Canagliflozin and Myocardial Fibrosis

Summary

Recently, large clinical intervention studies have demonstrated the cardiovascular protective effects on of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) such as empagliflozin, dapagliflozin, and canagliflozin in reduction of cardiovascular and all-cause mortality, coincident with a significant reduction in heart failure hospitalizations. Therefore, SGLT2i had been recommended as a therapeutic drug for diabetic patients to reduce the occurrence of cardiovascular events. However, the mechanism of these benefits remains unclear at the present time. Myocardial fibrosis is not only an important physiopathological mechanism of heart failure, but also has been shown to be closely associated with the risk of heart failure-related hospitalization and death, especially in patients with T2D. However, whether SGLT2i can exert cardioprotective effects by improving myocardial fibrosis remains to be further investigated. In recent years, the development of cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) technology enables to detect focal and diffuse fibrosis in myocardial tissue, which makes it possible to systematically explore the role of SGLT2i on myocardial fibrosis. Although several studies including EMPA-HEART, SUGAR-DM-HF have explored the effects of SGLT2i on cardiac structure and function, these studies didn't reach consistent results. In addition, more scarce studies have investigated the effects of SGLT2i on both focal and diffuse fibrosis. At present, whether SGLT2i treatment can change the relevant indicators of myocardial fibrosis in people with diabetes and cardiovascular risk factors has not yet been reported. In addition, previous studies mainly focus on empagliflozin and dapagliflozin, and studies on canagliflozin are still very scarce. Therefore, this study intends to explore the effects of canagliflozin on myocardial fibrosis and other structures and functions of the heart in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and high cardiovascular risk factors.

