Eligibility of patients with type 2 diabetes for sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor cardiovascular outcomes trials: a global perspective from the DISCOVER study.

Objective: To assess the eligibility of patients participating in DISCOVER (a 3-year, prospective, observational study program of 15 992 patients with type 2 diabetes [T2D] initiating a second-line glucose-lowering therapy across 38 countries) for four cardiovascular outcomes trials (CVOTs) of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (CANagliflozin cardioVascular Assessment Study [CANVAS], Dapagliflozin effect on CardiovascuLAR Events trial [DECLARE-TIMI 58], EMPAgliflozin cardiovascular OUTCOME event trial [EMPA-REG OUTCOME], and eValuation of ERTugliflozin effIcacy and Safety CardioVascular outcomes trial [VERTIS-CV]). Research design and methods: In this cross-sectional analysis, baseline characteristics of DISCOVER patients were compared with the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the CVOTs to assess patient eligibility, overall and in four regions (Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and Middle East and Africa). Results: Overall, 11 385 patients (71.2%) had sufficient data for the analysis; 56.1% were men. The mean age and time since T2D diagnosis were 57.4 and 5.6 years, respectively. The mean glycated hemoglobin level was 8.3%. DISCOVER patients were younger, and fewer had a history of cardiovascular disease, than those enrolled in the CVOTs. Eligibility varied across the CVOTs; the proportion of eligible DISCOVER patients was highest for DECLARE-TIMI 58 (40.5%), followed by CANVAS (19.9%), VERTIS-CV (7.2%), and EMPA-REG OUTCOME (7.1%); 54.6% of patients were not eligible for any CVOT. Eligibility for each CVOT varied across regions, which was explained by the differing proportions of patients with established cardiovascular disease. Conclusions: In a large, international population of patients with T2D initiating a second-line glucose-lowering therapy, DECLARE-TIMI 58 was the most inclusive CVOT, suggesting that its study population will be more representative of patients encountered in routine clinical practice than those of CANVAS, EMPA-REG OUTCOME, and VERTIS-CV.

Therapeutic inertia in the treatment of hyperglycaemia in patients with type 2 diabetes: A systematic review.

AIMS: Therapeutic inertia, defined as the failure to initiate or intensify therapy in a timely manner according to evidence-based clinical guidelines, is a key reason for uncontrolled hyperglycaemia in patients with type 2 diabetes. The aims of this systematic review were to identify how therapeutic inertia in the management of hyperglycaemia was measured and to assess its extent over the past decade. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Systematic searches for articles published from January 1, 2004 to August 1, 2016 were conducted in MEDLINE and Embase. Two researchers independently screened all of the titles and abstracts, and the full texts of publications deemed relevant. Data were extracted by a single researcher using a standardized data extraction form. RESULTS: The final selection for the review included 53 articles. Measurements used to assess therapeutic inertia varied across studies, making comparisons difficult. Data from low- to middle-income countries were scarce. In most studies, the median time to treatment intensification after a glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) measurement above target was more than 1 year (range 0.3 to >7.2 years). Therapeutic inertia increased as the number of antidiabetic drugs rose and decreased with increasing HbA1c levels. Data were mainly available from Western countries. Diversity of inertia measures precluded meta-analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Therapeutic inertia in the management of hyperglycaemia in patients with type 2 diabetes is a major concern. This is well documented in Western countries, but corresponding data are urgently needed in low- and middle-income countries, in view of their high prevalence of type 2 diabetes.

Patient-Centered Interventions to Improve Adherence to Statins: A Narrative Synthesis of Systematically Identified Studies.

Poor adherence to statins increases cardiovascular disease risk. We systematically identified 32 controlled studies that assessed patient-centered interventions designed to improve statin adherence. The limited number of studies and variation in study characteristics precluded strict quality criteria or meta-analysis. Cognitive education or behavioural counselling delivered face-to-face multiple times consistently improved statin adherence compared with control groups (7/8 and 3/3 studies, respectively). None of four studies using medication reminders and/or adherence feedback alone reported significantly improved statin adherence. Single interventions that improved statin adherence but were not conducted face-to-face included cognitive education in the form of genetic test results (two studies) and cognitive education via a website (one study). Similar mean adherence measures were reported for 17 intervention arms and were thus compared in a sub-analysis: 8 showed significantly improved statin adherence, but effect sizes were modest (+7 to +22 % points). In three of these studies, statin adherence improved despite already being high in the control group (82-89 vs. 57-69 % in the other studies). These three studies were the only studies in this sub-analysis to include cognitive education delivered face-to-face multiple times (plus other interventions). In summary, the most consistently effective interventions for improving adherence to statins have modest effects and are resource-intensive. Research is needed to determine whether modern communications, particularly mobile health platforms (recently shown to improve medication adherence in other chronic diseases), can replicate or even enhance the successful elements of these interventions while using less time and fewer resources.

