Spatial multi-omics maps how metformin protects precisely across diabetic kidney zones
2025-07-23
(Press-News.org)
Metformin is a widely used first-line therapy for type 2 diabetes, and studies increasingly point to its protective effects on the kidney. However, the mechanisms underlying metformin’s renal benefits, especially how it acts in different anatomical regions of the kidney, have remained unclear.
A recent study, published in Life Metabolism, employed cutting-edge spatial multi-omics to produce the first detailed map of how metformin modulates metabolism and protein expression across different zones of the diabetic kidney. Their findings offer key insight into how metformin works at the molecular level and provide a new framework for region-targeted therapy in diabetic nephropathy (DN).
Using MALDI mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-MSI), the team profiled metabolic changes in diabetic mouse kidneys and found eight spatially distinct metabolites linked to DN severity (Figure 1). These include NADH, p-cresol sulfate, and inosinic acid, which were enriched in pathways such as purine metabolism, steroid hormone synthesis, and CoA biosynthesis. The changes were region-specific, appearing differently in the cortex, outer medulla, and inner medulla of the kidney. Strikingly, metformin treatment shifted these spatial metabolic signatures toward normal in a zone-specific fashion. It boosted levels of protective metabolites, like inosinic acid and NADH, in certain regions, while suppressing harmful ones like p-cresol sulfate elsewhere. This suggests that metformin does not act uniformly throughout the kidney but rather fine-tunes function precisely by zone.
Proteomic analysis further revealed that Nphs2, a key protein involved in kidney filtration, was a top metformin-responsive target. Through network modeling and co-expression analysis, the researchers found that distinct kidney regions were associated with unique protein modules and pathways ranging from insulin signaling to purine and CoA metabolism. The study also demonstrated that metformin significantly improved blood glucose, insulin resistance, and kidney pathology in diabetic mice. At the cellular level, it inhibited IL-17 expression and upregulated Nphs2, supporting its anti-inflammatory and nephroprotective roles.
This study for the first time to integrate spatial metabolomics and proteomics to decode metformin’s effects in diabetic kidney disease. By mapping how metformin works region by region, the study has laid a foundation for future interventions that could target metabolic dysfunctions in specific kidney compartments.
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2025-07-23
Obesity has become a global epidemic, contributing to a host of chronic health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. In China, rising rates of overweight and obesity have become a major public health concern. While lifestyle interventions such as diet and exercise remain first-line treatments, long-term success is often limited due to frequent weight regain once interventions stop.
Tirzepatide is a dual GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonist that has shown remarkable weight loss efficacy in global clinical trials. In China, the SURMOUNT-CN trial marked the first phase 3 study evaluating tirzepatide in overweight and ...
2025-07-23
Curtin University researchers have undertaken the world’s biggest survey of low frequency satellite radio emissions, finding Starlink satellites are significantly interfering with radio astronomy observations, potentially impacting discovery and research.
Unintended signals from satellites - leaked from onboard electronics - can drown out the faint radio waves astronomers use to study the universe.
Researchers from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), hosted at the Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy (CIRA), focused on the Starlink mega-constellation as it has the most satellites in orbit, at ...
2025-07-23
When women political candidates deviate from expectations or the views of their party, they are judged far more harshly than men by voters, a new study in Politics & Gender, published on behalf of the American Political Science Association by Cambridge University Press, reveals.
The research also found that voters begin campaigns with greater uncertainty about women candidates than about men, leading them to scrutinise women candidates to a greater extent when forming opinions of them.
The ...
2025-07-22
A team led by the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets (IREx) has achieved the most precise study to date of the L 98-59 planetary system, and confirmed the existence of a fifth planet in the star’s habitable zone, where conditions could allow liquid water to exist.
Volcanic planets, a sub-Earth, and a water world
L 98-59, a small red dwarf located just 35 light-years from Earth, hosts three small transiting exoplanets discovered in 2019, thanks to NASA's TESS space telescope, and a fourth planet revealed through radial velocity measurements with the European Southern Observatory's ESPRESSO spectrograph. All four planets orbit their parent star in ...
2025-07-22
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — The UC Davis Department of Ophthalmology has received a five-year, $3.6 million grant from the National Eye Institute to explore a new way to treat vision loss using gene therapy.
The research could lead to safer and more effective treatments for people with serious eye diseases like macular degeneration and inherited blindness. It could also lead to treatments that don’t require surgery and can be done more widely in clinics.
“We’re excited ...
2025-07-22
As the climate becomes warmer on average, it makes intuitive sense that we will see more hot days and we've had predictions of this for some time. However, the duration of heatwaves — how many days in a row exceed a temperature that is unusually hot for a given region — can be very important for impacts on humans, livestock and ecosystems. Predicting how these durations will change under a long-term warming trend is more challenging because day-to-day temperatures are correlated — tomorrow's temperatures have a dependence on today's temperature. This study takes ...
2025-07-22
GLP-1 receptor agonists, a class of drug used to treat type 2 diabetes, likely trump the widely prescribed metformin for curbing dementia risk in people with the condition, finds the largest study of its kind, published in the open access journal BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care.
The findings suggest that future clinical guidelines for the treatment of type 2 diabetes would do well to consider prioritising drugs with both blood glucose and neuroprotective effects, say the researchers.
Published research suggests that both GLP-1 receptor agonists and metformin, which are widely used to treat type 2 diabetes, protect the brains of people with the disease. But as ...
2025-07-22
The annual UK cost of the mental health disorder PTSD is likely to top £40 billion, but the figures are based on 2020-1 prevalence rates—the most recently available—and don’t include many indirect costs, such as family support services, finds a cost analysis published in the open access journal BMJ Open.
The societal and financial impacts of this increasingly common condition have been “gravely” undervalued, conclude the researchers.
Post-traumatic stress disorder, more commonly referred to ...
2025-07-22
MIAMI, FLORIDA (July 22, 2025) – LaShae Rolle, 27, is a competitive powerlifer who could squat 441 pounds, bench 292 pounds and deadlift 497 pounds. She is also a breast cancer survivor and researcher and the lead author on a first-of-its kind study documenting elite-level strength training during active breast cancer treatment.
The study challenges the long-held belief that cancer patients should stick to low- or moderate-intensity exercise and suggests that with individualized and symptom-informed exercise planning, even ...
2025-07-22
The Sustainability Accelerator at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability has selected 41 projects spanning biology, agriculture, electricity, industry, and water. The teams involve 67 faculty from 27 departments across five of the university’s seven schools.
The projects are as diverse as the problems they are trying to solve, ranging from developing plant-based meat alternatives to optimizing low-carbon steel production to helping coastal communities adapt to threats of saltwater ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Spatial multi-omics maps how metformin protects precisely across diabetic kidney zones
