer across the blood-brain barrier, restoring it to the level of healthy controls (Gejl et al., 2017).

In August 2013, a trial at Stanford University examined whether liraglutide affected memory in prediabetes. It enrolled 41 people between 50 and 70 who had elevated blood glucose or impaired glucose tolerance. All were cognitively normal, but expressed subjective memory complaints. Half had a family history of dementia. After 12 weeks of 1.8 mg liraglutide daily or placebo, the investigators detected no change in cognition. They did report an improvement in functional MRI measures of brain connectivity in the default mode network, a system affected in AD (Watson et al., 2019).

Another study of similar size, conducted in Italy, compared memory test scores in people with obesity and pre- or early diabetes who lost weight and improved their metabolic profile while taking liraglutide to test scores of people who achieved equivalent weight loss and metabolic changes with diet and lifestyle changes only. The liraglutide group significantly improved on a test of short-term memory and a memory composite, compared to the lifestyle-change-only group (Vadini et al., 2020).

In January 2014, a larger trial in AD started up at Imperial College London. The ELAD study enrolled 204 participants with mild AD dementia but without diabetes for a 12-month course of 1.8 mg liraglutide or placebo per day. The primary outcome was change in FDG-PET. Secondary outcomes included standard clinical and cognitive measures (ADAS-Cog, executive domain scores of the Neuropsychological Test Battery, CDR-SB, and ADCS-ADL), volumetric MRI, as well as changes in PET measures of microglial activation, tau, amyloid, and safety. The protocol is published (Femminella et al., 2019). The trial ended in December 2019. As presented at the 2020 CTAD conference, liraglutide failed on the primary outcome, as no difference in glucose uptake was registered between treatment and placebo groups. Three of five secondary outcomes were improved: The treatment group lost less temporal lobe volume and total brain gray matter volume, and performed better on the ADAS-Exec score, a cognitive outcome that combined the ADAS-Cog and executive domain portions of the NTSB. The CDR-SB and ADCS-ADL were unchanged. The treatment was safe, with fewer serious adverse events in drug versus placebo, and no deaths. Notwithstanding claims of statistical significance on some secondary outcomes, differences between treated and placebo groups were not apparent from data shown at the 2024 AAIC (August 2024 conference news).

In April 2017, a trial at Cedar-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, began recruiting 63 people with Parkinson’s disease to compare a one-year course of up to 1.8 mg liraglutide daily to placebo. The study measured motor, non-motor, and cognitive function. It finished in August 2022. Results posted on clinicaltrials.gov indicate no difference in the primary outcome of the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale Part III motor examination between drug and placebo groups. Results are published in preprint form, and claim significant improvements in non-motor symptoms and other secondary outcomes (Hogg et al., 2022).

In May 2019, a trial at Nanjing University Hospital began comparing liraglutide to the antidiabetic medications dapaglifozin and to acarbose, for their effects on cognitive and olfactory function in 36 overweight people whose Type 2 diabetes is poorly controlled with metformin alone. Outcome measures of this 16-week trial included fMRI of odor-induced brain activation, change on the MoCA cognition screen, and an odor detection test. According to published results, liraglutide significantly enhanced odor-induced left hippocampal activation, and improved cognitive subdomains of delayed memory, attention, and executive function. Dapagliflozin and acarbose had no effect (Cheng et al., 2022).

In October 2022, the same group in China began a larger trial, enrolling 324 patients for an eighteen-month treatment with liraglutide, empagliflozin, or the dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor linagliptin. The latter acts to increase levels of GLP-1. The primary outcome is change in MoCA scores. Secondary outcomes include RBANS, change in olfactory brain activation on MRI, olfactory function, and levels of glycosylated hemoglobin. This trial is slated to finish in December 2026.

Liraglutide is also being evaluated in minor stroke/transient ischemic attack in people with Type 2 diabetes.

For details on liraglutide trials in neurologic indications, see clinicaltrials.gov

Last Updated: 23 Sep 2024

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References

News Citations

  1. Diabetes Drug May Rev Up Brain Metabolism in People with Alzheimer’s
  2. Liraglutide Trial Was Negative Four Years Ago, Still Negative Today

