DOI: 10.36347/sajb.2016.v04i04.004

Pages: 324-327

The ever increasing incidence of Type2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) in our population calls for a variety of agents to combat this disorder. T2DM is the resultant of Insulin deficiency or the reduced activity of available insulin. Incretins viz. "Glucose dependant Insulinotropic Polypeptide" (GIP) and "Glucagon like Polypeptide-1" (GLP-1) are the intestinal hormones secreted in response to ingestion of food and they increase the secretion of Insulin. Reduced efficacy of these hormones is seen in T2DM. This review analyses the role of Incretins in the therapy of T2DM. A number of studies have been going on to analyse and utilize the beneficial effects of these incretins. Some such studies are reviewed here to give an overall picture of the efficacy of incretins in the care of Type 2 diabetes mellitus. Results and discussion of these studies show that the bioactivity of incretins is short lived as they are easily degraded by the enzyme, Dipeptidyl peptidase 4. A drug that could prevent the incretin degradation and prolong their bioavailability was found to be beneficial. An incretin analogue that could increase the insulin secretion was also studied to be really useful in the treatment of T2DM. In Conclusion Incretin being the initiator of insulin secretion is effective in the care of Type 2 diabetes mellitus as synthetic analogues or as inhibitors of degradative enzyme, dipeptidyl peptidase 4.