Vascular Endothelial Growth Factors and Risk of Cardio-renal Events: Results from the CREDENCE trial.

BACKGROUND

Circulating concentrations of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family members may be abnormally elevated in type 2 diabetes (T2D). The roles of placental growth factor (PlGF), soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFLT-1), and VEGF-A in cardio-renal complications of T2D are not established.

METHOD

2602 individuals with diabetic kidney disease (DKD) from the Canagliflozin and Renal Events in Diabetes with Established Nephropathy Clinical Evaluation trial were randomized to receive canagliflozin or placebo and followed for incident cardio-renal outcomes. PlGF, sFLT-1, and VEGF-A were measured at baseline, year 1, and year 3. Primary outcome was a composite of end-stage kidney disease, doubling of the serum creatinine, or renal/cardiovascular death. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to investigate the association between biomarkers with adverse clinical events.

RESULTS

At baseline, individuals with higher PlGF levels had more prevalent cardiovascular disease compared to those with lower values. Treatment with canagliflozin did not meaningfully change PlGF, sFLT-1, and VEGF-A concentrations at years 1 and 3. In a multivariable model, 1 unit increases in baseline log PlGF (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.76, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.23, 2.54, p-value = 0.002), sFLT-1 (HR: 3.34, [95% CI: 1.71, 6.52], p-value< 0.001), and PlGF/sFLT-1 ratio (HR: 4.83, [95% CI: 0.86, 27.01], p-value= 0.07) were associated with primary composite outcome, while 1 unit increase in log VEGF-A did not increase the risk of primary outcome (HR: 0.96 [95%CI: 0.81, 1.07]). Change by 1 year of each biomarker was also assessed: HR (95% CI) of primary composite outcome was 2.45 (1.70, 3.54) for 1 unit increase in 1-year concentration of log PlGF, 4.19 (2.18, 8.03) for 1 unit increase in 1-year concentration of log sFLT-1, and 21.08 (3.79, 117.4) for 1 unit increase in 1-year concentration of log PlGF/sFLT-1. Increase in 1-year concentrations of log VEGF-A was not associated with primary composite outcome (HR: 1.08, [95% CI: 0.93, 1.24], p-value=0.30).

CONCLUSIONS

People with T2D and DKD with elevated levels of PlGF, sFLT-1, and PlGF/sFLT-1 ratio were at a higher risk for cardiorenal events. Canagliflozin did not meaningfully decrease concentrations of PlGF, sFLT-1, and VEGF-A.

CLINICAL TRIAL

CREDENCE, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02065791.

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of competing interest Dr. Januzzi is a trustee of the American College of Cardiology; is a board member of Imbria Pharmaceuticals; is a director at Jana Care; has received grant support from Abbott, Applied Therapeutics, HeartFlow, Innolife, and Roche Diagnostics; has received consulting income from Abbott, Beckman, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Janssen, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche Diagnostics, and Siemens; and participates in clinical endpoint committees/data safety monitoring boards for Abbott, AbbVie, CVRx, Intercept, and Takeda. Drs. Tefera, Yavin, and Hansen are full-time employees of Jansen Research & Development, LLC. All other authors report no relevant disclosures.