Effects of a New Group of Antidiabetic Drugs in Metabolic Diseases

Abstract

The prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is rising in the general population. This increase leads to higher cardiovascular risk, with cardiovascular diseases being the main cause of death in diabetic patients. New therapeutic weapons for diabetes mellitus are now available. Sodium-glucose cotransporter type 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors are novel drugs that are widely used due to their strong benefit in preventing hospitalization for decompensated heart failure and renal protection, limiting the deterioration of the glomerular filtration rate, independently of the presence of diabetes mellitus. These drugs have also shown benefit in the prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular events and cardiovascular mortality in diabetic patients with established cardiovascular disease. On the other hand, patients with T2DM usually present a high burden of associated comorbidities. Some of these entities are arterial hypertension, dyslipidemia, hyperuricemia, obesity, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), vascular aging, respiratory diseases, or osteoporosis and fractures. Healthcare professionals should treat these patients from an integral point of view, and not manage each pathology separately. Therefore, as potential mechanisms of SGLT2 inhibitors in metabolic diseases have not been fully reviewed, we conducted this review to know the current evidence of the use and effect of SGLT2 inhibitors on these metabolic diseases.

Keywords

• sglt2 inhibitors
• metabolic diseases
• type 2 diabetes mellitus