Scientists have found evidence to indicate the drug Metformin has an important impact on the brain which could mean it would be viable for other treatments.
It's typically issued to patients to treat type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes, though it's also given to those at high risk of type 2 diabetes to try and prevent them from developing it and it's also taken to improve fertility for those with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
Metformin is estimated to be prescribed to around 120 million people and improves the way the body handles insulin to lower blood sugar levels, but researchers have found another effect it has.
Last year a team of researchers from Baylor College of Medicine found that the brain was also affected by Metformin in a specific way.
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They explained that despite people taking Metformin for over 60 years the full extent of what it does to the human body is not known to scientists, though the new research shed light on the impact it has on the brain.
"It’s been widely accepted that Metformin lowers blood glucose primarily by reducing glucose output in the liver. Other studies have found that it acts through the gut," Dr Makoto Fukuda, Associate Professor of Paediatrics-Nutrition at Baylor said.
"We looked into the brain as it is widely recognized as a key regulator of whole-body glucose metabolism. We investigated whether and how the brain contributes to the anti-diabetic effects of metformin."
There's a part of your brain known as the ventromedial hypothalamus where a protein called Rap1 which has an impact on your body metabolising glucose can be found.
The scientists discovered that when Metformin works it turns off the Rap1 protein in this part of the brain, and when testing on genetically modified mice without this protein in that part of their brain they found it didn't work.
Feeding the animals a high fat diet to mimic the effects of type 2 diabetes, they found Metformin didn't lower the blood sugar for mice without Rap1.
Other diabetes treatments like insulin GLP-1 agonists (the same family of drugs as Ozempic) still worked.
They then injected Metformin into the brains of the mice and found a significant drop in blood sugar even with a dose much smaller than ingested orally.
This discovery shows the drug when taken normally needs to affect a change in the brain to properly work, and Professor Fukuda said mor research was needed that could lead to new treatments for diabetes or even slowing down the aging of the brain.
He said: "These findings open the door to developing new diabetes treatments that directly target this pathway in the brain.
"In addition, metformin is known for other health benefits, such as slowing brain aging. We plan to investigate whether this same brain Rap1 signalling is responsible for other well-documented effects of the drug on the brain."
Joe Harker