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What is metformin's secret sauce?
Until now, scientists have been unable to determine how metformin, a Type 2 diabetes medication that lowers blood sugar, works. <br /> A new Northwestern Medicine study has provided direct evidence in mice that it reversibly cuts the cell’s energy supply by interfering with mitochondria to lower glucose levels.<br />
The relatively inexpensive medication, which derives from compounds in the French lilac plant, is the first line of defense for many patients with Type 2 diabetes worldwide, Chandel said. “The NDI1-expressing mice were not completely resistant to its glucose-lowering effects, suggesting metformin may also target other pathways to some extent, but more research is needed,” Chandel said. Moreover, one of the co-authors of the current study, Dr. Scott Budinger, chief of pulmonary and critical care in the department of medicine at Feinberg, has previously shown with Chandel that metformin can decrease pollution-induced inflammation in mice by interfering with mitochondrial complex I.
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