Association Between Specificity of Sulfonylureas to Cardiac Mitochondrial KATP Channels and the Risk of Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events in Type 2 Diabetes.

OBJECTIVE: Previous studies have revealed an intraclass difference in major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) among sulfonylureas. In vitro and ex vivo studies reported several sulfonylureas to exhibit high-affinity blockage of cardiac mitochondrial ATP-sensitive potassium (mitoKATP) channels and could interfere with ischemic preconditioning, the most important mechanism of self-cardiac protection. However, no studies have examined whether these varying binding affinities of sulfonylureas could account for their intraclass difference in MACE. We compared mitoKATP channel high-affinity versus low-affinity sulfonylureas regarding the MACE risk in real-world settings. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Using the Taiwan nationwide health care claims database, patients with type 2 diabetes initiating sulfonylurea monotherapy between 2007 and 2016 were included in the cohort study. A total of 33,727 new mitoKATP channel high-affinity (glyburide and glipizide) and low-affinity (gliclazide and glimepiride) sulfonylurea users, respectively, were identified after 1:1 propensity score matching. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) and 95% CI. RESULTS: MitoKATP channel high-affinity sulfonylureas were associated with a significantly increased risk of three-point MACE (aHR 1.21 [95% CI 1.03-1.44]), ischemic stroke (aHR 1.23 [95% CI 1.02-1.50]), and cardiovascular death (aHR 2.61 [95% CI 1.31-5.20]), but not with that of myocardial infarction (aHR 1.04 [95% CI 0.75-1.46]). The duration-response analyses revealed the highest MACE risk to be within 90 days of therapy (aHR 4.67 [95% CI 3.61-6.06]). CONCLUSIONS: Cardiac mitoKATP channel high-affinity sulfonylureas were associated with an increased MACE risk compared with low-affinity sulfonylureas in a nationwide population with diabetes.