fig2

Figure 2. Examples of effective drugs in type 2 diabetes. Pioglitazone is a 1,3-thiazolidine-2,4-dione that carries a benzyl group at position 5, further substituted by a 2-(5-ethylpyridin-2-yl)ethoxy group at position 4 of the phenyl ring. It exerts its pharmacological effects by acting as a PPARγ agonist that promotes insulin sensitivity. Empagliflozin inhibits the SGLT2 transporter, primarily responsible for the reabsorption of glucose in the kidney. Liraglutide is similar to human GLP-1. The lysine at position 29 is replaced by an arginine and the remaining lysine carries a hexadecanoyl group attached to it via a glutamic acid spacer. Similarly, semaglutide is a GLP-1 analog containing amino acids 7-37 of GLP-1 with amino acids 8 and 34 replaced by α-aminobutyric acid. Moreover, the lysine at position 26 is acylated with stearic diacid. These structures were generated using Jmol (version 14.2._2015.07.09), and chemical depiction information sourced from the PubChem Compound Database that is available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pccompound/ (last accessed 28.3.2024).