Vanadium as a Therapeutic Agent for Diabetes Overview

In addition to vanadium, other early transition metals have been shown to have antidiabetic properties, which is not surprising, as this class of compounds would be expected to share some chemical functionality. Chromium [110-112], tungsten [113,114], and molybdenum [115,116] all have demonstrated insulin-like properties. 

Vanadium was first used in France in 1899 as a therapeutic agent for diabetes [119] however, this experimental result was buried with time. The modem era of studying the antidiabetic properties of vanadium began in 1979, when it was shown that vanadium was present in muscle and inhibited plasma membrane ion pumps [1], Experiments were then done in tissue culture experiments, where vanadium 

Vanadium has effects similar to and different from that of insulin [100,101,124], The antidiabetic influence of the metal can be considered insulin-enhancing, rather than insulin-mimetic, because vanadium compounds cannot totally substitute for insulin in any model of diabetes that strictly requires insulin, such as the BB rat [125], a model of type 1 diabetes. In addition, vanadium can exert its antidiabetic effects via a mechanism or combination of mechanisms distinct from that of insulin. The metabolic actions of vanadium on metabolism do not include all of the actions of insulin, yet normal animals produce less serum insulin when given vanadium. The terms insulin-mimetic or insulin-like frequently appear in the literature for actions of vanadium that cannot be classified as similar to or different from that of insulin in the experimental system utilized. 

1 Vanadium Compounds Used for Treatment of Diabetes Salts, Chelate Complexes, and Peroxovanadium Compounds 

Specific vanadium-induced alterations in the activity or expression level of components of metabolic pathways are described here. Many of these changes are not caused by alterations in the pathway enzymes themselves but in enzymes and factors involved in regulation, commonly referred to as signal transduction systems. Section 11.3 will discuss the alterations described in this section in the context of general signal transduction processes affected by vanadium. 

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