Marios Georgakis: GLP-1 Receptor Agonism as a Promising Approach for cSVD
Marios Georgakis, Research Group Leader and Physician at LMU Munich, Visiting Scientist at Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University, shared on LinkedIn about a recent article he and his colleagues co-authored, adding:
”In our new paper, we leverage human genetic data to provide support for GLP-1 receptor agonism as a promising approach for lowering the burden of cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD).
cSVD is a major unmet need in neurology with no available disease-modifying therapies.
It is a devastating and common aging-related pathology that is associated with stroke, dementia, functional decline, and mortality.
Given the strong efficacy of GLP-1 receptor agonists in reducing atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, and the known impact of diabetes and obesity on the microvasculature, we explored if human genetic data support for their repurposing for cSVD.
Using genetic variants in the GLP1R locus that mimicked the HbA1c- or BMI-lowering effects of GLP-1 receptor agonists, we ran drug target Mendelian randomization and found associations with
- Lower risk of lacunar (or small vessel) stroke, a clinical cSVD manifestation
- Lower volume of white matter hyperintensities, the most widely used imaging biomarker of cSVD.
These findings provide human genetic support for evaluating GLP-1 receptor agonists in clinical trials targeting cSVD.”
Title: Genetically Simulated GLP-1 Receptor Agonism and Cerebral Small Vessel Disease
Authors: Panagiotis Zangas, Murad Omarov, Marios K. Georgakis
Read the Full Article on Neurology Genetics

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