Publications by authors named "Kent R Heberer"
Article Synopsis
- The study aimed to find new uses for existing drugs to help manage diabetes while controlling blood sugar levels, using a low-cost method for drug discovery.
- Researchers developed a drug-repurposing pipeline that identified and validated 20 drug-gene pairs linked to diabetes, showing that certain medications, especially calcium channel blockers, effectively reduce blood glucose levels.
- The findings suggest that calcium channel blockers are promising candidates for managing both blood glucose and cardiovascular health, highlighting the potential for this approach in repurposing drugs for other medical conditions.
Background: Maintaining a healthy lifestyle to reduce type 2 diabetes (T2D) risk is challenging and additional strategies for T2D prevention are needed. We evaluated several lipid control medications as potential therapeutic options for T2D prevention using tissue-specific predicted gene expression summary statistics in a two-sample Mendelian randomisation (MR) design.
Methods: Large-scale European genome-wide summary statistics for lipids and T2D were leveraged in our multi-stage analysis to estimate changes in either lipid levels or T2D risk driven by tissue-specific predicted gene expression.
Background: Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an X-linked recessive genetic disorder, that is characterized by progressive muscle degeneration and loss of ambulation between 7-13 years of age. Novel pharmacological agents targeting the genetic defects and disease mechanisms are becoming available; however, corticosteroid (CS) therapy remains the standard of care.
Objective: The purpose of this longitudinal study was to elucidate the effect of CS therapy on the rate of muscle strength and gross motor skill decline in boys with DMD and assess the sensitivity of selected outcome measures.
Introduction: Natural history studies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) have not included measures of community ambulation.
Methods: Step activity (SA) monitors quantified community ambulation in 42 boys (ages 4-16 years) with DMD with serial enrollment up to 5 years by using a repeated-measures mixed model. Additionally, data were compared with 10-meter walk/run (10mWR) speed to determine validity and sensitivity.