Phytochemical Derivatives as Antidiabetic Agents: effect on glucose disposal in vivo and in vitro models.

Description

We tested the efficacy of tens of medicinal plant extracts in treating T2D in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, the chemical composition of the effective extracts was detected by GC/MS and reported recently. About 20 compounds (phenols and fatty acid derivatives; detected at Zaid’s lab) were reported elsewhere as potential antidiabetic agents. However, their effects on glucose disposal and GLUT4 remained unexplored. This project aims to address this gap by testing these compounds in complementary systems to determine their capacity to enhance muscle GLUT4 translocation and glucose uptake in vitro and in vivo. We will focus on natural compounds that could stimulate GLUT4 translocation to the PM and thus increase glucose uptake. This project will establish a biological platform to test the antidiabetic potential of natural compounds, regardless of their source. In this project, the two research groups will combine their complementary systems to evaluate the antidiabetic potential of these compounds. Zaid’s lab will use the rat L6-GLUT4myc cell line to assess GLUT4 translocation to the PM. Aguer’s lab will employ primary muscle cells from healthy individuals and patients with T2D to determine whether the compounds previously tested by Zaid's team can enhance glucose uptake in healthy muscle cells and improve insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake in muscle cells from T2D patients, which typically retain the insulin resistance characteristic of their tissue of origin. The effective ingredients will then be tested in vivo in diabetic mice models.