A diabetes drug just calmed inflammation in people — a first for heart disease

Doctors already prescribe SGLT2 inhibitor pills for diabetes and weight loss. Now, for the first time in a human trial, the drug class has been shown to tame the inflammatory blood cells that drive heart disease. A Vanderbilt Health team led by Mona Mashayekhi gave 16 women with obesity and prediabetes the drug empagliflozin for three months, comparing them with women on a low-calorie diet — and the drug group saw inflammatory cells drop. Published in Circulation, the American Heart Association's journal, the finding reveals an immune mechanism that may be why the drugs also protect hearts and kidneys. A drug with a day job may have found its most important one yet.