Butungeshwar Pradhan1, Chakradhar Majhi2
BACKGROUND
Diabetes mellitus has primarily centered around the insulin deficiency owing to pancreatic beta-cell dysfunction or loss and associated insulin resistance. Recently, numerous findings indicate that defect of glucagon secreting alpha-cell get involved with development and exacerbation of hyperglycaemia in both type 1 and type 2 DM. Aberrant α-cell responses exhibit both fasting and postprandial hyperglucagonaemia contributes to fasting and postprandial hyperglycaemia caused by inappropriate hepatic glucose production owing to blunted α-cell suppression. Thus, blockade of glucagon receptor or suppression of glucagon secretion from α-cell would be novel therapeutic target for control of hyperglycaemia. There have not been remarkable advances in developing new class of drugs, currently glucagon-like peptide-1 and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors and amylin agonist are available targeting alpha-cell dysfunction for the treatment of diabetes mellitus.
