Together with The Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, researchers from the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS) have discovered a potential therapeutic target, which could reduce heart failure and may improve the quality of life for those living with diabetes.
Published in the journal, Cardiovascular Research, the study has found that cardiac dysfunction and remodelling can be reduced – and diabetes-induced heart failure potentially treated – when the proteins in heart cells are modified following the development of heart failure.
According to lead author, Dr Darnel Prakoso, this “protein modification … is an effective target for diabetes-induced heart failure”.
He says that modifying these myocardial proteins using “a gene therapy approach … to manipulate the regulatory enzymes” the researchers were able to “demonstrate improvements in both cardiac function and morphology in a pre-clinical animal model of diabetes-induced heart failure”.
Reportedly, the study researchers also found that the opposite manipulation of this regulatory enzyme can induce a detrimental cardiac effect similar to that seen in response to diabetes, suggesting a key role of this modification in the development of diabetes-induced heart failure.
“There are currently no specific treatment options to manage diabetic cardiomyopathy, so we’re very excited by the discovery of a potential therapeutic target, which could reduce heart failure, and may improve the quality of life for those living with diabetes,” says lead corresponding author, Professor Rebecca Ritchie.
“There is a huge unmet need in treatment secondary illnesses induced by diabetes. Cardiovascular disease is responsible for 27% of all deaths in Australia.
“If we can translate our study’s findings into a potential medication, we could reduce the risk of heart failure and maybe also improve survival in people with diabetes.”
In ongoing research led by Professor Rebecca Ritchie and Dr Darnel Prakoso, the team has been working to understand what triggers heart failure in diabetic populations and how it could be prevented.
This work was conducted along with the University of Melbourne and University of Otago and was made possible thanks to the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and Diabetes Australia.
To read the study, visit: academic.oup.com/cardiovascres/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/cvr/cvab043/6130793?redirectedFrom=fulltext.
