The Industrial Revolution 150 years ago transformed human life in many ways, including granting us unlimited access to sugar. But combined with other technological advances, much of the Western population now leads a more sedentary lifestyle.
The result is a society grappling with obesity and related conditions, such as type 2 diabetes. While metformin is one of the most widely prescribed antidiabetic drugs worldwide, its precise interaction with sugar has not been fully understood — until now.
Researchers from Kobe University in Japan have found that metformin influences sugar flux in the gut and uncovered how gut bacteria use sugar to produce compounds vital for human health. Their study, published in Communications Medicine, marks an exciting discovery of a previously unknown physiological process that may aid in the development of new diabetes therapies.
“Intestinal glucose excretion represents a previously unrecognized physiological process. Understanding its molecular mechanisms and how drugs influence this system could lead to the development of novel therapeutics targeting gut microbiota and their metabolites,” said Wataru Ogawa, an endocrinologist from Kobe University, in a press release.
