NCT07022418

Formoterol in Diabetes

Prospective Randomized Pilot Trial of Formoterol in Patients With Diabetic Kidney Disease

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: Phase 2
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 120 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Medical University of South Carolina · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 75 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The purpose of the study is to evaluate if formoterol fumarate is effective in treating patients with diabetic kidney disease. Study participants will be randomly assigned to either receive formoterol fumarate (in addition to their current standard of care treatment) or standard of care treatment only. Study participants will have a 50% chance of receiving formoterol fumarate and a 50% chance of not receiving formoterol fumarate. Both groups will continue their standard of care treatment during the study. The primary goal is to gather data on feasibility and effect sizes to properly power a future clinical trial.

Detailed description

Glomerular function is highly dependent on specialized cells known as podocytes, which are critical components of glomeruli. Diseases affecting podocytes and the glomerulus, such as diabetes, are the leading causes of ESKD, and there are no specific therapies that restore injury-induced loss of podocyte structure and function. It was previously shown using mouse models of podocyte injury that formoterol fumarate, a long-acting β2-AR agonist given four hours following injury, when glomerular dysfunction is already established, restored glomerular structure, significantly reduced proteinuria, and accelerated recovery of glomerular function. To determine if a similar effect occurred in CKD, specifically DN, investigators used streptozotocin, a murine model of type 1 diabetes, and a high fat diet (HFD), a murine model of type 2 diabetes, to examine the role of formoterol fumarate in DN. Following formoterol fumarate treatment, there was a marked recovery from and reversal of DN in the streptozotocin and HFD mice treated with formoterol fumarate compared to those treated with vehicle alone at the ultrastructural, histological, and functional levels. Investigators also performed a competing risk regression in Veterans aged 65 or over with incident CKD stage 4 to compare the rate of ESKD progression in Veterans without and with COPD, who use β2-AR agonists. Investigators found a 25.6% reduction in the rate of ESKD in Veterans with COPD compared to those without4. In a second cohort of Veterans, Investigators demonstrated significantly slower progression from CKD stage 3 to CKD stage 5 in patients with COPD compared to those without COPD. Together these data indicate that β2-AR agonists, especially formoterol fumarate, may be a novel treatment for DN.

Conditions

• Diabetic Nephropathies
• Diabetic Kidney Disease

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DRUG	Formoterol furmarate (20 μg)	Investigators chose to use the long-acting β2-AR agonist, formoterol, because of its efficacy and safety profile in patients with COPD and because formoterol showed the most association with protection from progression of CKD in our retrospective study.

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-12-01
• Primary completion: 2026-12-01
• Completion: 2027-11-01
• First posted: 2025-06-15
• Last updated: 2026-02-05

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States

Regulatory

• FDA-regulated drug study