Abstract

MOREANO VILLENA, Zoila; ALVINO DE LA SOTA, Nora  and  GALLI RIGO-RIGHI, Carla. Zinc complexes as potential antidiabetic metallopharmaceuticals: recent advances in its development and molecular mechanism of action. Rev. Soc. Quím. Perú [online]. 2012, vol.78, n.4, pp.277-295. ISSN 1810-634X.

The discovery of the close link between zinc and insulin led to numerous studies on the potential therapeutic effects of zinc in the treatment of diabetes mellitus. It was found that zinc supplementation exerted not only a normoglycemic effect, but also a broader insulin-mimetic action besides of playing a role in disease prevention and protection of β cells, responsible for insulin production. The limitations and side effects of organic drugs used in oral diabetes therapy on one side, and the clinical success achieved by several metallopharmaceuticals, such as anticancer and antirheumatic drugs on the other stimulated research directed to the development of antidiabetic zinc compounds, that would prove more effective at low doses and shorter treatment periods than the originally used simple salts. This article presents a review of representative zinc complexes, with different coordination modes that have been synthesized and evaluated for their insulin-mimetic activity to date; the results confirm that zinc complexation with organic ligands increases effectiveness through an improvement in the bioabsorption of the active agent. We also discuss the relationship between zinc metabolism and diabetes, as well as the molecular mechanisms through which zinc exerts its insulin- mimetic effect and protective role of β cells.

Keywords : Diabetes; diabetes mellitus; Zn(II) complexes; insulinmimetic activity; in vitro and in vivo studies.

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