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Updated: May 16, 2025

High-Efficiency Generation of Antigen-Specific Primary Mouse Cytotoxic T Cells for Functional Testing in an Autoimmune Diabetes Model
Published on: August 16, 2019
Exploring glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists as potential disease-modifying agents in autoimmune diseases
Yuanyuan Yang1, Wencong Liu2, Zechang Zhang1
1School of Public Health, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China.
Background:
Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonists are emerging with therapeutic agents for the treatment of two of the most prevalent metabolic disorders: diabetes and obesity. However, the causal relationship between GLP-1R agonists and autoimmune diseases is still unclear.
Methods:
The available cis-eQTLs for drug target genes (GLP-1Rs) were used as proxies for exposure to GLP-1R agonists. Obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) were used as positive controls to ensure the reliability of the genetic instrument. Mendelian randomization (MR) was performed to reveal the causal association of genetic proxy GLP-1R agonists with 18 autoimmune diseases from the IEU OpenGwas database and FinnGen database. Finally, the results of the two databases were analyzed via meta-analysis.
Results:
A total of 22 significant cis-eQTL single-nucleotide polymorphisms were included as genetic instruments. Positive control analysis revealed that GLP-1R agonists were significantly associated with obesity (OR = 0.826, p = 0.021) and T2DM (OR = 0.886, p < 0.001), which is consistent with the meta-analysis. MR analysis revealed that increased expression of the GLP-1R gene has a significant protective effect on type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), hypothyroidism, primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, the MR analysis suggested that increased expression of GLP-1R agonists may increase the risk of Graves' disease (GD), ulcerative colitis (UC) and psoriasis. Our findings were consistent with those of the meta-analysis.
Conclusions:
This study provides new insights into potential adjuvant treatments for autoimmune diseases from the perspective of genetic variation and provides evidence for the safety of GLP-1R agonists.
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