The role of microRNAs in the cardioprotective effect of empagliflozin in diabetic mices

• Grant number: 20/03505-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2021
• End date: July 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Physiology - Physiology of Organs and Systems
• Principal Investigator: Alice Cristina Rodrigues
• Grantee: Gabriela Akemi Ueta Shinzato
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The phenomenon known as metabolic memory relates that the detrimental effects elicited by the hyperglycemic period persist even after glycemic control, leading to a superior risk of acquiring diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases. The cardiovascular diseases are the biggest of death cause among diabetic patients, and amid these there is diabetic cardiomyopathy. Diabetic cardiomyopathy leads to cardiac dysfunction and structural alterations in the heart, such as hypertrophy and fibrosis. In view of this, recent studies have demonstrated that a new class of antidiabetic drugs, the gliflozins, appeared to have a cardioprotector effect. It is accepted that the metabolic memory may be regulated by microRNAs and that, maybe, the cardioprotective effect coming from the gliflozins could be due the re-establishment of the basal concentrations of cardiac microRNAs.