Doctor receives funding to see if drug can help those with diabetes type 1 – PerthNow

A Perth specialist has received funding to explore if medication can help provide new hope to patients born with diabetes.
Dr Lakshini Herat — who is based at Royal Perth Hospital and UWA’s School of Biomedical Sciences — was awarded a $60,000 grant from Diabetes Research WA.
Her research will study the effects of sotagliflozin in patients with type 1 diabetes.
The drug has already been found to be successful in clinical trials to lower blood glucose levels in people with type 2 diabetes.
“This medication is one of a relatively new class of so-called ‘wonder drugs’ known as SGLT1/2 inhibitors which are helping to protect the heart and kidneys in type 2 diabetes by suppressing the proteins in the body known as SGLT1 and SGLT2,” Dr Herat said.
“Our team has recently discovered, however, that when SGLT2 is blocked, it leads to an increase of the SGLT1 protein in the kidney, possibly limiting the effectiveness of the SGLT2 only inhibiting drugs.”
Dr Herat said the drug could be a powerful new way to help those with either type of diabetes.
“SGLT2 inhibitors are so far not being used in type 1 diabetes due to concerns over the risk of diabetic ketoacidosis, so more needs to be known about how sotagliflozin works in the body before it can be prescribed,” she said.
“This research hopes to reveal more insight into the mechanisms of sotagliflozin and investigate if it may provide superior protection to the heart and kidneys for those with both types of diabetes.”
Diabetes Research WA executive director Sherl Westlund said diabetes was a leading cause of end-stage kidney and cardiovascular disease.
“This work holds enormous promise to reduce the negative health complications of this chronic, increasingly common condition,” she said.
“We are thrilled Dr Herat and team are able to advance this important research thanks to our many passionate supporters.”

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