Review Article
Year: 2017 | Month: June | Volume: 7 | Issue: 6 | Pages: 309-314
Lixisenatide, a Novel GLP-1 Receptor Agonist, for the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes
Amol Khanapure, Sanjay Jaiswal, Ashok Kumar Sharma
Department of Pharmacology, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, Maharashtra, India
Corresponding Author: Amol Khanapure
ABSTRACT
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is an important global public health problem. Despite availability of many antidiabetic drugs, the glycemic goals cannot be achieved and serious complications of diabetes continue to happen. The adverse effects associated with antidiabetic medications are another issue. Glucagon like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists are novel class of drugs, used for the treatment of type 2 DM. Recently lixisenatide is approved by United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) for the treatment of type 2 diabetes as add-on drug. Lixisenatide exerts its actions by acting on GLP-1 receptors, resulting in increase in insulin secretion, decrease in glucagon release, delay in gastric emptying and induction of satiety. Lixisenatide has demonstrated its clinical efficacy as antidiabetic by lowering of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C) levels and reduction in 2 h postprandial plasma glucose (PPG) levels when used alone. Lixisenatide also has exerted synergistic antidiabetic effects when administered with metformin, sulfonylureas, pioglitazone and basal insulin in terms of greater fall in HbA1C levels and better control of 2 h PPG. Lixisenatide has been found to be non-inferior to other GLP-1 receptor agonists in reducing HbA1C and 2 h PPG with favourable side effect profile. The lixisenatide is less costly and has lower incidence of hypoglycaemia compared to exenatide and liraglutide. Overall it may serve as good add-on treatment to the existing antidiabetic drugs.
Key words: Lixisenatide, GLP-1, Type 2 diabetes, Antidiabetic