Medication already taken by thousands and thousands of diabetes sufferers seem to additionally assist slash bronchial asthma assaults by as much as 70%, new British analysis reveals.
The 2 medicine are metformin, one of the extensively used diabetes medicines, and the GLP-1 class of medicines that features Ozempic, Mounjaro and Saxenda.
A research of practically 13,000 individuals with diabetes and bronchial asthma discovered that metformin lower a affected person’s odds of bronchial asthma assaults by 30%, whereas including in a GLP-1 med lowered it by one other 40%.
The results appeared to depend on extra than simply improved in blood sugar management or weight discount, the authors mentioned, and recommend that metformin and GLP-1s would possibly work immediately on airway operate to ease bronchial asthma.
All in all, the findings “suggest potential for repurposing anti-diabetic drugs to much needed alternative treatments for asthma,” mentioned a crew led by Chloe Bloom. She’s a senior lecturer in respiratory epidemiology at Imperial Faculty London.
Her crew printed its findings Nov. 18 in JAMA Inner Medication.
Because the researchers defined, there’s lengthy been good motive to suspect that metformin would possibly enhance asthmatics’ respiratory well being. The drug has anti-inflammatory results, they mentioned, and it additionally seems to reverse a few of the modifications in airways and the “hyper-responsiveness” of airways that bronchial asthma brings.
The info on GLP-1s reveals related results: The identical mobile receptors that the medicine work on within the mind are discovered within the lungs, and GLP-1s are additionally thought to calm airway hyper-responsiveness.
However would any of this present up in a real-world research of sufferers?
To seek out out, Bloom’s crew tracked the hospital data of about 12,700 sort 2 diabetes sufferers who additionally had bronchial asthma, searching for incidents of bronchial asthma assaults. In addition they tracked every sufferers’ use of varied diabetes medicines. Information was collected from 2004 to 2020.
The outcomes have been spectacular.
“Metformin was associated with a lowered risk of asthma attacks by approximately 30%,” the researchers discovered. When sufferers have been additionally prescribed a GLP-1 as an add-on remedy, that was “associated with an additional lowered risk of approximately 40%,” they added.
Trying nearer on the information, Bloom’s crew discovered that modifications in blood sugar management or weight whereas on the medicine had little to do with the connection of metformin and GLP-1 use to enhancements in bronchial asthma.
They be aware that half of individuals with bronchial asthma of their research have been additionally chubby or overweight and prone to having recognized or undiagnosed sort 2 diabetes.
So, the findings carry up a probably thrilling new chance: Giving metformin or a GLP-1 to individuals with bronchial asthma to assist deal with the respiration dysfunction and any underlying diabetes.
There could also be “a benefit of [this type of] early pharmacological intervention for adults with asthma and metabolic dysfunction,” Bloom’s group concluded.
They are saying additional analysis, together with scientific trials, is warranted to substantiate the advantages seen on this research and to higher perceive how diabetes medicine might enhance bronchial asthma care.
Extra data:
Bohee Lee et al, Antidiabetic Treatment and Bronchial asthma Assaults, JAMA Inner Medication (2024). DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2024.5982
To seek out out extra about bronchial asthma therapies, head to the Bronchial asthma and Allergy Basis of America.
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Diabetes meds metformin and GLP-1s may curb bronchial asthma, analysis finds (2024, November 18)
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