PCSK9 Inhibitor Trends in Type 1 Diabetes

HealthDay News — Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) is increased in young females and youth with type 1 diabetes (T1D), according to research published online in Diabetes Care.

Amy E. Levenson, MD, from Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues measured PCSK9 levels in a subset of a previously described cohort of young people with T1D and controls. The authors examined the correlation between PCSK9 and age, body mass index, hemoglobin A1c, blood pressure, triglycerides, cholesterol, and apolipoprotein B (ApoB) in 74 controls (age, 15.4 years) and 176 young people with T1D (age, 15.2 years).

The researchers found that females and individuals with T1D had significantly higher PCSK9 concentrations. There were increases in PCSK9 levels from 187±67 ng/mL in control-group males to 215±83 ng/mL in control-group females, and from 253±98 ng/mL to 299 ± 106 ng/mL in males and females with T1D, respectively (P <.002 for the effects of sex; P <.0001 for the effects of T1D; P =.864 for interaction). There was a significant correlation for PCSK9 with total cholesterol and ApoB in the control group, and with hemoglobin A1c, triglycerides, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and ApoB in the T1D group.

“Future work will be necessary to understand the contribution of PCSK9 to the dyslipidemia and increased cardiovascular disease risk associated with T1D, particularly in females,” the authors wrote.

Reference

Levenson R, Wadwa P, Shah A , et al. PCSK9 is increased in youth with type 1 diabetes [published online June 6, 2017]. Diabetes Care. doi:10.2337/dc16-2563