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Profiles of Doctorate Dissertations
Research Relevance and Potential Impact
Diabetes is a serious health problem throughout the world. 5.1% of the world populations (200
millions) suffer from diabetes. This number is expected to increase up to 335 million in 2025. Around
28% of the total population in the Gulf countries are diabetes. Recent results on the prevalence
of diabetes in the UAE have indicated that about 24-30 % of the population suffer from diabetes.
Elevated blood glucose levels in diabetic patients may impact all systems in their body. It can lead to
many complications, such as neuropathy, increased blood pressure, cardiac problems, deteriorated
vision and even blindness and circulatory disturbances. Therefore diabetes constitutes a national
health concern in the UAE and internationally and still intensive research efforts are required to
combat the disease.
Although insulin is the essential medicine currently used in the treatment diabetes, it has the
disadvantages of being expensive, unstable at room temperature and patients have to be subcutaneous
injected several times every day. Moreover, type 2 diabetic patients are subjected to hypoglycemia
and gain in weight Therefore, oral hypoglycemic drugs can be considered good alternative remedies
used for treating diabetes. To date, pyrimidine analogues (PTZ) have not thoroughly evaluated in
relation to exploring their potential to act as ant-diabetic drugs.
Increased interest in new oral hypoglycemic therapies is widely demanded all over the world. A library
of new molecules with potential anti-diabetic activity designed and synthesized and their structure-
activity relationship (SAR) investigated in this project. Their pharmacokinetics and physiological
effects on diabetic animals will be studied. Successfully active compounds can proceed to the next
phase as possible patent anti-diabetic agents. Such promising therapeutic agents could be the basis
for novel anti-diabetic drugs developed in UAE. This project will give a chance for UAEU researchers
to participate in an international scientifically and economically important area of research, drug