Weight loss drugs may protect against heart failure

by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Andrew Zinin

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Weight-loss drugs known as GLP-1s may help protect against heart failure even at doses too low to produce significant weight loss, according to a laboratory study led by Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University investigators.

"Our findings provide a strong mechanistic rationale for studying GLP-1 medicines as potential treatments for heart failure," said David Lefer, Ph.D., director of translational research in the Department of Cardiac Surgery in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai.

The study, published in the European Heart Journal, investigated the drugs' effects on heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. The incurable disorder, in which the heart pumps out blood normally but is too stiff to fill properly, accounts for more than half of the roughly 6.7 million heart failure cases in the U.S. each year, according to the American College of Cardiology.

Investigators administered low doses of semaglutide, a GLP-1 drug, to laboratory rats and minipigs with a condition that mimics a subtype of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction that is associated with obesity. They found that while the drug didn't reduce overall body weight, it significantly reduced the heart's stiffness.

The drug also reduced heart enlargement and tissue scarring. The researchers were encouraged to observe that the drug also cleared damaging fat around the heart and liver.

"This opens the door to potentially prescribing GLP-1s at low doses to achieve major cardiovascular protection while minimizing common side effects," said Traci Goodchild, Ph.D., professor of cardiac surgery at the Smidt Heart Institute and co-senior author of the study.

The authors emphasized that the study's findings do not diminish the well-established benefits of weight loss for the heart. Instead, the results indicate that GLP-1 therapy may provide additional, direct cardiovascular benefits independent of weight loss.

"These data suggest that low-dose semaglutide has powerful protective effects on the heart independent of its impact on weight loss," said Mahmoud Elbatreek, Ph.D., a project scientist in the Department of Cardiac Surgery in the Smidt Heart Institute and lead author of the study.

Publication details

Mahmoud H Elbatreek et al., Semaglutide, independent of weight loss, attenuates cardiac and hepatic remodelling in experimental heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, European Heart Journal (2026). DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehag732

Journal information: European Heart Journal

Key medical concepts

Heart failure with preserved ejection fractionSemaglutideWeight Loss

Clinical categories

CardiologyCommon illnesses & PreventionClinical pharmacology Provided by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Who's behind this story?

Sadie Harley

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