Effects of once-weekly semaglutide 2.4 mg on C-reactive protein in adults with overweight or obesity (STEP 1, 2, and 3): exploratory analyses of three randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trials
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background: Inflammation is a key driver of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. C-reactive protein (CRP), an established biomarker of inflammation, is commonly elevated in people with overweight/obesity. Methods: assessments included change in CRP by baseline characteristics (bodyweight, body mass index [BMI], glycaemic status, CRP concentration); change in CRP-defined cardiovascular risk category (<1 [low], 1-3 [intermediate], and >3 mg/L [high]); and correlation between change in CRP and change in bodyweight, waist circumference, fasting serum insulin (STEP 1 and 3), fasting plasma glucose, and homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). Findings: The trials took place from June through November 2018 (STEP 1 and 2) and from August 2018 to April 2020 (STEP 3). In all trials, semaglutide 2.4 mg reduced CRP at week 68 versus placebo (estimated treatment difference [ETD; 95% CI] -44% [-49 to -39] in STEP 1, -39% [-46 to -30] in STEP 2, and -48% [-55 to -39] in STEP 3; all p < 0.05). In STEP 2, CRP reductions were greater with semaglutide 2.4 mg (-49%) than with 1.0 mg (-42%) but the difference did not reach statistical significance (ETD [95% CI] -12% [-23 to 1]; p = 0.06). Reductions in CRP occurred in parallel with bodyweight loss and were consistent regardless of baseline BMI/bodyweight/glycaemic status. More semaglutide-treated participants had reductions in CRP-defined cardiovascular risk versus those on placebo. Reductions in CRP were positively correlated with reductions in bodyweight, waist circumference, fasting plasma glucose, fasting serum insulin, and HOMA-IR (data not shown). Interpretation: In people with overweight/obesity, once-weekly semaglutide 2.4 mg and 1.0 mg reduced CRP concentration irrespective of baseline BMI/bodyweight/glycaemic status compared with placebo. These data suggest a potential anti-inflammatory role of semaglutide in obesity. Funding: Novo Nordisk.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.004 | 0.004 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.004 | 0.006 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".