Therapeutics Citations

  1. Dapagliflozin
  2. Semaglutide
  3. Lixisenatide

Paper Citations

  1. . Effects of liraglutide on neurodegeneration, blood flow and cognition in Alzheimer´s disease - protocol for a controlled, randomized double-blinded trial. Dan Med J. 2012 Oct;59(10):A4519. PubMed.
  2. . In Alzheimer's Disease, 6-Month Treatment with GLP-1 Analog Prevents Decline of Brain Glucose Metabolism: Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Double-Blind Clinical Trial. Front Aging Neurosci. 2016;8:108. Epub 2016 May 24 PubMed.
  3. . Blood-Brain Glucose Transfer in Alzheimer's disease: Effect of GLP-1 Analog Treatment. Sci Rep. 2017 Dec 13;7(1):17490. PubMed.
  4. . Neural correlates of liraglutide effects in persons at risk for Alzheimer's disease. Behav Brain Res. 2019 Jan 1;356:271-278. Epub 2018 Aug 9 PubMed.
  5. . Liraglutide improves memory in obese patients with prediabetes or early type 2 diabetes: a randomized, controlled study. Int J Obes (Lond). 2020 Jun;44(6):1254-1263. Epub 2020 Jan 21 PubMed.
  6. . Evaluating the effects of the novel GLP-1 analogue liraglutide in Alzheimer's disease: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial (ELAD study). Trials. 2019 Apr 3;20(1):191. PubMed. Correction.
  7. . A Phase II, Randomized, Double-Blinded, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Liraglutide in Parkinson's Disease. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4212371 The Lancet Preprint
  8. . Enhancement of Impaired Olfactory Neural Activation and Cognitive Capacity by Liraglutide, but Not Dapagliflozin or Acarbose, in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: A 16-Week Randomized Parallel Comparative Study. Diabetes Care. 2022 May 1;45(5):1201-1210. PubMed.
  9. . Novel dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonists show neuroprotective effects in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease models. Neuropharmacology. 2018 Jul 1;136(Pt B):251-259. Epub 2018 Jan 31 PubMed.
  10. . Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor is involved in learning and neuroprotection. Nat Med. 2003 Sep;9(9):1173-9. PubMed.
  11. . The diabetes drug liraglutide prevents degenerative processes in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. J Neurosci. 2011 Apr 27;31(17):6587-94. PubMed.
  12. . Liraglutide can reverse memory impairment, synaptic loss and reduce plaque load in aged APP/PS1 mice, a model of Alzheimer's disease. Neuropharmacology. 2013 Aug 21; PubMed.
  13. . Prophylactic liraglutide treatment prevents amyloid plaque deposition, chronic inflammation and memory impairment in APP/PS1 mice. Behav Brain Res. 2015 Oct 15;293:96-106. Epub 2015 Jul 20 PubMed.
  14. . Restoration of cerebral and systemic microvascular architecture in APP/PS1 transgenic mice following treatment with Liraglutide™. Microcirculation. 2015 Feb;22(2):133-45. PubMed.
  15. . Long-Term Treatment with Liraglutide, a Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 (GLP-1) Receptor Agonist, Has No Effect on β-Amyloid Plaque Load in Two Transgenic APP/PS1 Mouse Models of Alzheimer's Disease. PLoS One. 2016;11(7):e0158205. Epub 2016 Jul 15 PubMed.
  16. . Liraglutide Reduces Vascular Damage, Neuronal Loss, and Cognitive Impairment in a Mixed Murine Model of Alzheimer's Disease and Type 2 Diabetes. Front Aging Neurosci. 2021;13:741923. Epub 2021 Dec 16 PubMed.
  17. . Liraglutide Improves Water Maze Learning and Memory Performance While Reduces Hyperphosphorylation of Tau and Neurofilaments in APP/PS1/Tau Triple Transgenic Mice. Neurochem Res. 2017 Aug;42(8):2326-2335. Epub 2017 Apr 6 PubMed.
  18. . Subcutaneous administration of liraglutide ameliorates learning and memory impairment by modulating tau hyperphosphorylation via the glycogen synthase kinase-3β pathway in an amyloid β protein induced alzheimer disease mouse model. Eur J Pharmacol. 2016 Jul 15;783:23-32. Epub 2016 Apr 27 PubMed.
  19. . The GLP-1 receptor agonist liraglutide reduces pathology-specific tau phosphorylation and improves motor function in a transgenic hTauP301L mouse model of tauopathy. Brain Res. 2016 Mar 1;1634:158-70. Epub 2015 Dec 31 PubMed.
  20. . Liraglutide Ameliorates Hyperhomocysteinemia-Induced Alzheimer-Like Pathology and Memory Deficits in Rats via Multi-molecular Targeting. Neurosci Bull. 2019 Aug;35(4):724-734. Epub 2019 Jan 10 PubMed.
  21. . The diabetes drug liraglutide reverses cognitive impairment in mice and attenuates insulin receptor and synaptic pathology in a non-human primate model of Alzheimer's disease. J Pathol. 2018 May;245(1):85-100. Epub 2018 Apr 2 PubMed.
  22. . Neuroprotective effects of lixisenatide and liraglutide in the 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine mouse model of Parkinson's disease. Neuroscience. 2015 Sep 10;303:42-50. Epub 2015 Jul 2 PubMed.
  23. . Characterization of liraglutide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist, in rat partial and full nigral 6-hydroxydopamine lesion models of Parkinson's disease. Brain Res. 2016 Sep 1;1646:354-365. Epub 2016 May 24 PubMed.
  24. . Sitagliptin and liraglutide reversed nigrostriatal degeneration of rodent brain in rotenone-induced Parkinson's disease. Inflammopharmacology. 2017 Jun;25(3):369-382. Epub 2017 Mar 4 PubMed.
  25. . Role of liraglutide in brain repair promotion through Sirt1-mediated mitochondrial improvement in stroke. J Cell Physiol. 2020 Mar;235(3):2986-3001. Epub 2019 Sep 18 PubMed.
  26. . Liraglutide provides neuroprotection by regulating autophagy through the AMPK-FOXO3 signaling pathway in a spinal contusion injury rat model. Neurosci Lett. 2020 Feb 16;720:134747. Epub 2020 Jan 9 PubMed.
  27. . Neuroprotective Effects and Treatment Potential of Incretin Mimetics in a Murine Model of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. Front Cell Dev Biol. 2019;7:356. Epub 2020 Jan 10 PubMed.
  28. . Brain uptake pharmacokinetics of incretin receptor agonists showing promise as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease therapeutics. Biochem Pharmacol. 2020 Oct;180:114187. Epub 2020 Aug 2 PubMed. Correction.

