The active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, a drug called semaglutide, can have direct beneficial effects on the heart within weeks, in addition to the longer-term benefits of losing weight, an animal study has shown.
The finding suggests that people with heart disease who don’t have type 2 diabetes or obesity, which semaglutide is primarily used to treat, might also benefit from taking this kind of drug. “It may be that we’re missing a large population of people that could benefit,” says at Brown University in Rhode Island.
The findings also suggest that people undergoing heart surgery could benefit if given GLP-1 agonists, the class of drugs that semaglutide belongs to, for at least a few weeks after their operation.
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GLP-1 agonists were initially developed as a treatment for type 2 diabetes, but turned out to lead to weight loss as well. They have also been found to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes, which is expected when people lose weight.
But some of the cardiovascular benefits kick in even before people lose weight, says Stone, which suggests that these benefits aren’t just a result of weight loss. To help confirm this, his team has looked at the effect of semaglutide on the hearts of pigs.
“We’re going back to animal models to try to figure out the mechanism,” says team member , also at Brown University. Normally, animal studies precede human ones, says Sellke. “So it’s kind of backwards, in a way.”
The team placed rings around one of the arteries supplying the heart in 17 pigs, reducing blood flow, as occurs in heart disease. Eight of the pigs were given an oral form of semaglutide after the procedure, while the others weren’t.
After five weeks, the team found clear differences between the two groups. In those given semaglutide, there was “markedly improved”��blood flow to the affected area of the heart, both at rest and under stress, which suggests that other coronary arteries had sprouted new connections. There was also “markedly reduced cell death” in the heart muscle and less scarring.
There have already been a number of studies looking at whether giving people GLP-1 agonists after heart surgery is beneficial, with some showing little or no benefit.
But these studies have involved giving the drug only as a single dose or several times over just a few days, says Stone. “We have good evidence that a longer duration of drug may be needed than has been currently studied.”
“I think it is clear that weight loss almost always helps the heart,” says at the University of Michigan. “Nevertheless, I would say that this study adds to a growing body of evidence that there is another mechanism by which GLP-1 agonists improve cardiovascular endpoints that is beyond weight loss.”
Stone is now doing further studies to better understand the mechanisms involved.
Semaglutide could have other beneficial effects, including reducing immediate and long-term pain, helping people quit smoking, cutting how much alcohol people drink and easing depression.
Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology
