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Diabetes Medicine: Alpha-Glucosidase Inhibitors

Alpha-glucosidase inhibitors are a less popular class of medicines for type 2 diabetes. They work in your gastrointestinal tract to block your body’s ability to break down carbohydrate, thereby reducing the amount of glucose that enters the bloodstream.

You likely know that when you eat a food that contains carbohydrate, such as cereal or pasta, the carbohydrate in this food must be digested into glucose, which is then used to fuel the body. In order for this to happen, certain enzymes must kick in. These enzymes include alpha-amylase and alpha glucosidase. Alpha-glucosidase inhibitors block the action of these enzymes, reducing the rate of carb digestion and slowing the amount of…

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Articles of Interest

Acarbose: safe and effective for lowering postprandial hyperglycaemia and improving cardiovascular outcomes

Currently, there are many different classes of medications to treat diabetes, such as biguanides (metformin), sulfonylureas, insulin, glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) agonists, dipeptidyl peptidase IV inhibitors, thiazolidinediones and sodium–glucose transporter 2 inhibitors (to name a few). However, α-glucosidase inhibitors (AGIs) are another class of antidiabetic medications, albeit rather neglected, in the treatment of prediabetes/diabetes.

Alpha-glucosidase inhibitors for prevention or delay of type 2 diabetes and associated complications in people at increased risk of type 2 diabetes

AGI may prevent or delay the development of T2DM in people with IGT. There is no firm evidence that AGI have a beneficial effect on cardiovascular mortality or cardiovascular events.

Alpha-Glucosidase Inhibitors: Definition and Overview

Alpha-glucosidase inhibitors are a class of diabetes drugs sometimes called “starch blockers” that blocks the action of enzymes that normally begin to break down certain carbohydrates in the upper part of the small intestine.

α-Glucosidase Inhibitors for Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

In this systematic review of 41 randomized studies on the efficacy of AGIs, we have found no evidence for a beneficial effect on morbidity or mortality.

Resources

GoodRx

Alpha glucosidase inhibitors help control blood sugar to treat diabetes type 2 by inhibiting enzymes used to digest carbohydrates and preventing sugar formation.

ScienceDirect

AGIs are saccharides that act as competitive inhibitors for the enzymes in the small intestine to slow down the digestion of carbohydrates such as starch, so that glucose from food enters the bloodstream more slowly, leading to the reduction in postprandial hyperglycaemia.

StatPearls

AGIs inhibit the absorption of carbohydrates from the small intestine. They competitively inhibit enzymes that convert complex non-absorbable carbohydrates into simple absorbable carbohydrates. These enzymes include glucoamylase, sucrase, maltase, and isomaltase. By delaying carbohydrate absorption, they reduce the rise in postprandial blood glucose concentrations by about 3 mmol/l. Acarbose is the most commonly used drug of this class.