Pleiotropic Effects of GLP-1. Cardiovascular Evidence of Effectiveness

Patients with diabetes are characterized by the development of cardiovascular complications: nephropathy, retinopathy, neuropathy, ischemia or hypertensive etc. Therefore, the cardiovascular involvement is the leading cause of death in patients with Diabetes Mellitus type 2 (DM2). Despite intensive treatment on classical factors of cardiovascular disease (blood pressure levels, LDL cholesterol, etc.), patients with diabetes have a high number of cardiovascular events and the onset and prognosis of these are related to glycemic control parameters, glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c). On the other hand, the question of the cardiovascular protective effect of some hypoglycemic treatments has been raised, asking what he has done to know more accurately about the safety and cardiovascular effects of the treatments we have today. The two most important incretin hormones are GIP (gastric inhibitory polypeptide) and GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1). Treatment based on GLP-1 is a novel weapon in T2DM that achieves a reduction in HbA1c with other metabolic effects: weight loss and extra effect in dyslipidemia and blood pressure. In the last years other beneficial actions such a protector effect against myocardium ischemia and other actions in basals were reported. In this article we will try to explain the evidence of GLP-1 treatments and its cardiovascular effects.