New research identifies a link between diabetes medications and multiple sclerosis

The Arizona University of Health Sciences study found that people over the age of 45 with type 2 diabetes who received antihyperglycemic drugs had an increased risk of multiple sclerosis, especially women, while those under 45 receiving antihyperglycemic drugs reduced this risk
.


Lead researcher Kathleen Rodgers said: "Our findings reinforce the need
for precision medicine approaches to prevent multiple sclerosis in these vulnerable populations.


Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an unpredictable autoimmune neurological disorder that affects the central nervous system, causing severe physical and cognitive impairment
.
It is estimated that nearly 1 million adults in the United States have multiple sclerosis, and more than 2.
8 million people worldwide have multiple sclerosis
.


For people with type 2 diabetes, there is growing evidence that metabolic disorders and multiple sclerosis are linked through co-drivers of autoimmune enhancement
.
This raises questions
about the impact of antihyperglycemic therapies (including insulin) used to treat type 2 diabetes on the incidence of MS.


Dr Rodgers said: "Previous studies have shown that anti-hyperglycemic drugs have neuroprotective effects
against Alzheimer's disease and other related dementias.
For multiple sclerosis, we wanted to look further at age and sex differences, particularly in men and women
under 45 years of age with type 2 diabetes.
They

found that men over the age of 45 had a slightly increased risk of multiple sclerosis after anti-hyperglycemic exposure, while women over the age of 45 had a significantly increased
incidence of multiple sclerosis after anti-hyperglycemic exposure.
In addition to age differences, risk analyses by drug class showed a greater
risk of insulin exposure in patients over 45 years of age compared to other treatments.


In patients younger than 45 years, antihyperglycemic exposure has a protective effect
on the development of multiple sclerosis.


The study utilized a database of insurance claims for 151 million participants in the United States to identify more than 5 million patients
diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and early- or late-onset multiple sclerosis.
The researchers segmented the data by age (those diagnosed with type 2 diabetes before or after age 45) and sex to decode the factors contributing to multiple sclerosis risk in both populations, especially women
over the age of 45.

Age and sex differences on anti-hyperglycemic medication exposure and risk of newly diagnosed multiple sclerosis in propensity score matched type 2 diabetics