New progress has been made in the study of the anti-diabetic mechanism of metformin

In a new study, researchers in Canada and the United Kingdom have found how metformin, a first-line anti-type 2 diabetes drug, may help cells better consume and use glucose. Their research may also explain other potential benefits of metformin in preventing a variety of chronic diseases, including cancer. The findings were published online October 24, 2018 in the journal Cell under the title "Changes of cell biochemical states are revealed in protein homomeric complex dynamics."
to confirm that metformin appears to make cells appear to lack the necessary mineral iron, the researchers used a new method to simultaneously detect how all bio-chemical processes in cells respond to the presence of a drug. They found that metformin has a global effect on the distribution of iron in cells, leading to important changes in bio-chemical processes.
technology that made the discovery possible was developed in the lab of Stephen Michnick, lead author of the paper and a professor of biochemistry at the University of Montreal in Canada. "If you want to know what a drug or any other molecule does in the body, you need to study what happens in cells right now," Michnick said. There are several ways to do this today, but our approach, called hdPCA, has the advantage of being simple, easy to understand, non-intrusive, and inexpensive; "The method is deployed to quickly predict and confirm how a drug affects cells and at the same time identify possible disadvantages when introducing the drug into the human body.
, the lead author of the paper and a biochemist at the University of Montreal, added, "We chose to use metformin mainly because it was an interesting test case with no clear mechanism of action." The effects of metformin on iron homeostasis are one of the results of this study. There has previously been speculation about a link between iron metabolism and diabetes, but no one has ever confirmed that metformin's specific anti-diabetic effect in living cells is associated with iron stability. Markus Ralser, a biochemist at the Francis-Crick Institute in the UK, added, "It makes sense--- glucose metabolism is likely to have evolved from iron-dependent chemical reactions--- a chemical relationship that did not disappear during evolution. Further
are needed to determine the importance of iron deficiency simulations of metformin for glucose metabolism and how this mechanism may be better used to improve diabetes treatment.
: Bram Stynen et al. Changes of cell biochemical states are revealed in protein homomeric complex dynamics. Cell, Published Online: 24 October 2018, doi:10.1016/j.cell.2018.09.050. (Bio Valley)