Hormone may predict blood sugar response in schizophrenia
Among 39 liraglutide-treated patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and prediabetes, higher starting levels of leptin, a hormone, were linked to greater blood sugar reductions over 16 weeks.
81 participants, double-blind, placebo-controlled, registered NCT01845259
Limit: The leptin subgroup analysis was post hoc, not the trial’s original aim
Stake: Novo Nordisk, which develops liraglutide, funded the study.
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
A randomized-trial analysis examined 81 adults with prediabetes and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders who were overweight or obese and taking clozapine or olanzapine. Eligibility covered ages 18–65 and excluded diabetes. Researchers measured eight blood proteins. Participants received either the drug liraglutide, assigned to 39 people, or placebo, assigned to 42, for 16 weeks.
Among liraglutide recipients, higher starting levels of leptin, a hormone, were linked to larger reductions in blood sugar measured two hours after a 75-gram glucose drink. The researchers suggested that leptin may help predict improvements in glucose tolerance—the body’s ability to handle sugar—in this population.
Why it matters
Prediabetes is relevant to diabetes, a disease common in later life. The work addresses whether a blood marker might help identify who benefits from drugs that improve sugar handling.
Caveats
The leptin finding was an association within the drug group, not a randomized comparison of hormone levels, and needs validation in larger groups. The study excluded people with diabetes and those outside ages 18–65; the supplied material reported neither the liraglutide dose nor adverse events.
From the paper
- Result
… patients in the prediabetic group had significantly lower levels of adiponectin (mean difference in log₁₀-transformed protein concentration in pg/mL of -0.17, with 95% confidence intervals [CI] from −0.28 to −0.06, P =.004; and ) and VEGF (−0.16 log₁₀ (pg/ml), 95% CI −0.29 to −0.03, P =.019).
Quoted word for word from the full text on PubMed Central.
The paper
University of Cambridge; University of Copenhagen
Schizophrenia Bulletin Open, Jan 2020, Open access
