Glaser K, Glaser W, Marino L, Ruchala M, Bilotta F. Impact of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists on the incidence of atrial fibrillation. World J Cardiol 2025; 17(7): 107510 [DOI: 10.4330/wjc.v17.i7.107510]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Krzysztof Glaser, Doctorate Student, Department of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Internal Medicine, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Przybyszewskiego 49, Poznan 60-355, Poland. glaser.krzysztof@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Article-Type of This Article
Systematic Reviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Cardiol. Jul 26, 2025; 17(7): 107510 Published online Jul 26, 2025. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v17.i7.107510
Impact of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists on the incidence of atrial fibrillation
Krzysztof Glaser, Wojciech Glaser, Luca Marino, Marek Ruchala, Federico Bilotta
Krzysztof Glaser, Marek Ruchala, Department of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Internal Medicine, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznan 60-355, Poland
Wojciech Glaser, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice 40-055, Poland
Luca Marino, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome 00185, Italy
Federico Bilotta, Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Tor Vergata University, 00133 Rome, Italy
Co-corresponding authors: Krzysztof Glaser and Federico Bilotta.
Author contributions: Glaser K contributed to the introduction and the methodology; Glaser K and Glaser W were responsible for screening of abstracts and full texts, judging risk bias in the studies, acquired the data and designed the results; Glaser K and Bilotta F designed the search strategy; Glaser K, Glaser W and Bilotta F were responsible for the conceptualism and the study idea; Bilotta F coordinated the study review; Glaser K, Glaser W, Marino L, Ruchala M, and Bilotta F revised several drafts of the manuscript; all authors cowrote and revised the manuscript for intellectual content, provided their final approval for the manuscript submission, and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Krzysztof Glaser, Doctorate Student, Department of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Internal Medicine, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Przybyszewskiego 49, Poznan 60-355, Poland. glaser.krzysztof@gmail.com
Received: March 25, 2025 Revised: April 21, 2025 Accepted: June 9, 2025 Published online: July 26, 2025 Processing time: 119 Days and 14.1 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Atrial fibrillation (AF) stands as the most prevalent type of arrhythmia, affecting approximately 60 million individuals world-wide. Although antiarrhythmic drugs (AADs) remain the gold standard for AF treatment, glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) are arising as potential therapeutic alternatives.
AIM
To evaluate the impact of GLP-1 RAs on the incidence of AF.
METHODS
Inclusion criteria included systematic reviews (SRs) that based their analyses on clinical trials, observational studies, controlled trials and network meta-analyses. A total of 8 SRs were selected for data extraction, focusing on semaglutide, liraglutide and dulaglutide. Additionally, the effects of GLP-1 RAs on AF incidence were compared with those of sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors.
RESULTS
Findings indicate that semaglutide, evaluated in the largest patient cohort across the 8 SRs, consistently reduced AF incidence. However, dulaglutide and liraglutide exhibited inconsistent effects. Notably, as opposed to variable outcomes associated with GLP-1 RAs, SGLT2 inhibitors a class of antidiabetic agents with weight-reducing properties exhibit significant cardiovascular benefits, including reductions in both AF and atrial flutter.
CONCLUSION
GLP-1 RAs emerge as a promising and potential alternative for AADs in reduction of incidence of AF. However, further research is required to fully determine their therapeutic potential and long-term cardiovascular effects.
Core Tip: Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) are emerging as potential therapeutic agents in atrial fibrillation (AF) management due to their cardiovascular benefits and weight-reducing effects. While semaglutide has shown promise in reducing AF incidence, liraglutide and dulaglutide have yielded inconsistent results. Compared to sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors, which demonstrate more consistent AF reduction, GLP-1 RAs require further investigation to establish their role in AF prevention and management.
