With the rapid rise in prevalence, diabetes mellitus is one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide. Impaired cellular glucose transport is a major contributor to diabetes progression and, thus, an important target for treatment. Functional foods are a rich source of antidiabetic agents. These compounds target multiple physiological contributors to diabetes with lower risk for side effects. This perspective highlights recent advances in food-derived compounds that regulate the gene expression or activity of glucose transport proteins (SGLT1, SGLT2, GLUT1, GLUT2, and GLUT4) and provides insights for future research on targeting the transporters as a promising antidiabetic mechanism of nutraceutical compounds.
Keywords: antidiabetic agents; facilitative glucose transporters (GLUTs); functional foods; glucose uptake; molecular interactions; nutraceuticals; signaling pathways; sodium-dependent glucose transporters (SGLTs).