Diabetes Drug Empagliflozin May Help Treat Fatty Liver Too

NEW DELHI, 18 AUG 2018: A medicine used commonly for diabetes treatment has shown positive result when used to treat fatty liver for which there are few approved drugs at present.

A study was conducted on 50 people suffering from diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). They were divided into two groups – one received standard treatment for diabetes while the other was given a drug called empagliflozin for 20 weeks in addition to the standard treatment.

Dr Ambrish Mithal, one of the authors of the study, said they found significant reduction, around 4%, in liver fat among the second group of patients. “If someone had 10% fat in liver, it reduced to 6% with the administering of this drug in 20 weeks,” said Dr Mohammad Shafi Kuchay, another researcher. Both of them work at Medanta Medicity in Gurgaon.

Dr Kuchay added that nearly 60% of all diabetics suffer from NAFLD, which can progress to steatohepatitis (NASH) and eventually to cirrhosis or even cancer in a significant proportion of patients.

According to the Medanta doctors, pharmacological treatment modalities for NAFLD are few. No agent is approved by the FDA for treating this condition, they added. Empagliflozin, an anti-diabetes drug belonging to the SGLT-2 inhibitor class, has gained popularity in recent years because of its ability to promote weight loss and reduce the rate of cardiac events in high-risk patients with type 2 diabetes.

Dr Mithal said theirs is the first study that showed that this drug reduces liver fat, and if the use of this agent, or others of this class, is confirmed to have beneficial effects on all the stages of NAFLD, it will enable physicians to target multiple complications of diabetes with a single drug.

He pointed out, however, that it remains to be seen whether empagliflozin treatment will ultimately delay or prevent chronic liver disease in a larger group of patients. It will also be important to evaluate how the agent affects histopathological changes at various stages of fatty liver disease, Dr Mithal, who heads the endocrinology and diabetes division at Medanta, added.ET Healthworld