UNC119B-binding small molecule for insulin sensitization in diabetes

An adamantane-based compound that binds the lipid-binding membrane trafficking regulator UNC119B could help treat diabetes by promoting GLUT4 translocation, without the side effects of PPARγ activation seen for previous insulin sensitizing drugs.

High-throughput screening of 49,600 compounds from the Chembridge DIVERSet for the ability to increase GLUT4 translocation in mouse myoblasts exposed to insulin identified a top hit with no effect in the absence of insulin, which was selected for subsequent studies. ...