糖尿病 z-bo 2020-12-18 309

　　People with diabetes must be no strangers to “metformin”, which is currently the “star” drug for the treatment of diabetes worldwide. However, how this drug lowers blood sugar's mechanism of action has always been a scientific mystery. A study by Professor Lin Shengcai's group from the School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University solved one of the mysteries and provided new targets and directions for the development of drugs for type 2 diabetes, fatty liver, cardiovascular disease, cancer and other diseases. Metformin was born in Europe in the 1920s. Since its inception, it has been among the best drugs in the field of diabetes treatment with its excellent clinical performance: it can effectively reduce blood sugar in diabetic patients without causing hypoglycemia and acidity. Side effects such as poisoning can also alleviate fatty liver, improve insulin sensitivity, improve cardiovascular function, and reduce the risk of patients suffering from certain cancers (such as liver cancer and pancreatic cancer). For the past 100 years, people have known that metformin can lower blood sugar, but its mechanism of action has not been clarified.

　　Lin Shengcai's research group has been committed to the research of cell signal transduction for a long time. They unexpectedly discovered that the signaling pathway of the mechanism of metformin's blood sugar-lowering action turned out to be an "old friend" of their own research for many years-AMPK signaling pathway.

　　Lin Shengcai said that AMPK protein kinase is an important molecule that regulates various metabolic pathways and maintains energy balance in cells. Many of the medicinal effects of metformin are realized by activating AMPK. Interestingly, in addition to activating AMPK, the research team also found that another important function of metformin is to inhibit another signaling pathway called mTOR, which is closely related to cell proliferation, and the inhibition of this pathway is likely to be related to reducing the risk. Cancer risk is related, thus playing the effect of "two birds with one stone".