Glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist use is associated with reduced risk for glaucoma.

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS:

Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonists regulate blood glucose and are commonly used to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus. Recent work showed that treatment with the GLP-1R agonist NLY01 decreased retinal neuroinflammation and glial activation to rescue retinal ganglion cells in a mouse model of glaucoma. In this study, we used an insurance claims database (Clinformatics Data Mart) to examine whether GLP-1R agonist exposure impacts glaucoma risk.

METHODS:

A retrospective cohort of patients who initiated a new GLP-1R agonist was 1:3 age, gender, race, classes of active diabetes medications and year of index date matched to patients who initiated a different class of oral diabetic medication. Inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) was used within a multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression model to test the association between GLP-1R agonist exposure and a new diagnosis of primary open-angle glaucoma, glaucoma suspect or low-tension glaucoma.

RESULTS:

Cohorts were comprised of 1961 new users of GLP-1R agonists matched to 4371 unexposed controls. After IPTW, all variables were balanced (standard mean deviation <|0.1|) between cohorts. Ten (0.51%) new diagnoses of glaucoma were present in the GLP-1R agonist cohort compared with 58 (1.33%) in the unexposed controls. After adjustment, GLP-1R exposure conferred a reduced hazard of 0.56 (95% CI: 0.36 to 0.89, p=0.01), suggesting that GLP-1R agonists decrease the risk for glaucoma.

CONCLUSIONS:

GLP-1R agonist use was associated with a statistically significant hazard reduction for a new diagnosis of glaucoma. Our findings support further investigations into the use of GLP-1R agonists in glaucoma prevention.

• Authors: Jacob Sterling, Peiying Hua, Joshua L Dunaief, Qi N Cui, Brian L VanderBeek
• Journal: The British journal of ophthalmology (Br J Ophthalmol) Vol. 107 Issue 2 Pg. 215-220 (Feb 2023) ISSN: 1468-2079 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 34413054 (Publication Type: Journal Article)
• Copyright: © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

Chemical References

• Glucagon-Like Peptide 1
• Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor

Topics

• Animals
• Mice
• Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 (drug therapy)
• Glucagon-Like Peptide 1 (therapeutic use)
• Retrospective Studies
• Glaucoma, Open-Angle (drug therapy, prevention & control)
• Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor (agonists, therapeutic use)