Renal effects of SGLT2 inhibitors in cardiovascular patients with and without chronic kidney disease: focus on heart failure and renal outcomes

The kidney has a prominent role in maintaining glucose homeostasis by using glucose as a metabolic substrate. This occurs by generating glucose through gluconeogenesis, and by reuptaking filtered glucose through the sodium–glucose cotransporters SGLT1 and SGLT2 located in the proximal tubule. In recent studies, the administration of sodium–glucose cotransporters inhibitors demonstrated that inhibition of renal glucose reabsorption significantly reduces adverse renal events and heart failure exacerbations, in type 2 diabetic patients with and without cardiovascular damage as well as in advanced chronic kidney disease and heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction with and without diabetes. The benefit was consistent throughout the different investigated clinical conditions, ameliorating overall patient outcome. The efficacy of sodium glucose cotransporters inhibitors was prominently linked to the limitation of renal damage as highlighted by the significant reduction on global mortality achieved in the studies investigating diabetic and not diabetic populations with advanced chronic kidney disease. Both studies were halted at the interim analysis because of unquestionable evidence of treatment benefit. In current review, we examine the role of SGLT2 and SGLT1 in the regulation of renal glucose reabsorption in health and disease and the effect of SGLT2 inhibition on clinical outcomes of populations with different cardiovascular conditions investigated with large-scale outcome trials.