Cardioprotective Effect of SGLT2-I in Diabetic Patients With AMI (SGLT2-I AMI PROTECT Study)

Classically, the physiopathology of myocardial infarction is linked to the presence of coronary atherosclerosis. According to the European Society of Cardiology (ESC)/American College of Cardiology (ACC)/American Heart Association (AHA) Guidelines of the fourth Universal definition, type 1 myocardial infarction (MI), the most frequent cause was atherothrombotic plaque (the mechanism of plaque erosion, rupture, fissuring with an athero-thrombotic)(1) In acute myocardial infarction, early restoration of epicardial and myocardial blood flow is of paramount importance to limit infarction size and create optimum conditions for favorable long-term outcome. Currently, restoration of epicardial blood flow is preferably and effectively obtained by primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI). After opening the occluded artery, however, the reperfusion process itself causes damage to the myocardium, the so called "reperfusion injury". The phenomenon of reperfusion injury is incompletely understood and currently there is no established therapy for preventing it. Contributory factors are intramyocardial edema with compression of the microvasculature, oxidative stress, calcium overload, mitochondrial transition pore opening, micro embolization, neutrophil plugging and hyper contracture. This results in myocardial stunning, reperfusion arrhythmias and ongoing myocardial necrosis (2,3). There is general agreement that a large part of the cell death caused by myocardial reperfusion injury occurs during the first few minutes of reperfusion, and that early treatment is required to prevent it.

According to current guidelines, drug therapy administrated for acute myocardial infarction includes antiplatelets (against atherosclerotic plaque and stent thrombosis), renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) inhibitors, beta-blockers and lipid-lowering therapy (primarily with statins).

Due to their high efficacy, excellent tolerability, and their ability to reduce major adverse cardiovascular events in large clinical trials, SGLT2 inhibitors have been tested in a variety of preclinical studies and it was demonstrated to reduce acute myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury (4).

Four-week pre-treatment with dapagliflozin could decrease infarct size in rats with obese insulin resistance which underwent cardiac ischemic-reperfusion injury (5) and a recent experimental study demonstrated that acute dapagliflozin administration during cardiac I/R injury exerted cardioprotective effects by attenuating cardiac infarct size, increasing left ventricular function and reducing arrhythmias (6). Moreover, in rats with previous myocardial infarct, dapagliflozin treatment beginning one day after left anterior descending coronary artery ligation could decrease myofibroblast infiltration and myocardial fibrosis (7).

Finally, a preregistered meta-analysis (PROSPERO), that included placebo-controlled, interventional studies of small and large animal models of myocardial ischaemia-reperfusion injury, testing the effect of SGLT2 inhibitor treatment on myocardial infarct size concluded that the glucose-lowering SGLT2 inhibitors reduce myocardial infarct size in animal models independent of diabetes status (8).

Despite its potential benefits on the heart with pleiotropic mechanisms, the cardioprotective effects of new glucose-lowering SGLT-2 inhibitors in patients with myocardial infarction - both in the acute and chronic phase- have never been explored.

The key point of the project will be the evaluation of the cardioprotective effect and the potential prognostic benefit of SGLT-2 inhibitors in patients with diabetes and acute myocardial infarction.

The investigators' findings could provide significant insights for future clinical trials on SGLT-2 inhibitors treatments in patients with ischemic heart disease.