Publications by authors named "Geoffrey Walford"

Phase I trials inform on the initial safety profile of a new molecule and impact whether further development is pursued or not. Understanding the effect of non-pharmacological factors on the variability of routine safety parameters could improve decision making in these early clinical trials, helping to separate signals related to the new molecule from background "noise." To understand the impact of non-pharmacological factors on routine safety parameters, we evaluated pooled safety data from over 1000 healthy participants treated with placebo in phase I trials between 2009 and 2018.

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Cell and gene therapy (CGT) describes a broad category of medicinal products with potential applications to prevent and treat human disease in multiple therapeutic areas. These therapies leverage the use of modified nucleic acids, altered cells or tissue, or both. The modality, mechanism, route of administration, and therapeutic indication for a CGT product will influence the challenges and opportunities for early clinical development, some of which may be highly specific to the product under consideration.

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Insulin molecules of size much greater than natural insulin have been synthesized and studied with the intention of widening the therapeutic window between adequate glycemic control and hypoglycemia as compared with conventional insulins. MK-1092 is a synthetic insulin dimer with favorable properties demonstrated in preclinical studies. Here, we report the results of the first-in-human, randomized, double-blind, active-control, single ascending dose trial of MK-1092, conducted in healthy adults, adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D), and adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D).

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Insulin analogs have been developed to treat diabetes with focus primarily on improving the time action profile without affecting ligand-receptor interaction or functional selectivity. As a result, inherent liabilities (e.g.

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Natriuretic peptides are cardiac-derived hormones that enhance insulin sensitivity and reduce fat accumulation. Low natriuretic peptide levels are associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2); a condition with variable prevalence across racial/ethnic groups. Few studies have examined whether circulating natriuretic peptide levels and their response to preventive interventions for DM2 differ by race/ethnicity.

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Article Synopsis
  • - A study was conducted to assess the safety and effectiveness of bexagliflozin, a medication for type 2 diabetes, at three different doses (5, 10, and 20 mg) over 12 weeks, comparing it to a placebo in patients who had minimal previous medication exposure.
  • - Results showed that all doses of bexagliflozin significantly reduced HbA1c levels, with the 20 mg dose showing the most substantial decrease, along with improvements in fasting plasma glucose and body mass.
  • - The medication had a similar incidence of adverse effects as the placebo, indicating it is generally safe; further research is recommended to explore its long-term effects for managing type 2 diabetes.
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Coronary artery disease (CAD) is more frequent among individuals with dysglycemia. Preventive interventions for diabetes can improve cardiometabolic risk factors (CRFs), but it is unclear whether the benefits on CRFs are similar for individuals at different genetic risk for CAD. We built a 201-variant polygenic risk score (PRS) for CAD and tested for interaction with diabetes prevention strategies on 1-year changes in CRFs in 2,658 Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) participants.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to assess the safety and effectiveness of bexagliflozin, a medication for type 2 diabetes, over a 96-week period compared to a placebo.
  • It involved 288 adults from the USA, Colombia, and Mexico, showing a significant reduction in HbA1c levels and beneficial changes in body mass and blood pressure for those taking bexagliflozin.
  • The results indicated that bexagliflozin was well tolerated, with fewer serious adverse events and urinary tract infections compared to the placebo group, demonstrating it provided meaningful improvements in diabetes management.
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Objective A haplotype at chromosome 17p13 that reduces expression and function of the solute carrier transporter SLC16A11 is associated with increased risk for type 2 diabetes in Mexicans. We aim to investigate the detailed metabolic profile of SLC16A11 risk haplotype carriers to identify potential physiological mechanisms explaining the increased type 2 diabetes risk. Design Cross-sectional study.

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Objective: To assess whether an ethnic-specific variant (p.E508K) in the maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) gene hepatocyte nuclear factor-1α () found in Mexicans is associated with higher sensitivity to sulfonylureas, as documented in patients with MODY3.

Research Design And Methods: We recruited 96 participants (46 variant carriers and 50 age- and sex-matched noncarriers).

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Aims/hypothesis: Identifying the metabolite profile of individuals with normal fasting glucose (NFG [<5.55 mmol/l]) who progressed to type 2 diabetes may give novel insights into early type 2 diabetes disease interception and detection.

Methods: We conducted a population-based prospective study among 1150 Framingham Heart Study Offspring cohort participants, age 40-65 years, with NFG.

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Weight loss is a key factor in reducing diabetes risk. The Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) is a completed clinical trial that randomly assigned individuals at high risk of diabetes to a placebo (PLBO), metformin (MET), or intensive lifestyle intervention (ILS) group, which included physical activity (PA) and reduced dietary fat intake. We aimed to evaluate the associations between diet and weight at baseline and to identify specific dietary factors that predicted weight loss among DPP participants.

