Systematic Review of GLP-1 Analogues—Liraglutide for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Objective To assess the efficacy and safety of GLP-1 analogues — Liraglutide for T2DM. Methods Based on the principles and methods of Cochrane systematic reviews, electronic database searching was performed on search The Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMBASE, The National Research Register, Current Controlled Trials, CBM, CNKI, VIP, and the data from the beginning of the database to June 8^th, 2011 were included. Randomized controlled trials（RCT） concerning Liraglutide for T2DM were selected and assessed for the methodological quality, and the extracted data were performed meta-anlysis by statistical software RevMan 5.0. Result Eight RCTs involving 3 351 patients met the inclusion criteria. Compared with control, Liraglutide showed significant positive effects on lowering hemoglobin A1c,FPG. The effect sizes were SMD=-5.34,95%CI（-6.92,-3.75）, P<0.000 01 and SMD=-0.80,95%CI（-0.94, -0.66）, P<0.000 01 respectively. Liraglutide resulted in weight lossSMD=-0.37, 95%CI（-0.51,-0.22）,P<0.000 01. For side effects Liraglutide had a similar risk of hypoglycemia with control RR=1.2, 95%CI （0.55,2.62）, P=0.64. Adverse effects（AEs） were reported in included studies, the most of which were gastrointestinal reaction. And these events were mostly slight and transient. It suggested that Liraglutide was safe. Conclusions As a new incretin analogues,Liraglutide is more effective in lowering blood glucose than control. Furthermore, it resulted in weight loss and had similar risk of hypoglycemia. However its gastrointestinal reactions are more common than control which are mostly slight and transient. It offers an alternative option to currently available hypoglycemic agents for patients with T2DM.