A University of Alberta pharmacology researcher has discovered that a new experimental anti-obesity drug improves diastolic heart function in mice with Type 2 diabetes independent of its weight loss effects, suggesting the drug may work as a treatment to prevent the most prevalent form of heart failure in people with diabetes.
John Ussher is a professor in the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Canada Research Chair in Pharmacotherapy of Energy Metabolism in Obesity and a member of both the Alberta Diabetes Institute and the Cardiovascular Research Institute.
"I believe that if we manage this type of heart disease for the 400-million-plus people who have been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes worldwide — if we get on top of it for someone diagnosed in their 40s or 50s — then they won't have this type of heart failure in their 60s and 70s," Ussher says. "It's debilitating for the patient because they get out of breath from just walking up one flight of stairs, and it's also a huge burden on the health-care system."
Ussher's lab tested the new anti-obesity drug Growth Differentiation Factor 15 (GDF15), which acts on the brain to decrease appetite and promote weight loss. It is currently in early clinical trials for use in humans. Obesity is a risk factor for both Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
