Preliminary Study Characterizing the Use of Sitagliptin for Glycemic Control in Healthy Beagle Dogs with Normal Gluco-Homeostasis

Abstract

Sitagliptin is a dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor aimed at treating Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and T1DM, by increasing blood levels of Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and insulin. The objective of this preliminary study is to characterize Sitagliptin’s ability for glycemic control, in healthy dogs under an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) environment. Overall, Sitagliptin did not result in any significant changes to temporal glucose and insulin concentrations. However, a ~55% increase in median total GLP-1 AUC_0–120min was observed, as compared to baseline control in healthy dogs (n=5), thus indicating a similar mode of action of Sitagliptin between healthy dogs and humans. Future studies to validate the use of Sitagliptin with dogs suffering from insulin independent diabetes are warranted.