US FDA-approved diabetes drug shows promise against heart attacks, strokes: Study

A team of researchers, led by one of Indian origin, has found that a drug recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat type 2 diabetes can also reduce heart attacks and stroke.

The international clinical trial involving more than 10,000 participants showed that the drug — Sotagliflozin which is also approved to treat kidney disease — can additionally also reduce cardiovascular risk among these patients.

Sotagliflozin is a sodium-glucose cotransporter (SGLT) inhibitor. It blocks the function of two proteins, known as SGLT1 and SGLT2, which move glucose and sodium across cell membranes and help control blood sugar levels. Other SGLT2 inhibitors do not as significantly block SGLT1.

“These results demonstrate a new mechanism of action — combined blockade with sotagliflozin of the SGLT1 receptors (found in the kidney, gut, heart, and brain) and SGLT2 receptors (found in the kidney) — to reduce heart attack and stroke risk,” said Deepak L Bhatt, Director of Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital and Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, US.

“The benefits seen here are distinct from those seen with the other very popular SGLT2 inhibitors in widespread clinical use for diabetes, heart failure, and kidney disease,” Bhatt said.

The randomised, multicenter trial included 10,584 patients with chronic kidney disease, type 2 diabetes, and additional cardiovascular risk factors; and analysed the ability of sotagliflozin to reduce the risks of life-threatening cardiovascular outcomes. The participants were followed for an average of 16 months.

The results, published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, showed that people in the sotagliflozin group had a 23 per cent reduction in the rate of heart attacks, strokes, and deaths from such cardiovascular causes compared with the placebo group.

Bhatt said that sotagliflozin was approved to reduce the risk of deaths from cardiovascular causes, hospitalisations for heart failure, and urgent heart failure visits for patients with either heart failure or type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and other cardiovascular risk factors.

“The new data show that it additionally reduces the risk of heart attacks and strokes, and we could see more widespread use as a result.”