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REVIEW article

Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Cardiovascular and Smooth Muscle Pharmacology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2024.1422740
This article is part of the Research Topic Diabetes and cardiovascular disease: new therapeutic interventions View all 9 articles

Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists and sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors, antidiabetic drugs in heart failure and cognitive impairment: potential mechanisms of the protective effects

Provisionally accepted
Maria Antonietta Riemma Maria Antonietta Riemma 1Elena Mele Elena Mele 1Maria Donniacuo Maria Donniacuo 2Marialucia Telesca Marialucia Telesca 1GABRIELLA BELLOCCHIO GABRIELLA BELLOCCHIO 1Giuseppe Castaldo Giuseppe Castaldo 3Francesco Rossi Francesco Rossi 1Antonella De Angelis Antonella De Angelis 1Donato Cappetta Donato Cappetta 2*Konrad Urbanek Konrad Urbanek 3Liberato Berrino Liberato Berrino 1
  • 1 University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Caserta, Campania, Italy
  • 2 Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Salento, Lecce, Apulia, Italy
  • 3 University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Campania, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Heart failure and cognitive impairment emerge as public health problems that need to be addressed due to the aging global population. The conditions that often coexist are strongly related to advancing age and multimorbidity. Epidemiological evidence indicates that cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative processes shares similar aspects, in term of prevalence, age distribution, and mortality. Type 2 diabetes increasingly represents a risk factor associated not only to cardiometabolic pathologies but also to neurological conditions. The pathophysiological features of type 2 diabetes and its metabolic complications (hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, and insulin resistance) play a crucial role in the development and progression of both heart failure and cognitive dysfunction. This connection has opened to a potential new strategy, in which new classes of anti-diabetic medications, such as glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonists and sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, are able to reduce the overall risk of cardiovascular events and neuronal damage, showing additional protective effects beyond glycemic control.The pleiotropic effects of GLP-1R agonists and SGLT2 inhibitors have been extensively investigated.They exert direct and indirect cardioprotective and neuroprotective actions, by reducing inflammation, oxidative stress, ions overload, and restoring insulin signaling. Nonetheless, the specificity of pathways and their contribution has not been fully elucidated, and this underlines the urgency for more comprehensive research.

    Keywords: Heart Failure, cognitive impairment, type 2 diabetes, glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors

    Received: 24 Apr 2024; Accepted: 21 May 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Riemma, Mele, Donniacuo, Telesca, BELLOCCHIO, Castaldo, Rossi, De Angelis, Cappetta, Urbanek and Berrino. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Donato Cappetta, Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Salento, Lecce, 73100, Apulia, Italy

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