Metformin for Type-2 Diabetes Patients or Not?

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have now identified biomarkers that can show in advance how the patients will respond to metformin treatment via a simple blood test.

Metformin is a first-line drug that can reduce blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetes patients. Some of the patients experience severe side effects and others do not respond to metformin treatment and hence, some patients stop the medication.

‘Metformin is the first drug referred to treat type 2 diabetes when exercise and diet fail to regulate enough blood sugar levels.’

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"Our study constitutes an important step towards the goal of personalized care for diabetes patients because it can contribute to ensuring that the right person receives the right care as soon as there is a diagnosis,” says Charlotte Ling, professor of epigenetics at Lund University, who led the study.

Elevated blood sugar levels may lead to a risk of complications if it takes a long time for the patient to receive the correct treatment.

Around 30 per cent of the type-2 diabetes patients do not respond to metformin and should be given another drug right from the start.

Metformin - Diabetes Drug with New Therapeutic Uses
Metformin, a century old anti-diabetic drug used commonly to bring down blood sugar levels has other therapeutic uses like treating PCOS, aging and obesity.

One third of the patients medicated with metformin experience side effects usually in the form of gastrointestinal difficulties such as nausea, stomach pain and diarrhoea.

The study is the first pharmacoepigenetic study in diabetes in which researchers have studied how epigenetic factors, such as DNA methylation (see fact box), can be used as biomarkers to predict the effect of a drug.

"To a certain extent, pharmacoepigenetics has been used within cancer care to predict how a person will respond to a treatment, however, it has never been done in diabetes care before", says Charlotte Ling.

Researchers have examined the DNA methylations, in blood from individuals diagnosed with diabetes before they had even started taking metformin treatment.

During the follow-up a year later, the researchers found that the patients had benefited from the treatment with lower blood sugar levels and had even suffered from side effects. "By compiling the responses, we have found biomarkers that can identify already at diagnosis of diabetes which patients will benefit from and tolerate metformin, which will advance personalised therapy in type 2 diabetes", says the study's first author Sonia García-Calzón.

Further, the researchers are planning for a new clinical study in which they will repeat the study with a larger patient group - 1000 patients will be invited to participate from all around the world.

Source-Medindia