Liraglutide for Alzheimer’s disease . . . and other research

High dose flu vaccine and hospitalisationsWhenever flu hits the headlines, as it has this winter, attention inevitably turns to the flu vaccine.Might a higher dose be more effective in older adults?A trial set in Denmark randomised adults 65 years of age or older to receive either a high dose or standard dose quadrivalent vaccine.Over three flu seasons they randomised 332 438 participants, and found no clear difference in the primary end point of hospitalisation for flu or pneumonia between the two groups (0.68% in the high dose vaccine group and 0.73% in the standard dose vaccine group).New Engl J Med doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2509907 Liraglutide for Alzheimer's diseaseIt looks as if 2026 is set to be another busy year for glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists.According to clinicaltrials.govthere are 112 studies involving GLP-1 agonists that are either recruiting or set to start recruiting, across a range of conditions ranging from alcohol use disorder to inflammatory bowel disease.Another potential use for GLP-1 agonists is dementia.The phase 2b ELAD trial assessed the effect of liraglutide in people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease without diabetes.No significant difference in the primary outcome, a surrogate outcome of cerebral glucose metabolic rate, was found in the group who received daily injections of liraglutide compared with the placebo group.However, liraglutide was well tolerated and seemed to have a modest effect on cognitive decline over the 12 month study period.