Diabetes Management through α-Glucosidase Inhibitors Challenges and Current Perspectives

Abstract

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) known as non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, is a chronic metabolic disorder caused by insulin deficiency or insulin resistance. The incidence of T2DM is increasing day by day. According to data from World Health Organization (WHO), the number of diabetic patients is expected to rise up to 642 million by 2040.This alarming situation needs proper treatment to control diabetes. Physicians mostly prescribe insulin based medications, but in this new medical era, α-glucosidase inhibitors (AGIs) based drug therapy possess tremendous preventive and potential inhibitory effect upon the over expression of the enzyme which digests the carbohydrate macromolecules and breaks down into single chain monomeric α-glucose units. As a result, carbohydrate breaks down gradually decreases, which slowing down the absorption of post prandial glucose PPG, regulating the blood glucose level. This review article addresses about the management of T2DM through AGIs along with new potential leads from natural products in the pipeline of new AGI drugs development from synthetic and natural origin.