Tirzepatide Reduces Mortality and Heart, Kidney Risks in T2DM

For patients with type 2 diabetes, treatment with tirzepatide, a dual glucagon-like peptide 1 and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide receptor agonist, is linked to reduced risks of all-cause mortality and adverse cardiovascular and kidney events compared to treatment with glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RA). This conclusion is derived from a study published on August 12, 2024, in JAMA Network Open.

The research was conducted by Min-Hsiang Chuang, M.D., from Chi Mei Medical Center in Tainan, Taiwan, along with his colleagues. They carried out a retrospective cohort study utilizing data from the U.S. Collaborative Network of TriNetX. The study focused on individuals aged 18 years or older with type 2 diabetes who began treatment with either tirzepatide or GLP-1 RA between June 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023. The dataset comprised 14,834 patients treated with tirzepatide and 125,474 patients treated with GLP-1 RA.

The findings indicated that 0.6 percent of patients in the tirzepatide group and 1.1 percent of patients in the GLP-1 RA group died after a median follow-up period of 10.5 months. Tirzepatide treatment was associated with a significantly lower risk of all-cause mortality, major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs), the composite of MACEs and all-cause mortality, kidney events, acute kidney injury, and major adverse kidney events. The adjusted hazard ratios were 0.58 for all-cause mortality, 0.80 for MACEs, 0.76 for the composite of MACEs and all-cause mortality, 0.52 for kidney events, 0.78 for acute kidney injury, and 0.54 for major adverse kidney events.

In addition to these benefits, tirzepatide was associated with more substantial decreases in glycated hemoglobin and body weight compared to GLP-1 RA. The treatment differences were −0.34 percentage points for glycated hemoglobin and −2.9 kg for body weight.

The researchers suggest that these findings support the inclusion of tirzepatide in therapeutic strategies for managing type 2 diabetes, emphasizing its potential to improve current clinical practice.