Sodium-glucose transporter 2 inhibitors in type 2 diabetes mellitus: navigating between Scylla and Charybdis.

ABSTRACT

Despite the extensive pharmacopeia for type 2 diabetes mellitus treatment, long-term glycemic control is far from being optimal, and morbimortality has increased. This demonstrates the importance of developing drugs with new mechanisms of actions, such as sodium-glucose transporter (SGLT) inhibitors (Charybdis). Since the beginning of 2000, numerous SGLT2-inhibitors have been developed and have started to be tested (Scylla) by the pharmaceutical companies that are engaged in this race. Although reductions in hemoglobin A1c have been shown in clinical trials, several issues related to the use of SGLT2 inhibitors deserve further investigation, rendering some aspects of their true safety still uncertain.