Evaluation of Anti-Inflammatory and Wound Healing Potential of Sodium Glucose Co-Transporter2 (SGLT2) Inhibitors

Wound healing is a very complex process involving many stages out of which inflammatory stage remains as a rate limiting phase. Most of the anti-inflammatory drugs were proven to speed up the wound healing process which is majorly achieved by migration of monocytes and neutrophils to the healing site along with leukocytes. The presence of inflammatory mediators like interleukins, TNF delay the healing process and so the drug that actively combats these mediators will prevent the prolongation of wound healing. On the other hand SGLT2 inhibitors otherwise called as Gliflozins are extensively used for their antidiabetic potential. These drugs were also proven to exhibit antihyperlipidemic, antioxidant, cardio-protective, antihypertensive activities. Considering this, Gliflozins like Canagliflozin, Dapagliflozin and Empagliflozin were employed to investigate their anti-inflammatory profile and their wound healing ability in vitro on VERO cell lines. Anti-inflammatory activity was investigated in vitro using protease inhibition assay at drug concentration of 200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000 𝜇g/ml. This showed that the selected Gliflozins exhibited good activity compared to that of the standard drug. Invitro cytotoxicity was determined using MTT assay on VERO cell lines and Canagliflozin showed a significant viability at 250𝜇g/ml compared to control. Similarly wound healing activity was determined invitro using scratch assay method. Dapagliflozin showed a significant activity of over 60% wound closure compared to the standard drug Phenytoin. Overall this work opens up a new route for exploring other medications in the SGLT2 inhibitor family for the aforementioned actions, as well as creating alternatives to the medication's principal action. This also allows for the avoidance and limitation of the use of multiple drugs for various pharmacological activities.