Gliflozins for Diabetes: From Bark to Bench to Bedside
By Philip A. Rea
Drugs targeting the kidneys for diabetes treatment stem from almost two centuries of research that began with an uprooted apple orchard.
This Article From Issue
November-December 2024
Volume 112, Number 6
Page 360
Almost two millennia ago, a Greek physician from a rugged plateau in the middle of present-day Turkey was confronted with patients in Alexandria who urinated excessively and complained of insatiable thirst. An eclectic scholar known for reviving the teachings of Hippocrates, Aretaeus of Cappadocia called the disease “diabetes,” from the Greek word for “siphon.” English physician Thomas Willis (1621–1675) is often credited as the first to add the descriptor mellitus (Latin for “honey-sweet”), which refers to the smell and taste of sugar in the urine, a characteristic that many ancient physicians had also observed.
QUICK TAKE
- Drugs targeting the kidneys for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus are a recent development, despite the long-known association between the disease and renal function.
- These drugs, called gliflozins, trace their origins to the chance relocation of a researcher’s apple orchard and the discovery of phlorizin, a compound found in apple tree bark.
- Gliflozins inhibit a protein that enables the kidney to reabsorb urinary glucose; the result is more glucose in the urine and less in the bloodstream.
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