Evidence Hub

Comparative efficacy and safety of sitagliptin or gliclazide combined with metformin in treatment-naive patients with type 2 diabetes: A single-center, prospective, randomized, controlled, noninferiority study with genetic polymorphism analysis

Qin M, Chao L, Liu S

Medicine, 2025

66 participants · 2 citations

Abstract

Background: This study evaluates the efficacy and safety of sitagliptin versus gliclazide, combined with metformin, in treatment-naive patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and glucotoxicity.

Methods: In this single-center, randomized, controlled noninferiority trial, 129 treatment-naive patients with T2DM with glucotoxicity (fasting plasma glucose [FPG] ≥ 200 mg/dL and glycated hemoglobin ≥ 9.0%) were randomized to receive sitagliptin plus metformin (n = 66) or gliclazide plus metformin (n = 63) for 12 weeks. Sitagliptin and gliclazide were given for the first 4 weeks, followed by metformin monotherapy for 8 weeks. Efficacy end points included changes in glycemic control, body weight, and β-cell function at baseline, 4 weeks, and 12 weeks.

Results: After 12 weeks, mean glycated hemoglobin reductions were 4.03% in the sitagliptin group and 4.13% in the gliclazide group, with a mean difference of -0.097 (95% confidence interval, -0.648 to 0.453), confirming noninferiority. Both groups showed significant FPG reductions at 4 weeks (P .05). Genetic analysis showed specific single-nucleotide polymorphisms affected drug efficacy: dipeptidyl peptidase-4 rs2909451 TT and rs4664443 GG genotypes showed lower efficacy with sitagliptin, while GLP1R rs3765467 AG and KCNJ11 rs2285676 CC genotypes responded better to sitagliptin.

Conclusion: Sitagliptin combined with metformin is noninferior to gliclazide combined with metformin in treatment-naive patients with T2DM with…

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a randomized trial, done in people. Its evidence level is 2 of 5 (High · randomized trial). Randomized trials of a reasonable size are the strongest single-study design. Reported size: 66 participants or records.

How the five levels of evidence work. The level is assigned automatically from the abstract and can be wrong, so check the paper.

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free