Summary
The prevalence of type 2 diabetes has risen dramatically during recent decades and there is an urgent need to develop new approaches for therapeutic treatment that provide a combination of benefits, with fewer side effects and better patient outcomes. When diabetes is not managed, it can lead to serious complications including cardiovascular disease (CVD), stroke, blindness, kidney disease and premature mortality. CVD is a major cause of death and disability in diabetes, accounting for 52% of fatalities in those with type 2 diabetes.
New treatments are necessary due to the increasing prevalence of diabetes and its complications. In recent years, therapies that target the actions of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) which stimulate insulin secretion through activation of beta cell G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) have been successful. This has resulted in substantial interest in targeting other islet GPCRs for diabetic therapies [1-3]. GPCRs are a superfamily of transmembrane receptors that transduce extracellular signals into intracellular responses.