The bark giving diabetes therapy some bite: the SGLT inhibitors

Excerpt

Following on from the success of last year’s special edition of Diabetologia, celebrating 60 years’ clinical use of metformin, for this year’s special edition we have chosen to focus on the newest class of glucose-lowering agents, the sodium–glucose cotransporter (SGLT) inhibitors. The 2015 update to the 2012 joint position statement from the EASD and the ADA suggested that metformin was in general the optimal first-line glucose-lowering agent, and, based on their beneficial effects on glucose, weight and blood pressure, placed the SGLT inhibitors as second- or third-line agents, together with all the other classes [1]. The statement pointed out that data on microvascular and macrovascular outcomes were lacking for almost all agents. Since then, new evidence has accumulated, particularly for the SGLT2 inhibitors, which has delighted us and challenged us to rethink our approach to glucose lowering in type 2 diabetes. …