People who take certain blood sugar-lowering medications for type 2 diabetes may benefit from their neuroprotective effects. This emerges from new research in which theBiomarkers for Alzheimer's diseasecalled amyloid was studied in the brains of diabetics. The results also show that the so-called dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors promote the cognitive abilities of patients.
Neuroprotection possible through blood sugar-lowering drugs?
In people with type 2 diabetes, the body no longer uses insulin efficiently to control blood sugar levels. Inhibitors of dipeptidyl peptidase 4, also called gliptins, are used when other blood sugar-lowering medications do not work. However, such therapy can only help if the patient combines the medication with appropriate diet and exercise. The new study has shown that taking blood sugar-lowering drugs causes low levels of amyloid in areas of the brain involved in Alzheimer's disease. The study authors performed brain scans on the participants to measure the amount of amyloid in the brain. They found that people with diabetes who took such medications had a lower average amount of amyloid plaques in the brain. All participants took a common thinking and memory test called the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) an average of every 12 months for 2.5 years.
However, researchers also considered other factors that could influence certain test results. Nevertheless, they found that the annual results of the subjects taking inhibitors were better than the control group. The new findings raise the possibility that blood sugar-lowering drugs may be beneficial for people without diabetes who have thinking and memory problems. However, more research is needed to show whether blood sugar-lowering medications can have neuroprotective properties in all people. Another limitation of the research was that there was no data available showing accumulation of amyloid in the participants' brains over time. Furthermore, the authors point out thatthis studydoes not show cause and effect, but only suggests an association.
