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Liraglutide, sold under the brand name Saxenda, is already prescribed on the NHS as a weight loss medication
Rebecca WhittakerTuesday 02 December 2025 20:58 GMTComments
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Weight loss jabs could be used to treat Alzheimer’s disease after a study found the drug may slow cognitive decline.
Liraglutide, sold under the brand name Saxenda, is prescribed to control blood sugar and aid weight loss.
It is a GLP-1 agonist and works like Wegovy and Ozempic by mimicking the natural hormone which regulates blood sugar, appetite and digestion.
But researchers at Imperial College London have found the once-a-day jabs may also slow cognitive decline in Alzheimer's patients by 50 per cent.
“We think liraglutide is protecting the brain possibly by reducing inflammation, lowering insulin resistance and the toxic effects of Alzheimer’s biomarkers or improving how the brain’s nerve cells communicate,” Paul Edison, professor of neuroscience at Imperial’s Department of Brain Sciences, explained following previous research.
For the study published in the journal Nature Medicine, 169 participants with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s but no diabetes were split into two groups.
A study suggests weight loss jabs may reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s (Alamy/PA)One group received daily injections of liraglutide, the other had a placebo for a year.
A series of brain scans after the follow-up period revealed the drug slows brain volume loss.
“Although the improvement started to appear before six months, it was more obvious by 52 weeks, suggesting that GLP-1 analogs may positively influence cognition in Alzheimer’s disease over a prolonged period of treatment,” the study authors said.
But the researchers found liraglutide did not prevent the decline of brain glucose metabolism - a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease.
Although researchers did not note why the weight loss jab helped to slow brain volume loss by half, they did explain it has previously been found to reduce inflammation in the brain and the build up of one toxic protein, tau.
A build-up of the abnormal tau leads to “tangles” that cause cell damage and inflammation, contributing to Alzheimer's disease symptoms.
Just like Wegovy, Saxenda, which is manufactured by Novo Nordisk, is available on the NHS as a weight loss treatment for those with a BMI over 30.
But study authors stress more research is needed to establish if the weight loss jab could be used long-term to tackle Alzheimer's disease.
The study follows a warning from the World Health Organization (WHO) that fewer than one in ten people who could benefit from weight loss jabs can access them due to high costs and supply issues associated with the drugs.
In its first guidelines on the drugs WHO suggest these drugs should be used long-term to support people living with obesity in addition to healthy diet and regular exercise.
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