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THE TURNER-WARWICK LECTURER SCHEME 2021

The Turner-Warwick lecturer scheme is named after the Royal College of Physician’s first female president, Professor Dame Margaret Turner-Warwick, and commemorates her life-time achievements through recognising the exceptional work of Royal College of Physician’s trainees in the UK. The prestigious scheme showcases trainees’ contributions to healthcare as well as their ability to communicate and reach across wide-ranging medical training specialties and levels.  

DR RAJNA GOLUBIC

OUCAGS are delighted to congratulate Dr Rajna Golubic, one of our NIHR CLs, who has been selected as the overall National Winner of the Turner-Warwick Lecturer Scheme with her lecture ‘Novel treatments to improve metabolic health in obesity and type 2 diabetes: the effects of cotadutide’. The award was made by Dr Andrew Goddard, PRCP, and Dr Cathryn Edwards, RRCP. Dr Golubic will present her lecture again at the Medicine 2022 conference

ABOUT DR RAJNA GOLUBIC'S LECTURE

Dr Golubic's lecture presented the evolving landscape of the management of metabolic disorders associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D) using a novel promising drug cotadutide with a similar mechanism of action to naturally occurring hormones glucagon-like peptide 1 and glucagon. Cotadutide is in development for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and kidney disease, which are metabolic complications of obesity and T2D. There is a major unmet need for therapies which improve metabolic health and achieve disease-modifying weight loss thus increasing the chance of additional improvements in glucose, cardiovascular risk and mortality and slowing or reversing the disease progression.

In collaboration with AstraZeneca, Dr Golubic and colleagues conducted a randomised controlled study on 19 obese volunteers with T2D over 10 visits to determine the mechanism by which cotadutide causes weight loss. They performed comprehensive assessments of energy balance (intake and expenditure) using state-of-the-art methods in our NIHR Cambridge Clinical Research Facility (room calorimetry, energy intake monitors). After 42 days of treatment, an average weight loss was 4.0% in cotadutide group and 1.4% in placebo group (p=0.011, primary outcome). Strikingly, energy intake was 41% lower compared to placebo (p=0.037) while energy expenditure was initially unchanged, but after 6 weeks decreased in cotadutide group (p<0.001). There was a marked improvement in glucose control and lipid profile in cotadutide group. No safety concerns were raised.

This mechanistic study has determined that cotadutide promotes weight loss predominantly through reduction in appetite and energy intake with preservation of energy expenditure in the early phases of treatment.

DR GOLUBIC'S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Dr Golubic would like to acknowledge Dr Mark Evans, reader in diabetic medicine and PI (Institute of Metabolic Science Cambridge); Jane Kennet, study coordinator; NIHR Cambridge Clinical Research Facility team; and AstraZeneca (funder)