A reappraisal on metformin

[madman]

MET is a widely used oral anti-diabetic drug for the treatment of T2DM without causing weight gain over 50 years. Besides MET is mainly used for treatment of DM, it has also anticancer effect by inhibiting cancer cell proliferation and tumor growth. Because activation of AMPK has been considered to may be useful in therapy of cancer, as an AMPK activator is MET can reduce the tumor size. Additionally, decreasing adiposity, activation of AMPK, reducing absorption of carbohydrates, suppressing hepatic glycogenesis and inhibiting hepatic gluconeogenesis by MET are important roles in obesity treatment. Recently, it has also been reported that MET can reduce aging or prevent aging. Although there are controversial conclusions, it has been shown by some researchers that MET may be effective in Alzheimer's disease and significantly reduce dementia. According to recent research results, it is thought to be possible, but not certain, that MET increases SHBG, decreases glucose and free serum testosterone levels, regulates ovulatory menstrual cycles and increases pregnancy rates in patients with PCOS.


This review provides a general introduction, and a comprehensive summary of the benefits, effects and consequences of MET in terms of major diseases such as T2DM, obesity, aging, Alzheimer's disease, polycystic over syndrome, and cancer. The study also highlights important details about the clinical uses of MET beyond diabetes. In the future, researches with larger sample size or meta-analysis studies are needed in order to verify the important and still uncertain questions mentioned here.

 

[Nelson Vergel]

Madman

You are the man! Thanks for posting so many good papers and articles!

Nelson

 

[madman]

Fig. 1. Chemical synthesis of metformin (Werner and Bell, 1922)

 

[madman]

Fig. 2. The molecular mechanisms of metformin on the liver cell (Rena et al., 2013).