Diabetes medications linked to glaucoma prevention
Retrospective data from more than 5,000 patients shows that GLP-1R
agonists may be protective against the disease

Date:
September 20, 2021
Source:
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Summary:
Retrospective data from more than 5,000 patients shows that GLP-1R
agonists may be protective against the disease.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A popular class of diabetes medications called GLP-1R agonists (Trulicity
and Rybelsus) may also protect against glaucoma in diabetic patients,
according to a new study led by researchers in the Scheie Eye Institute
at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. The
findings were published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.


==========================================================================
The researchers looked at retrospective data of 1,961 diabetic patients
who were new users of this class of drugs and matched them to 4,371
unexposed control subjects. After 150 days on average, 10 patients in
the medicated group were newly diagnosed with glaucoma (0.5 percent)
compared to 58 patients (1.3 percent) in the control group. The findings suggest that GLP-1 receptor agonists may decrease a diabetic patient's
risk of developing glaucoma by half.

The findings are supported by a Penn Medicine study from 2020, which
found that GLP-1R agonists reduced neuroinflammation and prevented retinal ganglion cell death in mice. This class of drugs has also shown similarly protective effects against Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases in animal models, and clinical trials are underway to test the medications against neurodegenerative diseases in humans.

Glaucoma affects 3 million Americans and is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide. People with diabetes are twice as likely to develop
the eye condition.

"It was very encouraging to see that a popular diabetes medication could significantly reduce the risk of developing glaucoma, and our study
suggests that these medications warrant further study in this patient population," says Qi N. Cui, MD, PhD, with Brian VanderBeek, MD, MPH,
both assistant professors of Ophthalmology at Penn.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Pennsylvania_School_of_Medicine. Note: Content may be
edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Jacob Sterling, Peiying Hua, Joshua L Dunaief, Qi N Cui, Brian L
VanderBeek. Glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist use is
associated with reduced risk for glaucoma. British Journal
of Ophthalmology, 2021; bjophthalmol-2021-319232 DOI:
10.1136/bjophthalmol-2021-319232 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210920152003.htm

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