Translations:Discovery and development of gliflozins/16/en

Drug development

Phlorizin consists of glucose moiety and two aromatic rings (aglycone moiety) joined by an alkyl spacer. Initially, phlorizin was isolated for treatment of fever and infectious diseases, particularly malaria. According to Michael Nauck and his partners, studies were made in the 1950s on phlorizin that showed that it could block sugar transport in the kidney, small intestine, and a few other tissues. In the early 1990s, sodium/glucose cotransporter 2 was fully characterized, so the mechanism of phlorizin became of real interest. In later studies it was said that sugar-blocking effects of phlorizin was due to inhibition of the sodium/glucose cotransporter proteins.