In a new study from the University of Alberta, researchers found a new approach to preventing heart failure in people with Type 2 diabetes.
People with diabetes take drugs for years to control their blood sugars, but the drugs don’t cure their diabetes.
People with Type 2 diabetes have a defect in their hearts’ ability to burn carbohydrates as a fuel source, which can eventually lead to diastolic heart failure, in which the heart contracts normally but does not relax properly between pumps.
In the study, the team used a combination of genetic alterations and drug treatments in animal models to show this process can be halted by blocking the action of a key protein called FoxO1.
They demonstrated that if doctors can fix the heart’s ability to burn sugar for fuel, then the heart can relax better and not get this form of heart failure in the presence of diabetes.
The team says that Type 2 diabetes affects nearly 400 million people around the world.
While many will experience systolic heart failure or problems with the way their heart pumps, studies show that just as many will have diastolic or relaxation problems, but they often have no symptoms.
The team urged earlier screening for diastolic heart disease among people diagnosed with diabetes and pre-diabetes.
There are no approved therapies that can reverse this type of heart failure, which is why it’s very important to try to develop treatments.
The team’s next step will be to try to better understand the mechanism of the experimental drug they used to inhibit the FoxO1 protein, and then improve upon it, as it has not been tested in humans and may have unknown side effects.
A better approach would be to modify the individual protein that interferes with sugar metabolism, whose gene expression is controlled by FoxO1.
If you care about diabetes, please read studies about this vaccine could protect heart health in people with diabetes and findings of this health problem in older men linked to higher diabetes risk.
For more information about diabetes and your health, please see recent studies about this study shows a new way to treat type 2 diabetes and results showing that scientists develops new drug for type 2 diabetes without harsh side effects.
The study is published in Cell Reports. One author of the study is John Ussher.
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