The discovery of vanadyl and zinc complexes for treating diabetes and metabolic syndromes

Abstract

The incidence of diabetes mellitus has increased over the decades because of lifestyle changes. The number of people with diabetes mellitus worldwide is expected to increase from 150 million to 220 million by 2010 and to 300 million by 2025. There are two main types of diabetes mellitus. Type 1 diabetes mellitus is due to the autoimmune-mediated destruction of pancreatic β cells, resulting in absolute insulin deficiency; the patients require exogenous insulin injections. Type 2 is characterized by insulin resistance and abnormal insulin secretion and the patients require exercise, diet control and/or oral hypoglycemics. However, each treatment has some adverse effects, including physical burden, formation of self-antibodies for insulin injections, the severe side effects of hypoglycemics and the discontinuation of insulin synthesis in the pancreas. To overcome these adverse effects and replace the use of these agents, the author attempted to develop new antidiabetic agents with novel structures and mechanisms. This review focuses on the authors' recent development of vanadium and zinc complexes for antidiabetic and antimetabolic syndromes.

Keywords::

• adiponectin
• coordination environment
• diabetes
• metabolic syndrome
• structure—activity relationship
• vanadyl complex
• zinc complex

Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges the financial support from grants-in-aid for specially promoted research provided by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of the Japanese Government for 2004 – 2007. The author would also like to thank Y Kojima, A Katoh, S Yano, T Kiss, D Rehder and co-workers in the bibliography for their excellent contributions. Special thanks are due to R Tabata and N Hiromura.

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