A direct comparison of long- and short-acting GLP-1 receptor agonists (taspoglutide once weekly and exenatide twice daily) on postprandial metabolism after 24 weeks of treatment

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Exenatide and Glucagon in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 2 participants taking part.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were teenagers, adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

Meal tolerance tests (MTT) were performed at baseline and at week 24 in a subset of Taspo10, Taspo20 and Exe patients (n = 42, 39 and 67, respectively).

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized and open-label.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Exenatide and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Being open-label, the Exenatide study did not mask who received what.

Blood samples for glucose, insulin, glucagon and C-peptide were obtained before and after (30, 60, 90, 120 and 180 min) ingestion of a standardized liquid meal.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Blood Glucose, C-Peptide, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Exenatide, Glucagon, Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor and Glucose Tolerance Test.

Author keywords: incretin therapy, insulin resistance, insulin secretion and type 2 diabetes.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and open-label study of Exenatide and Glucagon in 2 participants.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Its findings take up roughly 5 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2014 (Diabetes, obesity & metabolism), a journal based in England.

More context: the Exenatide compound page and the Glucagon compound page, all human trials.