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Background: Patients with type 1 diabetes routinely utilize a single premeal fingerstick glucose to determine premeal insulin doses. Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) provides much richer glycemic trend information, including glycemic slope (GS). How to incorporate this information into dosing decisions remains an open question.

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Article Synopsis
  • Type 2 diabetes (T2D) affects over 415 million people globally, and genetic analysis of 8,227 T2D individuals and 12,966 non-T2D individuals of Latino descent identified a novel variant linked to a ~20% reduced risk for the disease.
  • This genetic variant, prevalent in the Mexican population but rare in Europe, inhibits splicing between specific regions of a gene and correlates with decreased expression of a particular protein isoform (isoform 2) associated with T2D risk.
  • Findings indicate that lowering isoform 2 expression could be a promising therapeutic approach for T2D across broader populations without significant adverse health impacts.
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Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have found few common variants that influence fasting measures of insulin sensitivity. We hypothesized that a GWAS of an integrated assessment of fasting and dynamic measures of insulin sensitivity would detect novel common variants. We performed a GWAS of the modified Stumvoll Insulin Sensitivity Index (ISI) within the Meta-Analyses of Glucose and Insulin-Related Traits Consortium.

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Identifying novel biomarkers of type 2 diabetes risk may improve prediction and prevention among individuals at high risk of the disease and elucidate new biological pathways relevant to diabetes development. We performed plasma metabolite profiling in the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), a completed trial that randomized high-risk individuals to lifestyle, metformin, or placebo interventions. Previously reported markers, branched-chain and aromatic amino acids and glutamine/glutamate, were associated with incident diabetes (P < 0.

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Background: Elevated fasting levels of branched chain amino acids (BCAAs: valine, isoleucine, leucine) in venous blood are associated with a variety of metabolic impairments, including increased risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D). Fasting BCAA levels are influenced by non-dietary factors. However, it is unknown whether fasting BCAAs can be altered through manipulation of dietary intake alone.

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Objective: Genome-wide association studies have uncovered a large number of genetic variants associated with type 2 diabetes or related phenotypes. In many cases the causal gene or polymorphism has not been identified, and its impact on response to anti-hyperglycemic medications is unknown. The Study to Understand the Genetics of the Acute Response to Metformin and Glipizide in Humans (SUGAR-MGH, NCT01762046) is a novel resource of genetic and biochemical data following glipizide and metformin administration.

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Background: Obesity is associated with cardiometabolic disease, including insulin resistance (IR) and diabetes. Cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) signaling affects energy balance, IR, and glucose metabolism in experimental models. We sought to examine effects of phosphodiesterase-5 inhibition with tadalafil on IR in a pilot study of obese nondiabetic individuals.

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Objective: A genetic risk score (GRS) comprised of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and metabolite biomarkers have each been shown, separately, to predict incident type 2 diabetes. We tested whether genetic and metabolite markers provide complementary information for type 2 diabetes prediction and, together, improve the accuracy of prediction models containing clinical traits.

Research Design And Methods: Diabetes risk was modeled with a 62-SNP GRS, nine metabolites, and clinical traits.

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Importance: Latino populations have one of the highest prevalences of type 2 diabetes worldwide.

Objectives: To investigate the association between rare protein-coding genetic variants and prevalence of type 2 diabetes in a large Latino population and to explore potential molecular and physiological mechanisms for the observed relationships.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Whole-exome sequencing was performed on DNA samples from 3756 Mexican and US Latino individuals (1794 with type 2 diabetes and 1962 without diabetes) recruited from 1993 to 2013.

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Aims/hypothesis: We aimed to study the relationship between measures of adiposity, insulin sensitivity and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) in the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP).

Methods: The DPP is a completed clinical trial. Using stored samples from this resource, we measured BMI, waist circumference (WC), an insulin sensitivity index (ISI; [1/HOMA-IR]) and NT-proBNP at baseline and at 2 years of follow-up in participants randomised to placebo (n = 692), intensive lifestyle intervention (n = 832) or metformin (n = 887).

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Objective: Elevated circulating levels of branched chain and aromatic amino acids (BCAA/AAAs) are associated with insulin resistance and incident type 2 diabetes (T2D). BCAA/AAAs decrease acutely during an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), a diagnostic test for T2D. It is unknown whether changes in BCAA/AAAs also signal an early response to commonly used medical therapies for T2D.

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Because metabolites are hypothesized to play key roles as markers and effectors of cardiometabolic diseases, recent studies have sought to annotate the genetic determinants of circulating metabolite levels. We report a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 217 plasma metabolites, including >100 not measured in prior GWAS, in 2076 participants of the Framingham Heart Study (FHS). For the majority of analytes, we find that estimated heritability explains >20% of interindividual variation, and that variation attributable to heritable factors is greater than that attributable to clinical factors.

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