Diabetes drug metformin affects the brain, study finds: Here’s how

(NewsNation) — For more than 60 years, doctors have prescribed metformin as a frontline treatment for Type 2 diabetes.

Now, researchers say they’ve uncovered something that was hiding in plain sight: Part of the drug’s power over blood sugar comes from the brain.

A team at Baylor College of Medicine has identified a brain-based pathway that plays a significant role in how metformin controls blood glucose.

The findings, published in the journal Science Advances, could reshape how scientists develop future diabetes therapies.

“It’s been widely accepted that metformin lowers blood glucose primarily by reducing glucose output in the liver,” said Dr. Makoto Fukuda, associate professor of pediatrics and nutrition at Baylor and the study’s corresponding author. “We looked into the brain as it is widely recognized as a key regulator of whole-body glucose metabolism.”

Scientists identified Rap1 protein as key to drug’s brain effects

The research centered on a protein called Rap1, found in a region of the brain known as the ventromedial hypothalamus, or VMH.

Researchers found that metformin’s ability to lower blood sugar at........

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