Novel sulfonylurea and non-sulfonylurea drugs to promote the secretion of insulin

The onset of type 2 diabetes is characterized by two determining factors: the insufficient ability to secrete insulin and/or the resistance to its biological action. Although in a very small proportion of individuals, one of those two metabolic abnormalities is the leading cause of diabetes, in most subjects, the coexistence of both appears to be necessary for the clinical manifestation of diabetes. Current biomedical research continues to clarify the relative contributions of these defects to the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes, and novel pharmacological agents ave specifically designed to correct either the impaired insulin secretory activity or the resistance to the action of insulin. The aim of this article is to provide a critical review of new sulfonylurea and non-sulfonylurea drugs that have been recently introduced for the treatment of diabetes, as well as drugs that are still under investigation and ave likely to be made available in the near future.