Study: Metformin may be used to treat other diseases

A diabetes drug widely available as a generic doesn’t work the same way experts have long thought it did, and that means it could find use in treating other diseases as well, researchers at the University of Cincinnati found.

Led by UC Metabolic Diseases Institute scientific director George Thomas, the researchers think the drug metformin could be used in patients with cancer, tuberous sclerosis and other conditions. The drug is used primarily to treat Type 2 diabetes and works by blocking production of sugar and increasing sensitivity to insulin.

Experts had long thought that the drug disabled the mammalian target of rapamycin, or mTOR complex by first deactivating tuberous sclerosis complex proteins through an enzyme called AMPK. But the UC team found that it disables mTOR using another enzyme, called RAG GTPase.

“We’ve poked a hole in dogma,” Thomas said. “Scientists can and should go back and ask about things they had crossed off their list.”

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By Alaric DeArment