Liraglutide boosts lipid metabolism in T2DM, but comes with more side effects

Compared with dapagliflozin, the glucagon-like peptide 1 liraglutide induces better lipid metabolism in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), a recent study has found. However, this drug also comes with more adverse events than its sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitor comparator.

The study included 60 T2DM patients who had recently been diagnosed as overweight or obese. Patients were randomly assigned to receive dapagliflozin or liraglutide. Both treatment arms also received concomitant metformin and included 30 patients each. Outcomes were waist circumference, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, and glucose and lipid metabolism parameters, assessed before and after treatment.

Both treatment arms saw significant reductions in anthropometric indices and blood pressure measurements after treatment (p<0.05 for all). Meanwhile, between-group differences for these were generally not significant, except for waist circumference, which was significantly lower in the liraglutide group.

Similar overall effects were reported for glycaemic measures, such as fasting plasma glucose, glycated haemoglobin, and insulin resistance.

In contrast, while lipid markers, such as total cholesterol and triglycerides, were significantly reduced in both arms after treatment (p<0.05), patients given liraglutide saw a significantly greater increase in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol than dapagliflozin comparators (p<0.05).

In terms of safety, adverse reactions occurred significantly more commonly in the liraglutide arm (p<0.05).

“Clinically, an appropriate treatment scheme can be chosen according to the specific conditions of the patient, such as compliance and tolerance,” the researchers said.