ISSN: 2574-7770
Authors: AL Kury L.T* and Abdoh A
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic metabolic disorder affecting a vast number of people all around the world. Diabetes is mainly characterized by chronic hyperglycemia, resulting from defects in insulin secretion or insulin action, or both. To date, several glucose-lowering drugs have been used clinically. These drugs exert their anti-diabetic effect by stimulating insulin secretion, increasing peripheral absorption of glucose, delaying the absorption of carbohydrates from the intestine and reducing hepatic gluconeogenesis. The concern over effectiveness and side effects of currently available therapies in the treatment of Type 2 DM (T2DM) has promoted interest in discovery and development of natural antidiabetic drugs. Plants used in folk medicine to treat DM represent a viable alternative for the control of this disease. Several plants with antidiabetic properties exert their effects by inhibiting ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channels in the β-cell plasma membrane, resulting in membrane depolarization and stimulation of insulin release from insulin stores by exocytosis. In this article, we examined the results of earlier studies on the actions of natural compounds on pancreatic KATP channels. It is likely that these natural compounds can be employed as lead structures for the synthesis of therapeutic agents to treat T2DM in future clinical studies.
Keywords: Diabetes Mellitus; Natural Plant Products; KATP channels
