10p diabetes pill offers hope for ‘thousands’ of heart patients
A CHEAP diabetes pill can ‘reverse’ a form of deadly heart disease, Scottish scientists have found.
Researchers believe it offers real hope to sufferers and could save thousands of lives a year.
The drug, metformin, is used to treat type 2 diabetes.
It works by lowering blood sugar levels by improving the way the body handles insulin.
But two separate studies have found it could also benefit those with heart damage caused by high blood pressure and patients with aortic stenosis – when a valve is narrowed, restricting blood flow, which can cause heart failure.
University of Dundee academics discovered metformin can reverse thickening of the left ventricle, the heart’s main pumping chamber.
The pill, which costs 10p a day, also helped to lower high blood pressure and reduce body weight in patients who had a heart attack.
The team will present their findings today at a conference of the British Cardiovascular Society in Manchester.
Their work is an example of ‘repurposing’ – finding new uses for drugs. This is cheaper and easier than developing new drugs and has the potential to save the NHS billions.
Professor Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, which partfunded the research, said: ‘These studies provide real hope that metformin might help to reduce deaths from heart and circulatory diseases, which claim thousands of lives every year.
‘Repurposing of drugs like metformin is a great example of how scientists can harness the power of medications which have more than one target in the body.’
The first study involved treating people with coronary heart disease with metformin or a placebo over 12 months, to see how the drug affected the heart and circulatory system. Dangerous thickening of the left ventricle was reduced by twice as much in those taking metformin compared with those who took the placebo.
Patients who took the drug also had lowered blood pressure and lost an average of almost half a stone, compared with no weight loss in the placebo group.
Thickening of the heart’s main pumping chamber, known as left ventricular hypertrophy, is a serious risk factor for heart attack and failure.
Most people do not know they have the condition until they suffer a heart attack or stroke.
Major causes include high blood pressure, inflammation and insulin resistance, which are thought to be key drivers of coronary heart disease.
In the second study, researchers examined the records of diabetics with aortic stenosis (AS).
In AS patients, the main artery which supplies blood to the body is narrowed. It affects around 40 per cent of over-60s in the UK and can lead to left ventricular hypertrophy and subsequent heart failure.
The Dundee team found diabetic patients with AS who were treated with metformin were less likely to die from heart attack, stroke or heart failure than those taking other diabetes treatments.
They believe the drug tackles insulin resistance and inflammation, which leads to a reduction in size of the left ventricle.
Dr Ify Mordi, clinical lecturer in cardiology at the University of Dundee, said: ‘Metformin is emerging as a serious prospect for the treatment of some forms of heart and circulatory disease.
‘We know from our previous research that it can reduce inflammation, which is understood to be a major player in the development of heart disease.
‘This new research shows that metformin could potentially become a new treatment option for patients with aortic stenosis and thickening of the left ventricle.
‘We need to undertake bigger studies to confirm our findings, but if successful this could offer hope for thousands of patients across Scotland and the UK.’
‘Harness the power of medications’