Titinchi, SalamParker, Amina2023-05-222024-05-092024-05-092022https://hdl.handle.net/10566/14578Masters of ScienceType 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a significant public health crisis and is placed amongst the top ten leading causes of death worldwide. Metformin is the first-line drug used to treat T2DM, which is mainly attributed to its potent insulin sensitising properties and relatively low cost and side effects compared to other anti-diabetic drugs. However, metformin is associated with side effects such as gastrointestinal intolerance and reduced activity over time, while its variable pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and pharmacogenomics leads to reduced effectiveness in some patients. In recent years, organic chemistry has been used to synthesise structural analogues of existing drugs, with more potent activity and target specificity than the parent drugs.enDiabetesPublic healthPharmacokineticsOrganic chemistryUniversity of the Western Cape