Medical Biology Research Center (MBRC), Kermanshah University of Medical Science, Kermanshah, Iran; Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Tehran, Iran.
T1D Biology, Department of Clinical Research, Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen, Denmark.
Pharmacol Res. 2020 May;155:104723. doi: 10.1016/j.phrs.2020.104723. Epub 2020 Feb 24.
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic metabolic disease which causes millions of death all over the world each year, and its incidence is on increase. The most prevalent form, type 2 DM, is characterized by insulin resistance and β-cell dysfunction, whereas type 1 DM is due to insulin deficiency as a result of β-cell destruction. Various classes of synthetic drugs have been developed to regulate glucose homeostasis and combat the development of late-diabetic complications. However, several of these chemical agents are either sub-optimal in their effect and/or may have side effects. Biologically, alkaloids unveiled a wide range of therapeutic effects including anti-diabetic properties. The chemical backbones of these compounds have the potential to interact with a wide range of proteins involved in glucose homeostasis, and thus they have received increasing attention as reliable candidates for drug development. This review sets out to investigate the anti-diabetic potential of plant alkaloids (PAs), and therefore, scientific databases were comprehensively screened to highlight the biological activity of 78 PAs with a considerable anti-diabetic profile. There are not enough clinical data available for these phytochemicals to follow their fingerprint in human, but current studies generally recommending PAs as potent α-glucosidase inhibitors. Except for some classes of monoterpene alkaloids, other compounds showed similar features as well as the presently available anti-diabetic drugs such as amino sugars and other relevant drugs. Moreover, the evidence suggests that PAs have the potential to be used as alternative additives for the treatment of DM, however, further in vitro and in vivo studies are needed to validate these findings.
糖尿病（DM）是一种慢性代谢性疾病，每年在全球导致数百万人死亡，其发病率呈上升趋势。最常见的形式，2 型糖尿病，其特征是胰岛素抵抗和β细胞功能障碍，而 1 型糖尿病是由于β细胞破坏导致胰岛素缺乏。已经开发了各种类别的合成药物来调节葡萄糖稳态并对抗晚期糖尿病并发症的发展。然而，这些化学药物中的一些在效果上并不理想，或者可能有副作用。从生物学角度来看，生物碱揭示了广泛的治疗效果，包括抗糖尿病特性。这些化合物的化学骨架有可能与涉及葡萄糖稳态的广泛蛋白质相互作用，因此它们作为可靠的药物开发候选物受到了越来越多的关注。本综述旨在研究植物生物碱（PAs）的抗糖尿病潜力，因此，全面筛选了科学数据库，以突出具有相当抗糖尿病特征的 78 种 PAs 的生物活性。这些植物化学物质没有足够的临床数据可以追踪它们在人体中的指纹，但目前的研究普遍推荐 PAs 作为有效的α-葡萄糖苷酶抑制剂。除了一些单萜生物碱类外，其他化合物也表现出与目前可用的抗糖尿病药物（如氨基糖和其他相关药物）相似的特征。此外，有证据表明，PAs 有可能被用作治疗 DM 的替代添加剂，然而，需要进一步的体外和体内研究来验证这些发现。
