Review Article A Review of Nateglinide in the Management of Type 2 Diabetes

Diabetes mellitus, or simply diabetes, is a chronic disease that occurs when the pancreas is no longer able to make insulin, or when the body cannot make good use of the insulin it produces. The chronic hyperglycemia of diabetes is associated with long-term damage, dysfunction, and failure of different organs, especially the eyes, kidneys, nerves, heart, and blood vessels. The success of oral hypoglycemic drug therapy is usually based on are storation of normal blood glucose levels. Traditionally, the term oral hypoglycemic was used interchangeably with sulfonylureas, but more recently the development of several new drugs has broadened this designation to include all oral medications for diabetes. Nateglinide, a D-phenylalanine derivative, is a novel insulinotropic drug which has recently been launched as a therapeutic agent for Type II diabetes. Clinical studies have shown that nateglinide induces a rapid onset of insulin release synergistic with meal administration which effectively restores the early phase of insulin secretion. Since the loss of early insulin secretion is thought to play an important role in the development of glucose in tolerance the ability of nateglinide to promote early insulin release is potentially of considerable therapeutic benefit