A drug commonly used to treat type 2 diabetes, canagliflozin, has the potential to treat autoimmune diseases, researchers say.
- A diabetes drug could be repurposed as a treatment for autoimmune diseases.
- Indeed, it attenuates the activation of the T lymphocytes involved in these diseases.
- Researchers are hoping for the drug to be used in the near future to treat patients with rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus.
Researchers have found an unexpected role for a diabetes drug. Indeed, according to scientists at Swansea University in the UK, canagliflozin (also known as Invokana), which controls blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes, could be a treatment effective in autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus. Their study was published in Cell Metabolism.
Autoimmune diseases: the drug against diabetes has an action on T lymphocytes
Previous research has shown that targeting T-cell metabolism in autoimmunity may have beneficial therapeutic effects:”T cells are a type of white blood cells that help the body fight infection and disease, but in autoimmune diseases they have been observed to attack healthy tissue”, explained the researchers in a communicated from their university.
And by studying the effects of the anti-diabetic treatment canagliflozin, the team from Swansea University (UK) discovered that the drug precisely attenuates the activation of T cells. This suggests that it could be reused as a treatment autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disease joints evolving by thrusts. It is an autoimmune pathology, but several immunological, genetic, hormonal, environmental factors… are necessary for it to be triggered.
Systemic lupus erythematosus or systemic lupus is also an autoimmune disease. “In this disease, the immune system, which protects against microbes or foreign substances in the body, becomes disrupted and turns against the body’s own cells.”, explains theHealth Insurance.
Canagliflozin could be available soon
The identification of new roles for drugs that are currently used in other pathological contexts is a great source of hope for researchers: “Our results are important because they lay the groundwork for the clinical development of canagliflozin for the treatment of certain autoimmune diseases. As this drug is already widely used and its safety profile is known in humans, it could potentially reach the clinic faster than any new drug developed and bring valuable benefits sooner to patients with autoimmune diseases. immune“said Dr. Nick Jones, lead author of the study.
