A DRUG commonly prescribed to patients with type 2 diabetes could help transform the lives of people suffering from heart failure, according to research from a Scottish university.
It found metformin, the world's most commonly prescribed diabetes medicine, could have "very promising" benefits for some of the 100,000 patients in Scotland who suffer from heart failure.
The drug is already used to help reduce the complications of diabetes and is often prescribed to people, particularly those who are overweight, who have not been able to control their blood glucose levels through diet and exercise alone.
Now scientists at Dundee University have carried out the first clinical trial using metformin on patients with heart failure, a debilitating long-term condition which can seriously affect quality of life.
Patients with heart failure often suffer from fatigue and shortness of breath, leading to reduced mobility, but the new research suggests metformin not only enables them to do more exercise, but also helps them lose weight and improve the performance of their fat hormones.
Professor Chim Lang, Professor of Cardiology at Dundee University, said he believed the research could help lead to a new treatment strategy for patients with heart failure.
He said: "This is the first clinical trial that looked specifically at potential beneficial effects of metformin in pre-diabetic heart failure patients, and the results are very promising.
"These results are hypothesis generating. We believe that our findings may have the potential of developing into a new treatment strategy for patients with heart failure."
Previous research carried out by Mr Lang has shown patients with heart failure are at risk of diabetes and have insulin resistance, which causes their body to be less effective at lowering blood sugar levels and leaves them feeling lethargic.
Metformin has already been shown to help protect patients with type 2 diabetes against other conditions such as cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Around 200,000 Scots suffer from type 2 diabetes but it can cause an increased risk of complications such as kidney and nerve damage.
Last month a team from Dundee University, led by Dr Graham Rena, announced a new understanding of how the drug works, saying that this could lead to scientists developing more effective, second-generation medicines.
They said the responses to the drug depend on its metal-binding properties and work is now under way to investigate how effective it can be in treating a wide range of conditions.
Dr Rena, speaking last month, said: "We have demonstrated that cellular actions of metformin are disrupted by interference with its metal-binding properties.
"This link will illuminate a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms enabling drug action.
"Further research is now needed to exploit the new tools that we have developed to establish how this unusual property of metformin enables it to be such an effective medicine.
"Identification of metformin's target will stimulate the development of second-generation drugs based on metformin, which has been impossible up until now."
The latest study, which was funded by the British Heart Foundation and carried out by Mr Lang and his colleagues, is published in the European Journal of Heart Failure.
Mr Lang said: "We are grateful to all the patients who took part in this study, and we would like to thank British Heart Foundation for funding it."
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