Valentine’s Day has come and gone, but it’s never too late to focus on your heart health.
A groundbreaking new study suggests that sotagliflozin, a drug recently approved to treat type 2 diabetes and kidney disease in people with additional cardiovascular risk factors, can also significantly reduce the likelihood of heart attacks and strokes.
Experts say sotagliflozin, known commercially as Inpefa, is the first medication of its kind to deliver these unique cardiovascular benefits, potentially paving the way for broader use of the drug.
Sotagliflozin is a sodium-glucose cotransporter (SGLT) inhibitor that blocks two proteins, SGLT1 and SGLT2, which are responsible for moving glucose and sodium across cell membranes and helping control blood sugar levels.
“Sotagliflozin is the first SGLT inhibitor to provide a significant reduction in both myocardial infarction and stroke,” the researchers noted in the study, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. “The stroke benefit observed in the present study appears to be unique to sotagliflozin, as it has not been observed in trials of selective SGLT2 inhibitors.”
In the trial, researchers enrolled 10,584 patients with chronic kidney disease, type 2 diabetes, and additional cardiovascular risk factors. The participants were randomly assigned to either receive sotagliflozin or a placebo and were followed for an average of 16 months.
Those in the sotagliflozin group experienced a 23% reduction in heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular-related deaths compared to the placebo group.
“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,” Dr. Deepak L. Bhatt, study chair, director of Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital, and professor at the Icahn School of Medicine, said in a statement.
“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,” he added.
Diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and heart disease are all intricately linked, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More than 38.4 million Americans suffer from diabetes, a condition in which the body either doesn’t produce enough insulin or can’t use it effectively, leading to elevated blood sugar levels.
Over time, those high blood sugar levels can damage the kidneys, impairing their ability to filter blood, which leads to chronic kidney disease. In fact, approximately one in three U.S. adults with diabetes also suffers from the chronic illness.
As the kidneys struggle to function, they place additional strain on the heart, forcing it to work harder to pump blood. This increased workload can lead to heart disease, which is the leading cause of death in the US.
The combination of diabetes and kidney disease also raises the risk of stroke, as both conditions can damage blood vessels.
The sotagliflozin study presents a promising treatment option that could simultaneously address all of these interconnected health issues.
“Physicians now have a new option to reduce global cardiovascular risk such as heart failure, progression of kidney disease, heart attack, and stroke in patients with either heart failure or type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and other cardiovascular risk factors,” said Dr. Bhatt.
