By Marta Koblańska, 4 September 2025, 18.30 Polish time, Photo: diabetes, AI generated, Pixabay
The drug’s anti-inflammatory effects can help balance copper and iron concentrations in the blood, which can alleviate issues related to excess sugar and diabetes.
Metformin is a widely administered anti-diabetes drug. Its contribution to lowering excessive glucose levels has already been confirmed, and the link here is clear. However, the drug with a 60-year tradition of utilization can have much more sophisticated properties influencing the composition of blood serum via the reduction in levels of copper and iron, along with an increase in levels of zinc. How does this action impact the work and overall condition of a body? – A new study led by scientists from Kobe University and published in the BMJ journals sheds light on the issues.
In line with the study’s results, metformin acts as a cleaner affecting metal dynamics within the organism. It reduces copper absorption in the intestine as well as levels of iron and ferritin (a special protein responsible for the accumulation of iron in the tissue). What’s more, according to scientists, long-term use can induce latent iron deficiency in its users. Iron is a crucial metal to sustain pregnancy at the earlier stages, as it binds with folic acid, which determines to a great degree the start of health, if not the developmental potential of the embryo and then the fetus.
However, the structure emerging after metformin and iron exchange, in line with scientists’ statements, remains intricate and far less understood than the relation between the drug and copper. The first one largely depends on reaction conditions. Regarding zinc, an element that contributes to better functioning in a cold environment, and its higher concentrations in the case of metformin intake, the effects of this association remain unclear.
What does the chelation (the binding between metal ions and organic compounds) caused by metformin mean for diabetes? Disruptions in insulin production in the body cause severe health effects, gradually changing, let’s say, the performance of the organism as a whole, as well as organs that build it up. The most common complications at the advanced stage of the disease include impairment of vision, heart failure, and walking problems, as the condition highly impacts vessels delivering vital nutrients and oxygen within the organism. The changes in concentration of elements such as copper and iron within the blood serum have been shown to ameliorate glucose intolerance and health failure in animal models, so far, according to the scientists.
These findings collectively suggest that the reduced copper levels of metformin users uncovered in the present study may be linked to the glucose-lowering and complication-preventive effects of the drug – write scientists.
They add that, in addition, higher iron and lower zinc levels in blood are generally associated with glucose intolerance.
What is glucose intolerance, and why is it so important?
Glucose intolerance occurs along with a limited capacity for its processing in the body. Simplifying it is caused by insufficient production of insulin in the pancreas (the islets of Langerhans), which results in a high concentration of sugar in the blood and intolerance to the insulin hormone. This resistance, called intolerance, makes other cells less sensitive to insulin, which ultimately, if not stopped on time, leads to diabetes, i.e., too high glucose levels in the blood. Metformin reduces the overbalance.
Why the newly launched anti-diabetes drug imeglimin, structurally similar to metformin seen as without metal-chelating properties due to its cyclic structure, is an open question. According to some experts, the structure of the new one seems to be just less stable (bindings), which may facilitate/ease the movements of atoms within the structure. Possibly, it may be an explanation why the therapy becomes more efficient in diabetes, as it causes less fixed outcome, and that could be in favor for diabetes, as patients are vulnerable to either glucose overdose or deficit.
Why are mitochondria beneficial when it comes to metformin?
According to scientists, the structure specified for the substance sequesters copper in mitochondria. That makes the organelle’s work, let’s say, more efficient. In line with the study, ,, mitochondrial copper plays a pivotal role in macrophage activation, and a designed dimeric compound derived from metformin but with an ∼1000- fold greater copper-chelating activity was found to manifest potent anti-inflammatory effects both in vitro and in vivo. That could lead to a preliminary conclusion that certain binding types enhanced with metformin may contribute to the anticancer activity of the drug’- write scientists.
Leave a Reply