Fatty liver can be reduced using a diabetic drug, claims Kashmiri Doc

By Mubashir Bukhari

Srinagar, Mar 27: In a ground-breaking study, a Kashmiri doctor claims to have found a way to reduce liver fat in fatty liver diseases using a Type 2 diabetes drug.
Mohammad Shafi Kuchay, a resident of Humhama here, who earlier worked at SKIMS Soura, is currently holding the position of Consultant Endocrinology and Diabetes at Medanta, Gurgaon.
He along with team of doctors at the hospital have shown promise in the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in the small “E-LIFT study” which they recently presented at “ENDO 2018: The Endocrine Society Annual Meeting” in Chicago.
According to the study conducted by them, empagliflozin drug which was used to treat Type 2 diabetes has the potential to reduce liver fat in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
Dr Kuchay said that for the first time in the world such a research has been carried in the drug and they received good response from the Endocrine society.
“Our research was adjudged as the best and we received lot of approbation at the Endocrine meet in Chicago,” he said.
Dr Kuchay, who is also the principal investigator of the study, told The Kashmir Monitor that till now, there was no medicine available in the market for fatty liver.
“Despite the fact that nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) may progress to cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer, there are no approved medications for treating NAFLD or NASH,” he said. “Our results suggest that empagliflozin may help in treating NAFLD.”
“Not only this drug helps in diabetes but we found it can help in reducing fatty liver in patients. We demonstrated its second function first time to the world,” he said.
He said previous studies had established the potential of the diabetes drug empagliflozin in decreasing liver fat in rodents.
“I thought let us try this on humans. First step was to register it and then in 2016 we started research on this drug,” Dr Kuchay said.
He said in the trial, the team included patients who were 40 years or older and had Type 2 diabetes and NAFLD.
He said at the beginning of the study and 20 weeks later, the patients underwent measurement of their liver fat using a new technique called magnetic resonance imaging-derived proton density fat fraction (MRI-PDFF), which is an accurate and robust technique for liver fat estimation.
The patients also had blood tests of their liver enzyme levels and other biochemical parameters.
“After 20 weeks of treatment, the liver fat of patients receiving empagliflozin decreased from an average of 16.2 to 11.3 per cent, whereas the control group had only a decrease from 16.4 to 15.6 percent, a statistically significant difference between groups,” Dr Kuchay said.
“Overall, 25% of the control group had an increase in liver fat during the study period, half had no change, and 25% had a reduction. In the empagliflozin group, no patients had increased liver fat, 23% remained stable, and 77% experienced a decrease in liver fat.”
He said that the initial results are promising and open up the possibility that empagliflozin may provide additional benefits for patients with diabetes.
His study got much attention in the international media and was published by numerous newspapers and scientific journals worldwide.
Dr Kuchay was also invited by Medscape, a well-known professional medical website, for video CME presentation, along with Professor Silvio Inzucchi (USA), a renowned name in the field of diabetes research.