Harnessing heart health: Unveiling the dual benefits of SGLT2 inhibitors in rat hearts

Title : Harnessing heart health: Unveiling the dual benefits of SGLT2 inhibitors in rat hearts

Abstract:

Cardiovascular diseases, particularly myocardial infarction (MI), remain a major global health challenge. Recent studies have highlighted the cardioprotective potential of sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, originally developed for managing glycemia in diabetes. Emerging evidence suggests that these inhibitors may modulate inflammation following MI.

In this study, male Wistar rats were subjected to ischemia-reperfusion-induced myocardial injury and treated with SGLT2 inhibitors. Cardiac function, infarct size, histology, and inflammatory markers were analyzed to assess the impact of SGLT2 inhibitors on post-MI inflammation.

Preliminary findings revealed a significant reduction in myocardial inflammatory markers and infarct size in SGLT2 inhibitor-treated rats, indicating anti-inflammatory effects. These results imply that beyond their established glycemic benefits, SGLT2 inhibitors may exert protective effects by modulating the inflammatory response in the context of MI.

We hypothesize that these protective effects are mediated through interference with ThioredoxinInteracting Protein (TXNIP), a key regulator of redox balance, implicated in NLRP3 inflammasome activation.

This study aims to explore the molecular mechanisms by which SGLT2 inhibitors modulate TXNIP and downstream inflammatory pathways, providing insight into their potential therapeutic role in reducing post-MI inflammation.

Biography:

Desislava Doycheva, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cardiology at Loma Linda University. She has over a decade of experience in translational neuroscience and cardiovascular research, with extensive expertise in small-animal disease models, molecular biology, and mechanistic studies of ischemic injury. Her earlier work focused on neonatal hypoxic–ischemic encephalopathy and ischemic stroke, where she contributed to multiple NIH- and AHA-funded studies investigating endoplasmic reticulum stress, inflammation, and neuroprotection.

In recent years, she has expanded her research program into cardiovascular disease, leading studies in rat myocardial ischemia–reperfusion models to investigate the anti-inflammatory and cardioprotective mechanisms of sodium–glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors. Her current work examines both acute and chronic SGLT2 inhibitor treatment in diabetic and non-diabetic myocardium, with a particular focus on TXNIP/NLRP3 inflammasome signaling, oxidative stress, and post–myocardial infarction remodeling. She has authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications and is actively involved in NIH and American Heart Association grant development, mentoring, and collaborative translational research.