A Comprehensive Review on the Antidiabetic Activity of Oxadiazole Derivatives

Abstract

Oxadiazoles, a class of five membered heterocyclic azoles, are considered to be a versatile scaffold and is found to be a core moiety of various pharmaceutically active agents.Oxadiazoles are known to inhibit alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase enzyme which is rational approach for selecting oxadiazole as antidiabetic agents in controlling postprandial hyperglycemia in type II diabetes mellitus. They are found to exist in 4 different regioisomeric forms namely 1,2,3-oxadiazole, 1,2,4-oxadiazole, 1,2,5-oxadiazole and 1,3,4-oxadiazole. Oxadiazoles are known to exhibit a wide range of biological activities and many mono and di-substituted oxadiazoles have been studied for their antihyperglycemic potential. Oxadiazoles have been found to act on various potential targets of the antidiabetic therapy. They are found to elicit hypoglycemic action by different mechanisms like inhibition of digestive enzymes, insulin sensitization, reduction of renal glucose reabsorption, etc. The results of various substituted oxadiazoles studied for their anti-diabetic activity has been reviewed in this article.