A recent study from the [1] Toronto General Research Institute and Department of Medicine, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, [2] Department of Physiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, [3] Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and [4] Banting and Best Diabetes Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada shows that “Metformin activates a duodenal Ampk-dependent pathway to lower hepatic glucose production in rats.” This study was published in the 6 April 2015 issue of the journal “Nature Medicine”[the number 1 journal in General Medicine with an I.F of 28.054] by Prof Lam TK, Duca, and others.
On the foundation of this interesting finding, Dr L Boominathan PhD, Director-cum-chief Scientist of GBMD, reports that: Small molecule-based therapy for DM: Icariin, a phosphodiestrase-5 inhibitor, lowers hepatic glucose production and plasma glucose levels via up regulation of its target gene
Significance:
Given that (1) more than 387 million people worldwide are affected by Diabetes mellitus (DM); (2) the life-long painful injection/drug treatment required to treat DM; (3) DM is often associated with a number of other diseases such as hypertension, myocardial infarction, cardiac hypertrophy etc; and (4) the global economic cost spent for diabetes treatment in 2014 was little more than 600 billion US dollars, there is an urgent need to find better drugs–with multifaceted effects–to treat DM.
I had reported earlier that Icariin: (1) improves myocardial function after myocardial infarction via up regulation of its target gene PNUTS; (2) inhibits inflammation and protects against Emphysema; (3) promotes reprogramming of adult pancreatic ductal cells into α, δ, and β cells via up regulation of Ngn3; (4) inhibits the development of pulmonary arterial hypertension via down regulation of its target gene Notch3; and (5) prolongs mammalian life span via down regulation of angiotensin II type I receptor (AT1R).
This study suggests, for the first time, that Icariin, by increasing the expression of its target genes, it may increase the expression of AMPK. Thereby, it may lower hepatic glucose production and plasma glucose levels. Thus, pharmacological formulations encompassing “Icariin or its analogues“ may be used to treat DM.
Idea Proposed/Formulated by: Dr L Boominathan Ph.D.
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To cite: Boominathan, Small molecule-based therapy for DM: Icariin, a phosphodiestrase-5 inhibitor, lowers hepatic glucose production and plasma glucose levels via up regulation of its target gene, 25/May/2015, 23.53, Genome-2-Bio-Medicine Discovery center (GBMD), http://genomediscovery.org
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