Other Citations

  1. exendin-4

External Citations

  1. clinicaltrials.gov
  2. clinicaltrials.gov

Further Reading

Papers

  1. . Glucagon-like Peptide-1 and the Central/Peripheral Nervous System: Crosstalk in Diabetes. Trends Endocrinol Metab. 2017 Feb;28(2):88-103. Epub 2016 Oct 27 PubMed.
  2. . Liraglutide and its Neuroprotective Properties-Focus on Possible Biochemical Mechanisms in Alzheimer's Disease and Cerebral Ischemic Events. Int J Mol Sci. 2019 Feb 28;20(5) PubMed.
  3. . Age-related hyperinsulinemia leads to insulin resistance in neurons and cell-cycle-induced senescence. Nat Neurosci. 2019 Nov;22(11):1806-1819. Epub 2019 Oct 21 PubMed.
  4. . Prolonged Drug-Releasing Fibers Attenuate Alzheimer's Disease-like Pathogenesis. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2018 Oct 31;10(43):36693-36702. Epub 2018 Oct 22 PubMed.
  5. . Glucagon-like Peptide-1 and the Central/Peripheral Nervous System: Crosstalk in Diabetes. Trends Endocrinol Metab. 2017 Feb;28(2):88-103. Epub 2016 Oct 27 PubMed.
  6. . The GLP-1 Receptor Agonist Liraglutide Improves Memory Function and Increases Hippocampal CA1 Neuronal Numbers in a Senescence-Accelerated Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease. J Alzheimers Dis. 2015 Jun 26;46(4):877-88. PubMed.
  7. . The Diabetes Drug Liraglutide Ameliorates Aberrant Insulin Receptor Localisation and Signalling in Parallel with Decreasing Both Amyloid-β Plaque and Glial Pathology in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease. Neuromolecular Med. 2012 Sep 21; PubMed.
  8. . Chronic treatment with the GLP1 analogue liraglutide increases cell proliferation and differentiation into neurons in an AD mouse model. PLoS One. 2013;8(3):e58784. PubMed.
  9. . Brain insulin resistance: role in neurodegenerative disease and potential for targeting. Expert Opin Investig Drugs. 2020 Apr;29(4):333-348. Epub 2020 Mar 16 PubMed.
  10. . Glucagon-like Peptide-1 and the Central/Peripheral Nervous System: Crosstalk in Diabetes. Trends Endocrinol Metab. 2017 Feb;28(2):88-103. Epub 2016 Oct 27 PubMed.
  11. . Antidiabetic Drugs in Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord. 2020;49(5):423-434. Epub 2020 Oct 20 PubMed.
  12. . The Dual GLP-1/GIP Receptor Agonist DA4-JC Shows Superior Protective Properties Compared to the GLP-1 Analogue Liraglutide in the APP/PS1 Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease. Am J Alzheimers Dis Other Demen. 2020 Jan-Dec;35:1533317520953041. PubMed.
  13. . Liraglutide Attenuates Aβ42 Generation in APPswe/SH-SY5Y Cells Through the Regulation of Autophagy. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2020;16:1817-1825. Epub 2020 Jul 27 PubMed.
  14. . Clinical Evidence for GLP-1 Receptor Agonists in Alzheimer's Disease: A Systematic Review. J Alzheimers Dis Rep. 2024;8(1):777-789. Epub 2024 May 7 PubMed.
  15. . Glucagon-like peptide-1 class drugs show clear protective effects in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease clinical trials: A revolution in the making?. Neuropharmacology. 2024 Aug 1;253:109952. Epub 2024 Apr 25 PubMed.
  16. . Antidiabetic agents as a novel treatment for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Ageing Res Rev. 2023 Aug;89:101979. Epub 2023 Jun 14 PubMed.
  17. . A Cholecystokinin Analogue Ameliorates Cognitive Deficits and Regulates Mitochondrial Dynamics via the AMPK/Drp1 Pathway in APP/PS1 Mice. J Prev Alzheimers Dis. 2024;11(2):382-401. PubMed.