Science
A day in the life: the scientist researching diabetic cardiomyopathy
BHF-funded scientist Stanley Buffonge tells us about his PhD research at the University of Bristol, on a heart condition that affects many people with diabetes.
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Who is your research trying to help?
My research is focused on diabetic cardiomyopathy. “Cardio” means heart, “myo” means muscle and “pathy” means disease. So it’s a problem in which the heart muscle can’t function as well as it should. It can really impact people’s daily lives, as they can feel fatigued and breathless, and it can lead to heart failure. Heart failure means the heart is unable to pump effectively to meet the needs of the body. In diabetic cardiomyopathy, the heart muscle problems are caused by damage from diabetes specifically.
So how might diabetes be damaging the heart in diabetic cardiomyopathy?
Lining the inside of blood vessels is an important structure called the glycocalyx. The glycocalyx is made-up of different sugars – “glyco” means sugar and “calyx” means husk.
The glycocalyx controls how easily things such as water and larger molecules can go in and out of the blood vessels. Imagine it as a gatekeeper. The heart is extremely sensitive to changes in its water balance and even a slight change can cause the heart not to work as well, so if this gatekeeper is damaged it can cause problems.
There are certain enzymes (substances that kickstart chemical reactions) in the blood, which breakdown the glycocalyx. In diabetes there’s an increase in these enzymes. We think this might be one way the heart muscle is damaged in people with diabetic cardiomyopathy. But we need to understand this process better.
What is your research aiming to do?
My project is focused on how to protect the glycocalyx. We’ve found that when you stop these enzymes (called matrix metalloproteinases, or MMPs, for short), not only is the glycocalyx protected but the heart works better again too. We want to see whether this protection has the potential to prevent further damage to the heart muscle.
The hope is that one day this research will lead to the development of specific treatments that can target the MMPs breaking down the glycocalyx, and so prevent diabetic cardiomyopathy from getting worse.
What got you interested in this work?
I’ve always been interested in diabetes because it’s impacted a lot of people in my life, including family members and I’ve seen the harm it has done them.
Also, Black people in the UK are more at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. That’s pushed me to go and gain knowledge in this area, because I feel like I’m in a position to go back to the community and translate this information. I go to various health events and programmes and share what I know and also learn more.
I also helped develop Black in Cardio, a platform that brings together Black scientists and medical professionals from across the world. Historically a lot of research has been Euro-centric, which means findings might not be as translatable to everyone else. We need to start diversifying research more, because when you lack representation in certain spaces, the downstream effect is that it will impact the community itself.
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