Diabetes Drug Grows Neurons

[Bill USA]

http://the-scientist.com/2012/07/05/diabetes-drug-grows-neurons/

The drug metformin is used in a range of metabolic disorders, but new research published today in Stem Cell demonstrates its capacity to activate a pathway that promotes the genesis of new neurons in the brains of mice, leading to better performances in a spatial learning test.

“It’s gratifying to see it has a role outside diabetes,” said Fredric Wondisford, director of the Johns Hopkins Diabetes Research and Training Center, who was not involved in this study. Wondisford was part of the team that previously discovered metformin’s role in the same pathway in liver cells, where it helps to regulate metabolism.

Study co-author Freda Miller and colleagues were interested in how stem cells in the brain develop and differentiate, and had investigated the aPKC-CBP pathway—which relies on the interaction between CBP, a transcriptional coactivator that regulates gene transcription, and atypical protein kinase C (aPKC)—as an important factor in the development of embryonic neuron precursors. When they heard from Wondisford that metformin activated this pathway in liver cells, they set out to test whether the same was true in the brain.

Sure enough, by culturing neuronal precursors in metformin, the researchers were able to activate aPKC, which phosphorylates CBP, and promote differentiation of neuronal precursor stem cells into new neurons.
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[2on2u]

1. K&RRRRR. n/t

[pscot]

2. Smarter mice?

I wouldn't think there's that much demand.

[mzmolly]

3. Wow.

"Finding such strong evidence that metformin activates neurogenesis was “much to our surprise,” said Miller who is hopeful that future research may one day extend their findings to the therapeutic repair strategy for a range of brain disorders and injuries."