A diabetes drug could help lower the risk of heart failure in certain patients.A new study published in Nature Medicine analyzed how SGLT2 inhibitor dapagliflozin, a medication used to treat type 2 diabetes, could help prevent heart failure in people with rare genetic variants linked to cardiomyopathy (a progressive disease of the heart muscle).Using data from the DECLARE-TIMI 58 trial, researchers from Harvard Medical School, Mass General Brigham and MIT looked at more than 12,000 adults who had type 2 diabetes and increased cardiovascular risk.VITAMIN SUPPLEMENT MAY DELAY DIABETES IN SELECT GROUPS, RESEARCHERS SAYAbout 121 participants carried inherited gene variants that could raise their chances of developing cardiomyopathy.After a median 4.2-year follow-up, dapagliflozin was found to lower hospitalization for heart failure more in individuals with the variants than in those without.Dapagliflozin was found to lower hospitalization for heart failure in individuals with the variants for cardiomyopathy more than those without them.(iStock)While dapagliflozin lowered heart failure hospitalization in both groups, the reduction was about eight times stronger in carriers of the genetic variant.Among the 82% of carriers without a prior history of heart failure, 12.8% developed heart failure in the placebo group, while no heart-failure events were observed among carriers receiving dapagliflozin.DIABETES STUDY REVEALS DIAGNOSIS GAP AFFECTING MILLIONS OF PEOPLECo-lead study author Shinwan Kany, MD, a visiting scientist at the Cardiovascular Research Center with Mass General Brigham Heart and Vascular Institute and the Broad Institute, commented on how these findings could shape preventive care."Historically, identifying a genetic variant for cardiomyopathy mostly meant telling a patient they were at high risk and not having a specific preventive therapy to offer," he said in a press release.
"These data show we do have tools to lower risk in these individuals."In the plac...