More on Metformin and Cancer (and Alzheimer's)

Metformin: what a weird compound it is. Very small, very polar, the sort of thing you'd probably cross off your list of screening hits. But it's been taken by untold millions of diabetics (and made untold billions of dollars in the process), because it really does reduce glucose levels. It does so though mechanisms that are still the subject of vigorous debate and which (I might add) were completely unknown when the drug was approved. (I keep running into people who think that mechanism-of-action is some sort of FDA requirement, but it most certainly is not. Not saying that it wouldn't help, but what the regulatory agencies want are efficacy and safety. As they should). And evidence has been piling up that the compound does many other things besides. The situation is murky. There was a report in 2009 that suggested that it might exacerbate the pathology of Alzheimer's. But last summer there was a rodent study that showed (in obese mice) that the compound seemed to improve neurogenerative effects seen in the hippocampus. (Whether this operates in animals, or humans, who are not metabolically impaired is an open question, although metformin is right in the middle of the whole "Type III diabetes" debate about Alzheimer's, which I'm going to cover in another post at some point soon). Meanwhile, human studies (in the large populations taking the drug) are not saying one way or another just yet. This British analysis suggested that there might be an association, but it's not for s...
Source: In the Pipeline - Category: Chemists Tags: Cancer Source Type: blogs