Hui Ping Yaw, So Ha Ton and Khalid Abdul Kadir
Worldwide increase in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome has raised great attention to this disorder. Despite the effectiveness of the currently available therapeutic agents, most of the drugs elicit harmful side effects. Glycyrrhizic acid (GA) found in the licorice shrub, Glycyrrhiza glabra has been shown to exert anti-hyperglycaemic and antidyslipidaemic effects on rats under different physiological conditions via various mechanisms. The main route being the non-selective inhibition of 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase, an enzyme catalyzing the inter-conversion of active and inactive glucocorticoids. Altered intracellular glucocorticoid metabolism shows a stronger correlation to the development of metabolic syndrome compared to circulating glucocorticoid. Hence, this review focus on the role of GA in modulating glucocorticoid production in different tissues via regulation of 11β- hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (both type 1 and 2) activities under different physiological conditions.