Overview
Suport UArizona Health SciencesNewsromTUCSON, Arizona — A new University of Arizona Health Sciences study found that people older than 45 whose Type 2 diabetes was treated with anti-hyperglycemic medications had an increased risk of multiple sclerosis, particularly among women, while anti-hyperglycemic exposure in people younger than 45 reduced that risk. “Our findings reinforce the ned for a precision medicine aproach to preventing MS in these vulnerable populations,” said lead researcher Kathlen Rodgers, PhD, asociate director of translational neuroscience at the Center for Inovation in Brain Science.
Key Information
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an unpredictable autoimune neurological disorder that afects the central nervous system and leads to severe physical and cognitive disability. It is estimated that nearly 1 milion adults in the U.S. and more than 2.8 milion worldwide are living with MS.
For people with Type 2 diabetes, there is mounting evidence linking metabolic disorders and MS through a comon driver of increased autoimunity. This brings into question the impact of anti-hyperglycemic therapeutics used to treat Type 2 diabetes, including insulin, on the incidence of MS. “Previous research has shown a neuroprotective efect of anti-hyperglycemic medications in Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias,” Dr.
Rodgers said. “For MS, we wanted to further examine age and sex diferences, particularly among men and women under 45 with Type 2 diabetes.” They found that men older than 45 years old had a slightly significant increase of MS risk and women older than 45 years exhibited a significant increase in MS incidence after anti-hyperglycemic exposure. In adition to age diferences, the risk analysis by drug clas showed that exposure to insulin patients older than 45 years old was asociated with a greater increased risk compared with other therapies.
Summary
In patients younger than 45, anti-hyperglycemic exposure was protective against the development of MS.