Diabetes is the country’s fastest growing chronic disease (diagnosed in approximately one million Australians) with poor cardiovascular health outcomes for affected patients. Nitric oxide, hailed as a super molecule that exerts important functions on the body’s major organs, is often impaired in people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes who experience cardiovascular emergencies more frequently. Nitric oxide-based pharmacotherapies are unable to effectively counteract issues such as vasoconstriction; the constriction of blood vessels which increases blood pressure. Given many patients with diabetes are still not achieving optimal glycaemic control, particularly those admitted to coronary care units, this is an area of clear clinical need. Head of the Heart Failure Pharmacology Laboratory, Associate Professor Rebecca Ritchie and colleagues have discovered an exciting new avenue for treatment related to the novel sibling of nitric oxide, nitroxyl. Much like nitric oxide only more powerful, nitroxyl offers unique protective actions not seen in drugs currently used to treat people with heart failure.
Associate Professor Ritchie and her group are believed to be the only researchers in Australia looking at the impact of nitroxyl on the heart. They want to conduct a study to see if it can counteract blood disorders in patients with diabetes in an acute cardiovascular emergency. Such an outcome could improve the prognosis for people with diabetes, and reduce their incidence of cardiovascular events.
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