A Review on SIRtuins in Diabetes

Background: Type-2 Diabetes is a long lasting disease characterized by high glucose concentration in the blood due to insulin resistance. One of the recent treatment strategies is using activators against SIRT-1, which has been in clinical trials. Hence, it is necessary to know the effects of the SIRT-1 modulators against various metabolic pathways.

Methods: Many cellular processes, including insulin secretion, cell cycle, and apoptosis are imperatively regulated by a family of mediators called SIRTuins. First known mammalian sirtuin, SIRT1 is a positive regulator of insulin secretion, which triggers glucose uptake and utilization. For the past decade, a major outstanding question is whether SIRT1 activation is a safe therapy for human diseases such as diabetes?

Results: This review summarizes and discusses the advances of the past decade and the challenges that will brazen out perplexity of this field. We also cover the physiological regulation of sirtuin (SIRT1) activity and how these modes of regulation may be exploited to manipulate SIRT1 activity in cells. Designing of drugs using advanced computational methods that specifically target SIRT1, and also, involvement of advanced biological methods for further understanding of sirtuin1 biology to afford new optimized treatments for diabetes and several age related human diseases.

Conclusion: Hence, this review is a serial perspective of all the above topics.