Science with Sandra – looking at Liraglutide

Hello and welcome to Science with Sandra!

For this edition I would like to highlight a poster that Dr. Dunja Piljac and Dr. Ante Piljac shared at the 9th Global Symposium on Ketogenic Therapies and the 5th European GLUT1 Meeting.

Drs. Piljac are physicians working in Croatia and they are also the parents of one of our loved ones with GLUT1. You can see the poster below.

What is Liraglutide?

It is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analogue that mimics the action of the natural hormone GLP-1, which regulates blood sugar levels, appetite, and metabolism. GLP-1 analogues are typically used to treat Type 2 diabetes and obesity.

Drs. Piljac based their poster in the clinical study done by Gejl et al. described in this publication: “Blood-Brain Glucose Transfer in Alzheimer’s disease: Effect of GLP-1 Analog Treatment”. This study looked at people with Alzheimer’s disease, where it has been shown that the GLUT1 transporter expression is reduced and therefore, the brain has trouble getting enough glucose. This reduction of GLUT1 contributes to worsening brain metabolism and cognitive decline.

Gejl et al., tested whether liraglutide, could help. Over six months, patients treated with liraglutide showed a significant increase in the brain’s glucose transport capacity (Tmax), essentially restoring it to levels seen in healthy people. In contrast, patients given placebo did not improve.

This increase suggests that liraglutide helps by boosting GLUT1 activity or numbers at the blood–brain barrier, improving glucose delivery to the brain. Importantly, this prevented the usual decline in brain glucose use and was linked with better cognitive outcomes compared to placebo.

The goal of Drs. Piljac by sharing their poster, in their own words, “is to bring attention to this possible therapeutic approach so that others in the scientific community might take it further – or decide it’s not a viable path. We are not advocating for one outcome over the other, we just want to contribute to another perspective, coming outside of neurology”.

We thank Dr. Dunja Piljac and Dr. Ante Piljac for sharing this poster with the community and for raising awareness about this possible therapeutic avenue.

Thank you for visiting our blog and please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected] if you have any questions.