Vascular protective effects of diabetes medications that mimic or increase glucagon-like peptide-1 activity.

The incidence of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is increasing rapidly worldwide and is a strong risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) events. Although hyperglycemia is associated with increased CVD, intensive glycemic control with current diabetes medications has failed in recent large clinical trials to reduce macrovascular disease, demonstrating that intensive glucose control alone is insufficient to reduce major CVD events. A new approach to lowering glucose takes advantage of the incretin system and medications that raise or mimic glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1).