Pre-admission glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) and mortality from coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19): A systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression

AIMS: GLP-1RA has many beneficial properties, including anti-inflammatory, anti-obesogenic, pulmonary protective effects as well as beneficial impact on gut microbiome. However, the evidence regarding the benefit of GLP-1RA in Covid-19 patients with diabetes is still unclear. This study sought to analyze the benefit of pre-admission use of GLP-1RA in altering the mortality outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients with diabetes mellitus. METHODS: Using specific keywords, we comprehensively searched the potential articles on PubMed, Europe PMC, and medRxiv database until June 12th, 2021. All published studies on Covid-19 and GLP-1RA were retrieved. Statistical analysis was conducted using Review Manager 5.4 and Comprehensive Meta-Analysis version 3 software. RESULTS: A total of 9 studies with 19,660 diabetes mellitus patients who were infected by SARS-CoV-2 were included in the meta-analysis. Our data suggested that pre-admission use of GLP-1RA was associated with reduction in mortality rate from Covid-19 in patients with diabetes mellitus (OR 0.53; 95 %CI: 0.43–0.66, p < 0.00001, I(2) = 0%, random-effect modelling). Further analysis showed that the associations were not influenced by age (p = 0.213), gender (p = 0.421), hypertension (p = 0.131), cardiovascular disease (p = 0.293), nor the use of metformin (p = 0.189) and insulin (p = 0.117). CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that pre-admission use of GLP-1RA may offer beneficial effects on Covid-19 mortality in patients with diabetes mellitus. However, more randomized clinical trials are required to confirm this conclusion.