5 Oral Hypoglycaemic Drugs

Abstract

The search for hypoglycaemic or antidiabetic drugs effective when given by mouth was stimulated by the isolation of insulin. There has been renewed interest in the hypoglycaemic action of salicylates. Salicylates have been known to reduce the blood and urine sugar concentrations in diabetic patients' but adequate doses of acetylsalicylic acid produce troublesome side effects and this limits their clinical usefulness for the treatment of diabetes. The present era of renewed interest in oral hypoglycaemic agents began in 1942 when Janbon, Chaptal, Vedel, and Schaap, while assessing the antibacterial properties of 5-isopropyl-2-sulphanilamido1-, 3,4-thiadiazole in typhoid fever, discovered the dramatic hypoglycaemic action of the sulphonamide. Recently, the hypoglycaemic properties of many other sulphonamide derivatives have been discovered. This chapter is concerned chiefly with the new arylsulphonylurea compounds and the guanidine derivatives.