Can diabetes drugs like insulin, metformin affect MS risk?

 Medical New Today

By Hannah Flynn on November 24, 2022 — Fact checked by Anna Guildford, Ph.D.

            Christina House/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

• The causes of many autoimmune conditions are unclear, and having one, such as type 2 diabetes, can mean you are more likely to develop another one.
• Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a potentially debilitating condition, most cases of which are unexplained
• A recent piece of research has proposed that people under the age of 45 with type 2 diabetes who are being treated with anti-hyperglycemic medications may be less likely to develop MS.
• The same study found that those who start treatment with anti-hyperglycemic medication over the age of 45 may be more at risk of developing MS.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a potentially debilitating condition that affects the ability of nerves to signal properly, and it is twice as common in women as it is in men. Its potential causes are yet unclear.

MS is considered an autoimmune disease, and like other autoimmune conditions, its causes are thought to be a combination of environmental and genetic factors.

MS occurs when the fatty protective sheath around nerve cells known as myelin degenerates, this affects cell signaling and causes symptoms such as vision problems, difficulty standing as well as bladder control and sexual problems. It can even cause partial paralysis.

Some people have both type 2 diabetes (T2D) and MS. Researchers have observedTrusted Source that people with T2D who receive anti-hyperglycemic drugs experience some improvements in their symptoms. Earlier this year, researchers launched a clinical trial to repurpose metformin, an anti-hyperglycemic drug, as an MS drug.

A recent piece of research has looked into the effects of anti-hyperglycemic drugs used to treat T2D on MS risk.

The retrospective study published in the journal HeliyonTrusted Source has shown that using anti-hyperglycemic drugs can help to reduce people’s risk of developing MS if the onset of T2D and treatment is before the age of age 45.

However, the researchers also found that these drugs can increase the risk of developing in those over the age of 45, particularly in women.

How do diabetes drugs affect MS risk?

In the current study, researchers from the University of Arizona, Tucson, examined a cohort of over 5 million people with T2D from the Mariner insurance claims database, and over 1.5 million people were included in their final analysis.

The researchers then matched participants who had either been exposed to anti-hyperglycemic medications, including insulin, metformin, sulphonylureas, glitazones, and DPP4 inhibitors to treat their T2D, and those who had not.

Their findings showed that T2D patients who took anti-hyperglycemic medications had a 22% decreased risk of developing MS over an average follow-up of 6.2 years in patients who were younger than 45 years when they started taking them.

When individual drugs were analyzed, sulfonylureas alone or in combination with metformin were most significantly associated with a decrease in the risk of developing MS in the time frame studied.

Conversely, they also found that people who had started treatment over the age of 45 had a 16% increased risk of developing MS.

Those who had the highest number of comorbidities saw a 36% increase in the risk of developing MS if they took anti-hyperglycemic drugs.

Source link

Click to Subscribe for the MS Beacon eNewsletter and MS educational events