Preliminary asthma-related outcomes following glucagon-like peptide 1 agonist therapy

The QJM has recently published reviews of novel therapies in chronic airways disease.1 There is a potentially novel role for glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) agonists in obesity-related, metabolic asthma, though clinical trial data are lacking.2 On the basis of work with other inflammatory states, we hypothesised that clinically-indicated use of GLP-1 agonists for glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) would be safe in those with concomitant asthma, potentially leading to improved asthma control and fewer asthma exacerbations.3 In a pilot observational cohort study, we prospectively identified nine patients with pulmonologist-diagnosed asthma (never-smokers) and concomitant T2DM who were about to be initiated on clinically-indicated liraglutide for T2DM in the course of routine clinical care, and assessed them for asthma-related indices at baseline and 52  weeks after initiating liraglutide. All received routine asthma care. Baseline characteristics of the study cohort are as shown (Table 1). Seven of the nine subjects who commenced therapy with liraglutide remained on therapy for the 52  week duration of the study (i.e. ‘adherent’), while two subjects (‘non-adherent’) came off liraglutide before 8 weeks due to non-asthma-related side effects (diarrhoea, epigastric discomfort, night sweats, hypoglycaemia and headaches) but were included in the analysis. At week 52 of lir aglutide therapy, the mean weight loss was 4.9 kg (5.6% of baseline mean weig...
Source: QJM - Category: Internal Medicine Source Type: research