VeroScience is Pleased to Support Independent Research from the Laboratory of Dr. DeFronzo and Team at UT Health Science Center, San Antonio

TIVERTON, Rhode Island, June 11, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- VeroScience LLC, is pleased to announce that independent research conducted by Dr. Ralph DeFronzo and his team at UT Health Science Center at San Antonio ("Health Science Center") has continued to delineate metabolic targets of VeroScience's Cycloset® in reducing hyperglycemia in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. The study has also identified positive influences of the therapy upon vascular risk factors of cardiovascular disease.

According to preliminary findings, adjunct therapy with bromocriptine-QR, a dopamine D2 receptor agonist, improves glycemic control in T2DM patients in part by reducing oral glucose appearance in the circulation after a meal, (i.e., decreases post-meal hyperglycemia). The results of this group indicate that treatment of T2DM patients with bromocriptine-QR likely enhances post-meal glucose uptake in the liver. Additionally, the observed beneficial effects in this study on several vascular risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including elevated blood pressure, resting heart rate, and arterial stiffness, following bromocriptine-QR treatment may help explain the previously observed reduction in cardiovascular events associated with use of the agent.

More information about this research may be found at the 2016 American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions in New Orleans, La. from June 10-14, 2016 on Poster #1802-P in category 21-B Integrated Physiology–liver. There will be a General Poster session Monday, June 13, 2016 from 12-2 pm.

Dr. DeFronzo, Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Diabetes Division at University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, and Deputy Director, Texas Diabetes Institute, commented, "In this small mechanistic study, Bromocriptine-QR therapy significantly improved glycemic control in T2DM subjects whose glycemia was poorly controlled on GLP-1 analog therapy. These study findings suggest that the effect of bromocriptine-QR to improve glycemic control in T2DM patients is primarily during the post-meal state and likely involves an increased glucose disposal in liver. The findings of improvement in multiple vascular risk factors for cardiovascular disease are consistent with and may in part explain the previously reported reduction of adverse cardiovascular events observed with use of this anti-diabetes therapy."

About Cycloset and the Biological Clock

Preclinical studies indicate that while an increase in dopamine activity leads to improvements in diabetes, the time of day of the increased dopamine activity is also important. Studies in diabetic animals have shown that increased dopaminergic activity at a particular time of day is most effective in "resetting" the biological clock neurochemistry to a physiology that improves diabetic dysmetabolism. Taken orally, once-a-day, in the morning, Cycloset provides a single brief pulse of dopamine agonist activity shortly after its administration. Morning Cycloset improves post-prandial glucose without increasing plasma insulin concentrations and the beneficial effects of Cycloset on post-meal glycemic control in patients with Type 2 diabetes are demonstrable many hours after the drug has been substantially cleared from the circulation, for example at lunch and dinner.    

SOURCE VeroScience