EBioMedicine (Oct 2023)

Efficacy of metformin targets on cardiometabolic health in the general population and non-diabetic individuals: a Mendelian randomization studyResearch in context

  • Jie Zheng,
  • Min Xu,
  • Qian Yang,
  • Chunyan Hu,
  • Venexia Walker,
  • Jieli Lu,
  • Jiqiu Wang,
  • Ruixin Liu,
  • Yu Xu,
  • Tiange Wang,
  • Zhiyun Zhao,
  • Jinqiu Yuan,
  • Stephen Burgess,
  • Shiu Lun Au Yeung,
  • Shan Luo,
  • Emma L. Anderson,
  • Michael V. Holmes,
  • George Davey Smith,
  • Guang Ning,
  • Weiqing Wang,
  • Tom R. Gaunt,
  • Yufang Bi

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 96
p. 104803

Abstract

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Summary: Background: Metformin shows beneficial effects on cardiometabolic health in diabetic individuals. However, the beneficial effects in the general population, especially in non-diabetic individuals are unclear. We aim to estimate the effects of perturbation of seven metformin targets on cardiometabolic health using Mendelian randomization (MR). Methods: Genetic variants close to metformin-targeted genes associated with expression of the corresponding genes and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) level were used to proxy therapeutic effects of seven metformin-related drug targets. Eight cardiometabolic phenotypes under metformin trials were selected as outcomes (average N = 466,947). MR estimates representing the weighted average effects of the seven effects of metformin targets on the eight outcomes were generated. One-sample MR was applied to estimate the averaged and target-specific effects in 338,425 non-diabetic individuals in UK Biobank. Findings: Genetically proxied averaged effects of five metformin targets, equivalent to a 0.62% reduction of HbA1c level, was associated with 37.8% lower risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) (odds ratio [OR] = 0.62, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.46–0.84), lower levels of body mass index (BMI) (β = −0.22, 95% CI = −0.35 to −0.09), systolic blood pressure (SBP) (β = −0.19, 95% CI = −0.28 to −0.09) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) levels (β = −0.29, 95% CI = −0.39 to −0.19). One-sample MR suggested that the seven metformin targets showed averaged and target-specific beneficial effects on BMI, SBP and DBP in non-diabetic individuals. Interpretation: This study showed that perturbation of seven metformin targets has beneficial effects on BMI and blood pressure in non-diabetic individuals. Clinical trials are needed to investigate whether similar effects can be achieved with metformin medications. Funding: Funding information is provided in the Acknowledgements.

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