Diabetic Ketoacidosis From New SGLT2i: Can Genomics Estimate Risk

Sodium glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors have revolutionized care for people living with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). They reduce a person's risk of heart failure, renal failure, myocardial infarction, stroke, cardiovascular mortality, and potentially all-cause mortality. Remarkably, some of these benefits also extend to people who do not have T2DM. While the benefits of SGLT2 inhibitors are impressive, there is one life-threatening side effect associated with their use: diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). The ability to predict which patients are at highest risk of DKA is needed to sufficiently mitigate this risk. Moreover, considering the impressive benefits of SGLT2 inhibitors, identifying patients at the lowest risk of SGLT2 inhibitor-associated DKA is also important so that providers do not overestimate risk in those who stand to benefit most. Advances in genomic technologies and related analyses have provided unprecedented opportunities to bring genomics-driven precision medicine initiatives to the forefront of clinical research. Leading these developments has been the progress made by genome-wide association studies (GWAS) due to decreasing genotyping costs, and consequently, the ability to routinely study large numbers of patients. These approaches allow for systematic screening of the genome in an unbiased manner and have accelerated the discovery of genetic variants and novel biological processes that contribute to the development of adverse treatment outcomes. By using innovative approaches, which harness large cohorts of population controls, sample size limitations that are associated with rare adverse drug reactions such as SGLT2 inhibitor-associated DKA can be overcome. The DANGER study represents a highly innovative new direction wherein partnership among basic science researchers and computational biologists will lead to the application of genomic techniques to identify genetic variants that may be associated with SGLT2 inhibitor-associated DKA.