Diabetes drug can slow decline of chronic kidney disease

By Joe Morgan via SWNS

People with chronic kidney disease can slow the decline by taking a diabetes drug - even if they don't have diabetes.

Researchers have revealed just 10 mg of dapagliflozin, also known as Farxiga, can slow kidney function decline.

The drug is typically used to treat Type 2 diabetes and, within certain restrictions, is also used to treat adults with certain kinds of heart failure.

Chronic kidney disease impacts around one in 10 people in the UK, and in people over the age of 80 this increases to one in five.

Notable for feelings of tiredness, swollen ankles and feet, shortness of breath, chronic kidney disease can be caused by high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol.

In the study called the DAPA-CKD trial, 4,304 participants with chronic kidney disease were given 10mg of the drug or a placebo to take daily added to standard care.

The drug slowed the kidney decline of people without diabetes, but the effect was even greater in those with diabetes.

“The key conclusion is that dapagliflozin is an effective treatment to slow progressive kidney function loss in patients with chronic kidney disease with and without type 2 diabetes," saidDr. Hiddo Lambers Heerspink, of the University Medical Centre Groningen.

“Therefore, in addition to reducing the risk of heart failure or mortality, as previously shown in the DAPA-CKD trial, dapagliflozin also slows the progression of kidney function decline.”

The study was presented at the ASN Kidney Week 2021.