Sulphonylurea Receptor Mutation and Responsiveness to Gliclazide - a Pilot Proof of Concept, Randomised Cross-over Study

Sulphonylurea (SU) is a glucose-lowering agent used widely to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). SU promotes insulin secretion from the pancreatic islet beta cell via binding and inhibition of the ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channel. The KATP channel is made up of two subcomponents, an inner Kir6.2 K+ channel (coded by the KCNJ11 gene) and an outer SU receptor 1 (SUR1) (coded by the ABCC8 gene). Although all SUs are mechanistically similar in terms of increasing insulin secretion, they bind to distinct regions of Kir 6.2 and SUR1 to exert their function. Different types of SU (e.g. tolbutamide, glibenclamide, glipizide, glimepiride and gliclazide) can therefore be grouped by their binding sites (A/B/A+B site) on the KATP channel [3]. Interestingly, the KCNJ11 E23K (rs5219) variant was shown to confer susceptibility to T2DM and the ABCC8 S1369A (rs757110) variant was found to be in complete linkage disequilibrium with it i.e. inherited together as a genetic block (haplotype). A recent in vitro molecular study suggested that the minor haplotype (K23/A1369) of KATP channel is sensitive to inhibition by gliclazide (binds to A-site) but not glibenclamide (binds to A+B site), and that the increased responsiveness to gliclazide was largely due to the A1369 allele. Understanding how the response to these two SUs may vary with the presence of the minor haplotype (K23/A1369) would therefore be beneficial for customization of patient treatment to achieve better clinical outcomes.