A recent British study revealed the molecular mechanisms behind the success of Metformin, which is widely used to treat diabetes, in amazing weight reduction.
The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Cambridge, UK, and published in the scientific journal Nature.
The researchers explained that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug metformin in 1995 to treat type 2 diabetes after decades of its adoption in Europe.
They added that more than 60% of the drug's ability to control blood sugar comes from its success in reducing body weight, which prompted them to conduct more studies to devise the main molecular mechanisms underlying how this drug works.
In clinical trials conducted on people without diabetes, the research team discovered a relationship between "metformin" and a major protein known as "GDF159".
According to the study, the protein performs a wide range of biological activities and is found in a variety of body tissues that regulate and repair the "programmed cell death" mechanism.
It was also found that this protein also plays a strong role in the success of metformin in controlling type 2 diabetes.
The researchers discovered that "metformin" works with the protein "GDF 159" to urge the body to lose weight and maintain energy balance.
They also found that this drug increases the levels of the protein "JDF159" significantly in all people who take the drug regularly by 2.5 times compared to those who do not take this treatment, after a study to monitor the protein levels of participants continued for 18 months.
The team conducted other experiments on mice, and discovered that "metformin" increased the levels of the "JDF 159" protein, and also curbed the increase in body weight even after the mice were subjected to a high-fat diet.
"Metformin was first used as a drug that reduces the blood sugar level of type 2 diabetics, but their weight-loss ratios were modest," said research team leader Dr. Stephen O'Reilly.
"Only when long-term studies were done on participants without diabetes, it became clear that people who already had a good compliance with metformin lost an average of about 6% of their body weight and could maintain that decrease for years," he added.