Autophagy stimulation and intracellular sodium reduction as mediators of the cardioprotective effect of sodium–glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors

In five large‐scale trials involving >40 000 patients, sodium–glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors decreased the risk of serious heart failure events by 25–40%. This effect cannot be explained by control of hyperglycaemia, since it is not observed with antidiabetic drugs with greater glucose‐lowering effects. It cannot be attributed to ketogenesis, since it is not causally linked to ketone body production, and the benefit is not...