Introduction: Hypoglycemia in diabetes is a common and unresolved complication during diabetes therapy, even life-threatening. Effective and convenient treatment for rescuing severe diabetic hypoglycemia and maintaining euglycemia is in high demand to reduce hypoglycemia-related morbidity and mortality. Dasiglucagon is a novel glucagon analog for diabetic hypoglycemia therapy.
Areas covered: This review summarizes the reported studies associated with the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, safety, and tolerability characteristics, as well as clinical application of dasiglucagon for managing diabetic hypoglycemia.
Expert opinion: Dasiglucagon has demonstrated established solubility and stability in an aqueous formulation. Pharmacokinetics studies have shown dasiglucagon to exhibit higher absorption and a longer plasma elimination half-life than traditional reconstituted glucagon. Pharmacodynamic studies have shown that a full dose of 0.6 mg dasiglucagon could efficiently raise blood glucose level (BGL) by ≥20 mg/dL (9-10 min) from baseline following insulin-induced severe hypoglycemia in patients with type 1 diabetes, as well as rapidly increase BGL with small doses under euglycaemic and hypoglycemic conditions. Dasiglucagon is safe and well tolerated with the main adverse effects being nausea and vomiting. Collectively, dasiglucagon may be a promising candidate for severe diabetic hypoglycemic rescue and a continuous glycemic control in diabetic patients.
Keywords: Dasiglucagon; diabetic hypoglycemia rescue; glucagon analog; hypoglycemia.