Some patients with diabetes develop a serious condition known as diabetic cardiomyopathy, which is slow and cannot be directly attributed to hypertension or other cardiovascular disorders. This often under-diagnosed heart function impairment is one of the leading causes of death in diabetic patients and it affects both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. There is no current specific drug treatment or clinical protocol approved to address this disease.
A study published in the journal Pharmacological Research describes a potential target that could spur the design of new therapeutic strategies to specifically treat diabetic cardiomyopathy. The paper describes the beneficial effects - on the disease - of activating a protein - the nuclear receptor PPARβ/δ - present in all body cells and especially abundant in organs and tissues with more active metabolism (skeletal muscle, heart, liver or adipose tissue).
Manuel Vázquez-Carrera and Xavier Palomer, from the UB's Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences, the UB Institute of Biomedicine (IBUB) and the Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute (IRSJD), lead the study as experts from the Diabetes and Associated Metabolic Diseases Networking Biomedical Research Centre (CIBERDEM).
Other researchers signing this paper are Fátima Crispi, from the UB's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, BCNatal (IRSJD and Hospital Clínic - IDIBAPS) and the Centre for Biomedical Research Network on Rare Diseases (CIBERER); Francisco Nistal, from the University of Cantabria and the Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital and the Centre for Biomedical Research Network on Cardiovascular Diseases (CIBERCV), and Walter Wahli, from the University of Lausanne (Switzerland), among other experts.
A protein involved in cardiac pathologies
Alterations in metabolism, inflammation, fibrosis and cardiac cell death by apoptosis are some of the causes for the development of diabetic cardiomyopathy. The study reveals that activation of the PPARβ/δ receptor can help to slow down the processes of inflammation and fibrosis in laboratory animal models and human cardiac cells under hyperglycaemic conditions.
The PPARβ/δ factor is the most abundant member of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) family in the heart. However, Manuel Vázquez-Carrera notes that "the energy reservoir it contains is barely sufficient to maintain cardiac function for more than ten seconds, a constant supply of energy obtained through the oxidation of fatty acids (70%) and, to a lesser extent, other substrates such as glucose or lactate, supplied through the blood".
