Metformin is the most prescribed oral medication for patients with diabetes, as it has shown anti-hypoglycemic effects (i.e. it controls blood sugar levels), in addition to having cardioprotective effects and regulates blood pressure. However, despite having six decades in the pharmaceutical market, it has been linked to the development of lactic acidosis as a side effect.
Now, a multi-institutional team of Mexican researchers designed a molecule analogous to metformin that provides the same benefits, but does not result in lactic acidosis, a condition that generates weakness, stomach pain, accelerated breathing, drowsiness and cramps.
Dr. Juan Gabriel Navarrete Vázquez, a researcher at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos (UAEM), explains in an interview that an analogous substance of metformin was designed and synthesized by Erika Gutiérrez Lara, a masters student whose initials were used to name the product: EGL-6M.
“Metformin is an oral antidiabetic drug belonging to the family of biguanides, and is used as a first line for the treatment of diabetes mellitus type 2, hence it is important to look for alternatives,” Navarrete Vázquez said.
The specialist added that in the UAEM, they performed in vivo tests were animal models were given fructose to induce insulin resistance, a condition that in humans is known as prediabetes. Then they had an ordinary diet and a group were given metformin and others the analogue EGL-6M in different doses.
The results were verified by a team of researchers from CINVESTAV, to which Erika Gutiérrez Lara belongs, now as a PhD student. The study showed the same hypoglycemic and cardioprotective in both metformin and EGL-6M in doses ranging from one to 30 milligrams. It was also possible to corroborate that there were no adverse effects in those subjects that received the new drug.
Dr. Navarrete Vázquez also said that the National Institute of Pediatrics performed analogue evaluations on AMPK protein, an enzyme that participates in metabolic processes.
“We have already done in vitro tests, then in mice with encouraging results. What comes is to do toxicity tests, among others, before reaching humans. The scientific work has given rise to two theses of masters students, we have also published in journals of international circulation which show the synthesis of the molecules and the action on the protein AMPK and the effect in vivo,” concludes the specialist in pharmacology.
Source: Agencia ID
