Scientists Discover New Life-Saving Benefit of Ozempic and Semaglutide
FEBRUARY 10, 2024
A nationwide study in Sweden indicates that GLP1 agonists, such as Ozempic, could lower the risk of cirrhosis and liver cancer in individuals with type 2 diabetes and chronic liver disease, suggesting a new, effective treatment option for preventing severe liver diseases.
A nationwide study conducted by the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, published in the journal Gut, indicates that the use of Ozempic and similar GLP1 agonists is linked to a lower likelihood of cirrhosis and liver cancer in individuals with type 2 diabetes and chronic liver disease.
GLP1 agonists like Ozempic reduce blood sugar levels and are mainly used to treat type 2 diabetes. However, as the drug also reduces appetite, it is now increasingly used to treat obesity and has become a popular weight-loss drug.
Reduced risk of liver damage
Results from early clinical trials also suggest that GLP1 agonists may reduce the risk of liver damage. Therefore, researchers at Karolinska Institutet included all people in Sweden with chronic liver disease and type 2 diabetes in a register-based study. They then compared the risk of severe liver damage in those who were treated with GLP1 agonists and those who were not. The results show that those who took the drug for a long period of time had a lower risk of later developing more severe forms of liver disease such as cirrhosis and liver cancer.
According to the researchers, this suggests that GLP1 agonists could be an effective treatment to avoid severe liver disease in people with concurrent type 2 diabetes.
“Fatty liver disease is estimated to affect up to one in five people in Sweden, many of whom have type 2 diabetes, and about one in twenty develop severe liver disease,” says first author Axel Wester, assistant professor at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge, Karolinska Institutet. “Our findings are interesting because there are currently no approved drugs to reduce this risk.”
Many of the people in the study stopped taking GLP1 agonists, resulting in a lack of protective effect. However, those who continued taking their medication over a ten-year period were half as likely to develop severe liver disease.
