Mechanism of the cardioprotective effect of empagliflozin on diabetic nephropathy mice based on the basis of proteomics

Abstract

Diabetic nephropathy affects a significant proportion of individuals with diabetes, and its progression often leads to cardiovascular disease and infections before the need for renal replacement therapy arises. Empagliflozin has been shown to have various protective effects in cardiovascular disease studies, such as improving diabetic myocardial structure and function, and reducing myocardial oxidative stress. However, the impact of empagliflozin on cardiac protein expression and signaling pathways has not been comprehensively analyzed. To address this gap, we conducted proteome analysis to identify specific protein markers in cardiac tissue from the diabetes model group, including Myh7, Wdr37, Eif3k, Acot1, Acot2, Cat, and Scp2, in cardiac tissue from the diabetes model group. In our drug model, empagliflozin primarily modulates the fat-related metabolic signaling pathway within the heart. Empagliflozin downregulated the protein expression levels of ACOX1, ACADVL and CPT1A in the model group. Overall, our findings demonstrate that empagliflozin provides cardiac protection by targeting metabolic signaling pathways, particularly those related to fat metabolism. Moreover, the identification of cardiac biomarkers in a mouse model of diabetic nephropathy lays the foundation for further exploration of disease biomarkers in cardiac tissue.