ANTDIABETIC ACTIVITY

Overview of Diabetes

Diabetes is a syndrome associated with excess blood sugar due to either low levels of insulin production by the pancreas or insulin resistance. Diabetes can lead to a variety of illnesses including heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, blindness, limb amputations and birth defects. It is estimated that around 250 million people in the world are living with diabetes today and this number will increase to around 380 million by 2025 (WHO prediction). The US alone has 20.8 million people suffering from diabetes (LeadDiscovery, 2009) while the UK hosts about 2.5 million sufferers (Diabetes UK).   Diabetes has also become a major cause of premature illness and death in many countries, mainly through the increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. According to WHO estimates, over 1.1 million people around the world die annually directly from diabetes. The number of people whose death was recorded as heart disease or kidney failure where diabetes was a contributory factor is, however, considerably higher. Accordingly, diabetes related causes account for over 3.8 million deaths; equivalent to one death every ten seconds and claiming the lives of as many people as HIV/AIDS (Espicom 2009).

According to Diabetes UK reports,  the incidence of Type-1 diabetes (lack of insulin) in children is rising at a rate of three to four percent a year. The increase in Type-2 diabetes (insulin resistance) which has been closely linked to an aging population is also rapidly rising together with the numbers of obese or overweight people. Type-2 diabetes, traditionally a condition associated with older age groups, is now also appearing in children and adolescents.

 The economic impact and market share of antidiabetic drugs

It is estimated that the global diabetes therapy market is at around US$26.3 billion in 2009 and is expected to grow to around US$34.5 billion by 2013 (Espicom 2009). Market analysis by various interested groups indicates that oral antidiabetic drugs account for around 39% of the total market value. Metformin is the recommended first-line therapy for Type-2 diabetes and accounts for around 11-12% of the total market value. Other oral agents include sulphonylureas, thiazolidinediones (TZDs or glitazones), glinides and α-glucosidase inhibitors. Many of these are reported to be widely available generically and the sales of leading proprietary oral agents are now over US$7 billion. There are also quite few current trials and developments in insulin formulations, injectable glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists, oral dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors, etc, but the hope still is on the discovery of novel antidiabetic drugs. With widely accepted prediction of an already large market for diabetes medications to show continuous growth, the potential of drug discovery researches in this area is enormous.

Our Research Strategy

Being aware of the impact of scientific research in this field, we introduced several bioassay systems by the beginning of 2009. Our strategy is to study  medicinal plants with claimed traditional uses for the management of diabetes. When activity is detected, we undertake a comprehensive bioassay-guided isolation study to identify the active principles. The following are among the most relevant bioassay screens of interest:

·         Inhibition of the catalytic activity of α-glucosidase leads to the retardation of glucose absorption from the gut leading to decreased level of  postprandial blood glucose. We are targeting this  enzyme by natural products to identify chemotherapeutic agents for diabetes as well as obesity.

·         The common feature of hyperglycaemia is glycation reaction resulting in the formation of various products which are commonly associated with diabetes, aging and neurodegenerative diseases: We use an in vitro model of protein glycation measurements.

·         Compounds that enhance insulin-dependent increase in glucose uptake in adiposities and myoblasts are regarded as antidiabetic agents:  glucose transport in cultured cells is a relevant method of sugar uptake study.

By using our bioassay guided phytochemistry studies, we have  identified several hit extracts -  we would like to hear from anyone with similar interests...Contact

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