The effects of liraglutide and dapagliflozin on cardiac function and structure in a multi-hit mouse model of Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction
Until now treatment of Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection fraction (HFpEF) remains challenging, and not a single drug has been proven effective. The development of novel treatments is hampered by the lack of animal models that adequately represent the complex human HFpEF phenotype.
Therefore, Aad Withaar and his team have developed a preclinical multifactorial HFpEF mouse model that closely resembles the cardiometabolic HFpEF phenotype, and evaluated two new emerging drugs, namely the GLP-1 RA liraglutide and a SGLT2i dapagliflozin. This work is now published in Cardiovascular Research and they believe these findings and the model will be welcomed by the HFpEF community, especially since this model included the quintessential elements of female sex and advanced age.
Aad Withaar and his colleagues developed a mouse model that includes advanced age, female sex, in concert with co-morbidities: elevated blood pressure, obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus and demonstrated that this model recapitulates the human cardiometabolic HFpEF phenotype. Furthermore they showed that contemporary glucose lowering drugs, liraglutide and dapagliflozin, which are both under study for HFpEF, have positive effects. Therefore this translational model may be useful to evaluate novel cardiometabolic, anti-fibrotic, and anti-inflammatory treatments for HFpEF.