Drug targeting to monocytes and macrophages using esterase-sensitive chemical motifs.

The therapeutic and toxic effects of drugs are often generated through effects on distinct cell types in the body. Selective delivery of drugs to specific cells or cell lineages would, therefore, have major advantages, in particular, the potential to significantly improve the therapeutic window of an agent. Cells of the monocyte-macrophage lineage represent an important target for many therapeutic agents because of their central involvement in a wide range of diseases including inflammation, cancer, atherosclerosis, and diabetes. We have developed a versatile chemistry platform that is designed to enhance the potency and delivery of small-molecule drugs to intracellular molecular targets. One facet of the technology involves the selective delivery of drugs to cells of the monocyte-macrophage lineage, using the intracellular carboxylesterase, human carboxylesterase-1 (hCE-1), which is expressed predominantly in these cells. Here, we demonstrate selective delivery of many types of intracellularly targeted small molecules to monocytes and macrophages by attaching a small esterase-sensitive chemical motif (ESM) that is selectively hydrolyzed within these cells to a charged, pharmacologically active drug. ESM versions of histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors, for example, are extremely potent anticytokine and antiarthritic agents with a wider therapeutic window than conventional HDAC inhibitors. In human blood, effects on monocytes (hCE-1-positive) are seen at concentrations 1000-fold lower than those that affect other cell types (hCE-1-negative). Chemical conjugates of this type, by limiting effects on other cells, could find widespread applicability in the treatment of human diseases where monocyte-macrophages play a key role in disease pathology.

Towards novel difluorinated sugar mimetics; syntheses and conformational analyses of highly-functionalised difluorinated cyclooctenones.

Highly-functionalised difluorinated cyclooctenones were synthesised from trifluoroethanol using either metallated difluoroenol acetal or carbamate chemistry, followed by a [2,3]-Wittig rearrangement or aldol reaction. Efficient RCM reactions afforded the title compounds which showed rather restricted fluxional behaviour by VT (19)F NMR. Topological characterisation by molecular modelling and NOESY/ROESY experiments offered a number of challenges, but allowed the identification of two favoured boat-chair conformers which interconverted by pseudorotation with relatively large activation barriers.

A stereodivergent asymmetric approach to difluorinated aldonic acids.

A (bromodifluoromethyl)alkyne has been deployed in a stereoselective route to difluorinated aldonic acid analogues, in which a Sharpless asymmetric dihydroxylation reaction and diastereoisomer separation set the stage for phenyl group oxidation.

Synthesis of 4,4-difluoroglycosides using ring-closing metathesis.

4-Deoxy-4,4-difluoro-glycosides have been synthesised for the first time via a direct sequence involving ring-closing metathesis and indium-mediated difluoroallylation with 1-bromo-1,1-difluoropropene in water. Two protecting group strategies were explored, one to allow protection of the primary C-6 hydroxyl group throughout the sequence, while the second was intended to allow deprotection after RCM and before dihydroxylation. The benzyl ether could be used in the first role, and pivaloyl is effective in the second. Dihydroxylations were highly stereoselective and controlled by the orientation of the glycosidic C-O bond.

Towards conformationally-locked difluorosugar analogues: an unexpected sense of dihydroxylation.

Difluorinated cyclooctenones, synthesised using RCM, can be used as templates for stereoselective oxidative transformations to products that undergo transannular reactions to afford conformationally-locked analogues of 2-deoxy-2,2-difluorosugars with different stereochemical relationships between the C-2 and C-3 hydroxyl groups.

Rapid assembly of highly-functionalised difluorinated cyclooctenones via ring-closing metathesis.

Building block methodology from trifluoroethanol and ring-closing metathesis using a Fürstner modification of Grubbs' conditions allows the rapid synthesis of novel difluorinated cyclooctenones.