“This is an exciting discovery that demonstrates how a patient’s genetics can determine how well, or poorly, a drug works,” Pearson said. “We need to undertake further clinical studies before we can change the way we use metformin, but this finding suggests that some patients should be treated with higher doses than others to achieve the same effect. This really does move us a step closer to truly targeted therapy in the treatment of diabetes.”
“This is the largest precision medicine study on an anti-diabetic drug performed to date, and is only made possible by the truly international collaboration of the Metformin Genetics Consortium,” Giacomini added.
https://www.ucsf.edu...s-drug-response
The Metformin Genetics Consortium identified a genetic variant in the gene encoding the glucose transporter GLUT2, a protein that plays an important role in transporting glucose inside the body. They showed that those people who carried this variant had reduced levels of GLUT2 in the liver and other tissues resulting in a defect in how the body handles glucose. Metformin acted to specifically reverse this deficiency resulting in a better response to metformin in people carrying this gene variant.
http://www.rdm.ox.ac...e-most-commonly
