Taking a hormone pill that suppresses appetite can lead to significant weight loss and may benefit people with diabetes, researchers said today.
Dr Tina Vilsboll of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and her team set out to discover whether treatment with drugs that target the "glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor" (GLP-1R) can produce weight loss in overweight or obese people.
GLP-1 is a hormone that is secreted from the intestine during meals. It helps regulate blood sugar levels and suppresses food intake and appetite.
They looked at 25 previous studies of over 6,000 patients, which gave participants the GLP-1R agonist drugs exenatide or liraglutide for a minimum of 20 weeks. Some participants had type 2 diabetes. Those taking the drugs were compared with participants on either placebo, antidiabetic drugs, or insulin.
The GLP-1R agonist drugs were linked with a 2.9 kg greater weight loss on average. The drugs also appeared to have beneficial effects on blood pressure, cholesterol, and glycaemic control, but were sometimes associated with nausea, diarrhoea, and vomiting.
Writing in the British Medical Journal, the researchers say: "The present review provides evidence that treatment with GLP-1R agonists leads to weight loss in overweight or obese patients with or without type 2 diabetes mellitus."
The treatment "should be considered in patients with diabetes who are obese or overweight", they believe.
However, in an editorial, Dr Raj Padwal of the University of Alberta, Canada, warns there are unanswered question relating to the safety of GLP-1 agonists.
"Animal studies have raised concerns of an increased risk of pancreatitis, pancreatic metaplasia, and thyroid C cell tumours," he warns.
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