Dr. Konstantinos Drosatos and Lewis Katz School of Medicine Researchers Demonstrate for the First Time That Dual Diabetes Drugs Have a Toxic Effect on Mitochondria

Konstantinos Drosatos, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and Assistant Professor in the Center for Translational Medicine and Center for Metabolic Disease Research at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University (LKSOM), is the senior investigator on new research published in the journal JCI Insight. Dr. Drosatos and a team of LKSOM researchers examined dual PPARα/γ diabetes drugs, which try to tackle two major complications of diabetes – the excess of lipids and glucose in the blood – but whose benefits are often accompanied by dangerous toxic effects to the heart. The group showed for the first time that these drugs have a profound toxic effect on the generation and function of mitochondria, the tiny energy factories that power cells. Scienmag, ScienceDaily, News-Medical.net and other outlets reported on the findings.