Timeline

Start

2022-01-05

Primary completion

2024-12-31

Completion

2025-03-20

Publications

• Background Saeedi P, Petersohn I, Salpea P, Malanda B, Karuranga S, Unwin N, Colagiuri S, Guariguata L, Motala AA, Ogurtsova K, Shaw JE, Bright D, Williams R; IDF Diabetes Atlas Committee. Global and regional diabetes prevalence estimates for 2019 and projections for 2030 and 2045: Results from the International Diabetes Federation Diabetes Atlas, 9th edition. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2019 Nov;157:107843. doi: 10.1016/j.diabres.2019.107843. Epub 2019 Sep 10.
• Background Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration; Di Angelantonio E, Kaptoge S, Wormser D, Willeit P, Butterworth AS, Bansal N, O'Keeffe LM, Gao P, Wood AM, Burgess S, Freitag DF, Pennells L, Peters SA, Hart CL, Haheim LL, Gillum RF, Nordestgaard BG, Psaty BM, Yeap BB, Knuiman MW, Nietert PJ, Kauhanen J, Salonen JT, Kuller LH, Simons LA, van der Schouw YT, Barrett-Connor E, Selmer R, Crespo CJ, Rodriguez B, Verschuren WM, Salomaa V, Svardsudd K, van der Harst P, Bjorkelund C, Wilhelmsen L, Wallace RB, Brenner H, Amouyel P, Barr EL, Iso H, Onat A, Trevisan M, D'Agostino RB Sr, Cooper C, Kavousi M, Welin L, Roussel R, Hu FB, Sato S, Davidson KW, Howard BV, Leening MJ, Leening M, Rosengren A, Dorr M, Deeg DJ, Kiechl S, Stehouwer CD, Nissinen A, Giampaoli S, Donfrancesco C, Kromhout D, Price JF, Peters A, Meade TW, Casiglia E, Lawlor DA, Gallacher J, Nagel D, Franco OH, Assmann G, Dagenais GR, Jukema JW, Sundstrom J, Woodward M, Brunner EJ, Khaw KT, Wareham NJ, Whitsel EA, Njolstad I, Hedblad B, Wassertheil-Smoller S, Engstrom G, Rosamond WD, Selvin E, Sattar N, Thompson SG, Danesh J. Association of Cardiometabolic Multimorbidity With Mortality. JAMA. 2015 Jul 7;314(1):52-60. doi: 10.1001/jama.2015.7008.
• Background Dunlay SM, Givertz MM, Aguilar D, Allen LA, Chan M, Desai AS, Deswal A, Dickson VV, Kosiborod MN, Lekavich CL, McCoy RG, Mentz RJ, Pina IL; American Heart Association Heart Failure and Transplantation Committee of the Council on Clinical Cardiology; Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing; and the Heart Failure Society of America. Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Heart Failure: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association and the Heart Failure Society of America: This statement does not represent an update of the 2017 ACC/AHA/HFSA heart failure guideline update. Circulation. 2019 Aug 13;140(7):e294-e324. doi: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000000691. Epub 2019 Jun 6.
• Background Neal B, Perkovic V, Mahaffey KW, de Zeeuw D, Fulcher G, Erondu N, Shaw W, Law G, Desai M, Matthews DR; CANVAS Program Collaborative Group. Canagliflozin and Cardiovascular and Renal Events in Type 2 Diabetes. N Engl J Med. 2017 Aug 17;377(7):644-657. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1611925. Epub 2017 Jun 12.
• Background Hudsmith LE, Petersen SE, Tyler DJ, Francis JM, Cheng AS, Clarke K, Selvanayagam JB, Robson MD, Neubauer S. Determination of cardiac volumes and mass with FLASH and SSFP cine sequences at 1.5 vs. 3 Tesla: a validation study. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2006 Aug;24(2):312-8. doi: 10.1002/jmri.20638.
• Background Verma S, Mazer CD, Yan AT, Mason T, Garg V, Teoh H, Zuo F, Quan A, Farkouh ME, Fitchett DH, Goodman SG, Goldenberg RM, Al-Omran M, Gilbert RE, Bhatt DL, Leiter LA, Juni P, Zinman B, Connelly KA. Effect of Empagliflozin on Left Ventricular Mass in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Coronary Artery Disease: The EMPA-HEART CardioLink-6 Randomized Clinical Trial. Circulation. 2019 Nov 19;140(21):1693-1702. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.119.042375. Epub 2019 Aug 22.
• Background Brown AJM, Gandy S, McCrimmon R, Houston JG, Struthers AD, Lang CC. A randomized controlled trial of dapagliflozin on left ventricular hypertrophy in people with type two diabetes: the DAPA-LVH trial. Eur Heart J. 2020 Sep 21;41(36):3421-3432. doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehaa419.
• Background Lee MMY, Brooksbank KJM, Wetherall K, Mangion K, Roditi G, Campbell RT, Berry C, Chong V, Coyle L, Docherty KF, Dreisbach JG, Labinjoh C, Lang NN, Lennie V, McConnachie A, Murphy CL, Petrie CJ, Petrie JR, Speirits IA, Sourbron S, Welsh P, Woodward R, Radjenovic A, Mark PB, McMurray JJV, Jhund PS, Petrie MC, Sattar N. Effect of Empagliflozin on Left Ventricular Volumes in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes, or Prediabetes, and Heart Failure With Reduced Ejection Fraction (SUGAR-DM-HF). Circulation. 2021 Feb 9;143(6):516-525. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.052186. Epub 2020 Nov 13.
• Background Singh JSS, Mordi IR, Vickneson K, Fathi A, Donnan PT, Mohan M, Choy AMJ, Gandy S, George J, Khan F, Pearson ER, Houston JG, Struthers AD, Lang CC. Dapagliflozin Versus Placebo on Left Ventricular Remodeling in Patients With Diabetes and Heart Failure: The REFORM Trial. Diabetes Care. 2020 Jun;43(6):1356-1359. doi: 10.2337/dc19-2187. Epub 2020 Apr 3.
• Yan H, Liu J, Zhang Z, Chen S, Chang X, Jin H, Li X, Chen Y, Chen Y, Zeng M. Canagliflozin attenuates CMR-quantified myocardial fibrosis in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus at high cardiovascular risk: a randomised open-label controlled trial. Diabetologia. 2026 Jun;69(6):1532-1544. doi: 10.1007/s00125-026-06682-w. Epub 2026 Feb 24.

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