PhD MD TRR219-associated students

Elias Haj-Yehia
MD student
University Hospital RWTH Aachen
Department of Internal Medicine
Project: The effect Linagliptin and Saxagliptin in acute myocardial infarction
PI: Michael Lehrke
DPP4 inhibitors (including Linagliptin and Saxagliptin among others) are a class of antidiabetic drugs acting by augmentation of the GLP-1 system. GLP-1 is an incretin hormone released after nutritional and inflammatory stimuli leading to glucose dependent insulin secretion. Although similar glucose lowering efficiacy is reached by different DPP4 inhibitors, only Saxagliptin was found to increase heart failure hospitalization in patients with diabetes. This unexpected effect might relate to the metabolism of Saxagliptin.
We compare the DPP4 inhibitors Linagliptin and Saxagliptin and the Saxagliptin metabolite 5-hydroxy-Saxagliptin during acute myocardial infarction in a murine model of left anterior descending artery ligation.