The glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist liraglutide is the veryfirst in its class to program advantages in young kids with weightproblems, according to results from the stage 3a SCALE-KIDS trial provided at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) 2024 Annual Meeting and allatonce released in The New England Journal of Medicine.
After a year of treatment, kids who gotten day-to-day liraglutide injections had a 5.8% decrease in body mass index (BMI), while those getting placebo knowledgeable a 1.6% boost in BMI. Almost half of the kids who got liraglutide had at least a 5% decrease in BMI.
Body fat was not straight determined in the trial, however kids taking liraglutide likewise had little enhancements in diastolic blood pressure and A1c.
The authors acknowledge there is no agreement on what makesup a medically significant modification in BMI in kids however note that 5% decrease hasactually been associated with enhancement in obesity-related health conditions.
BMI corresponds “quite well” with portion body fat in kids with serious weightproblems, lead author Claudia Fox, MD, MPH, codirector of the Center for Pediatric Obesity Medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School, informed Medscape Medical News.
“I am really positive that this BMI decrease mostlikely equates into considerable decrease in body fat mass,” stated Fox, who is likewise partner teacher at the school’s department of pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition.
However, since body structure was not determined, “the possibility of a loss of muscle mass, at least atfirst, cannot be omitted,” compose Timothy Barrett, MBBS, PhD, and Julian Hamilton-Shield, MBChB, MD, of the College of Medicine and Health at the University of Birmingham and Bristol Medical School at the University of Bristol, UK, in an accompanying editorial.
Barrett and Hamilton-Shield additional disagree with Fox, keepinginmind: “We understand that BMI is a bad surrogate for fat mass.”
Even so, the editorialists acknowledge that “the decrease in the BMI standard-deviation rating of 0.7 in the liraglutide group” in the trial “is mostlikely to enhance metabolic variables such as insulin levelofsensitivity and hepatic steatosis.”
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized liraglutide in 2020 for teenagers aged 12-17. The FDA authorized the GLP-1 agonist semaglutide (Wegovy, Novo Nordisk) in 2023 for the verysame age group. However, no GLP-1 agonist hasactually been authorized for kids under age 12.
Liraglutide might deal a brand-new tool for moreyouthful kids, stated Fox. “Kids who have extreme types of weightproblems are desperate for intervention,” she stated, keepinginmind that for lotsof, more workout and altering dietplan are not the response.
Fox stated she has had clients with fatty liver illness and highbloodpressure at age 9 and had a 10-year-old with a suicide effort since of bullying.
Trial Details
Of a overall of 82 kids, 56 were randomized to liraglutide and 26 to placebo. Children who weighed more than 45 kg were sta