Common diabetic drug that can prevent hemorrhage identified

A team of scientists has discovered a common diabetes drug that could prevent hemorrhage and fatal blood loss.

Scientists from Royal Holloway, University of London, St George's, University of London and University of Surrey have identified that a drug related to commonly used diabetes treatments provides protection against terminal blood loss.

This latest research has uncovered the way the diabetes drug can protect against changes occurring at a cellular level during severe blood loss.

Robin Williams from the School of Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway explained that the study provides strong evidence that compounds related to the treatment of diabetes could be used to protect against death induced by massive blood loss and save many lives.

He added that they began looking at a widely used treatment for epilepsy and bipolar disorder, valproic acid, which has been shown to protect against terminal blood loss, and by identifying how valproic acid works, they have been able to find more potent drugs, including compounds of the thiazolidinedione class of drugs that are used as hypoglycaemic treatments for diabetes.

The study is published in the British Journal of Pharmacology.