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Diabetic heart disease

Targeting glycogen clearance to treat diabetic cardiomyopathy

Nature Cardiovascular Research volume 4, pages 1454–1456 (2025)Cite this article

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Cardiac dysfunction in diabetes is linked to metabolic stress, lipid overload and fibrosis. A study now demonstrates impaired glycogen clearance as a central disease mechanism, in which failed glycophagy drives glycogen accumulation and creates a metabolic ‘sugar trap’ that can be targeted therapeutically.

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Fig. 1: The sugar trap in diabetic cardiomyopathy.

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Acknowledgements

The CNIC is supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MICIU) and the Pro CNIC Foundation, and is a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence (grant CEX2020-001041-S funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033). J.A.B. acknowledges funding from the MCIU under grant PID2023-151105OB-I00.

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  1. Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC), Madrid, Spain

    Nieves García-Quintáns & Juan A. Bernal

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  1. Nieves García-Quintáns
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  2. Juan A. Bernal
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Correspondence to Juan A. Bernal.

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The authors do not declare any conflict of interest.

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García-Quintáns, N., Bernal, J.A. Targeting glycogen clearance to treat diabetic cardiomyopathy. Nat Cardiovasc Res 4, 1454–1456 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44161-025-00733-y

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