Ozempic and Wegovy may reduce risk of DEMENTIA, study on mice suggests – and human trials are already underway

They’re praised for their ability to burn fat, but Ozempic and Wegovy may also reduce the risk of dementia.

Researchers in China gave semaglutide, the active ingredient in the drugs, to mice with mutations linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

They found that as the compound showed improvements in learning and memory, rodents had fewer plaques in their bran compared to the control group.

The experts said the improvements in memory in the mouse model show that semaglutide “may provide a reliable strategy for effective therapy of Alzheimer’s disease” and could be used to develop new treatments in the future.

It follows clinical trials in people at risk of dementia testing whether semaglutide can reduce the amount of a certain protein associated with the disease and calm inflammation – both markers linked to a high risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Wegovy and Ozempic work by causing the body to produce a hormone called GLP-1, which is released naturally from the intestines after meals.

Since their popularity, a number of unpleasant side effects of the drugs have also emerged, including suicidal thoughts and stomach paralysis.

There is concern in the medical community that the long-term effects of Wegovy and Ozempic when used for weight loss have not been properly tested.

Obesity itself is also a risk factor for dementia, meaning that just losing weight can lower a person’s risk of developing memory disorders.

Researchers from Shanxi Medical University in China injected mice with semaglutide every other day for 30 days and then tested their memory in a series of experiments.

These results were compared to control groups of mice with the Alzheimer’s mutations that did not receive semaglutide, as well as to mice without the Alzheimer’s mutations.

The amount of amyloid beta plaques and tau tangles in the hippocampi of the rodents was also measured using brain scans.

The study found that mice treated with semaglutide showed “improved cognition.”

The mice also showed a decrease in amyloid beta plaques and tau tangles, which are hallmark signs of the dementia disease.

In Alzheimer’s patients, the presence of plaques and tangles means that glucose is not metabolized properly in the brain.

And previous research has suggested that higher blood sugar (glucose) levels are associated with a higher risk of dementia.

The Chinese scientists discovered that semaglutide can improve glucose metabolism by regulating the expression of GLUT4, a glucose transporter.

One of the ways semaglutide works is by causing the body to produce more insulin, which lowers blood sugar (glucose).

The mice then underwent a series of tasks to see how well their memories worked.

One of the tests, called a novel object recognition test, is based on rodents’ spontaneous tendency to spend more time exploring a novel object than a familiar one.

The semaglutide-treated mice were worse at recognizing when an object was new than the mice without Alzheimer’s disease, but performed better than the Alzheimer’s disease mice without semaglutide.

Another test, called the Y-maze test, is used to assess short-term memory in mice.

Mice were placed in the center of a Y-shaped maze facing the same arm and researchers watched which arm they explored.

When the mice went down a different arm than the previous two times, this was considered ‘correct’.

There was a reduction in the number of correct entries in the Alzheimer’s mice compared to the regular mice, but this was ‘partly reversed’ by the semaglutide, the researchers found.

The research was published in the journal Neuropharmacology.

Ozempic is used to treat type 2 diabetes, but is prescribed off-label by some doctors for obesity.

Wegovy, on the other hand, is approved for weight management in patients with a BMI of 30 or higher.

Dementia is the general term for a group of conditions associated with loss of memory, language and judgment.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of the disease, affecting more than six million Americans, while Lewy body dementia is the second most common form, with approximately one million people living with the condition.