Diabetes drug could be used to treat common heart failure syndrome
_Researchers have discovered that metformin, a drug commonly used to treat type 2 diabetes, might also be used to treat a common heart failure syndrome that is predicted to affect over 8 percent of people ages 65 or older by the year 2020.
_The study shows that metformin relaxes a key heart muscle protein called titin, allowing the heart to properly fill with blood before pumping it around the body.
Rebecca E. Slater, Joshua G. Strom, Mei Methawasin, Martin Liss, Michael Gotthardt, Nancy Sweitzer, Henk L. Granzier. Metformin improves diastolic function in an HFpEF-like mouse model by increasing titin compliance. The Journal of General Physiology, 2018; jgp.201812259 DOI: 10.1085/jgp.201812259