The role of incretins in the management of glycaemic control in diabetes

摘要

There is a rapidly increasing incidence of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) throughout the world and the age of onset is decreasing. In order to prevent the serious long term complications of T2DM good glycaemic control is required and at present the number of patients achieving good glycaemic control is limited. Newer and more novel treatments are required to give patients better control over blood glucose concentration, increase compliance and reduce complications. A new class of agent, incretin mimetics, and incretin enhancers have shown promising results in early trials and it is these drugs that this paper will focus. The incretin mimetic exenatide and Dipeptidyl Peptidase-4 inhibitor, Sitagliptin, have both yielded good results in improving glycaemic control when used in combination with traditional oral antidiabetic agents. There is also considerable scope for the development of these two classes of agents to be used as mono therapies and to further improve glycaemic control.