RESEARCH ARTICLE


Types of Diabetes that the Dipeptidyl Peptidase-4 Inhibitor May Act Effectively and Safely



Hidekatsu Yanai*, Hiroki Adachi
Department of Internal Medicine, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Kohnodai Hospital, Chiba 272- 8516, Japan.


© Yanai et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Internal Medicine, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Kohnodai Hospital, Chiba 272- 8516, Japan.


Abstract

Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors prevent the inactivation of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). This protein, released from the gut following ingestion of a meal, stimulates insulin secretion and inhibits glucagon secretion. Compared with other anti-diabetic drugs, the pharmacological characteristics of DDP-4 inhibitor include improvement in postprandial hyperglycemia, low frequency of hypoglycemia, prevention of development of obesity, few adverse events. Taking account of pharmacological characteristic and our therapeutic experiences with DPP-4 inhibitor, we believe that DPP-4 inhibitor may be a useful and safe oral anti-diabetic drug for diabetes in the elderly people, diabetes complicated with obesity, chronic hepatitis/liver cirrhosis, and steroid-induced diabetes.

Keywords: chronic hepatitis, dipeptidyl peptidase-4, glucagon-like peptide-1.