6th Annual Judith Ramaley Celebration of Research and Creative Scholarship
 
Online Book of Abtracts

Poster #62

The Effects of Metformin on the uptake of Glucose and Amino Acids in Lactobacillus acidophilus.

Balabhadra Khatiwada

Faculty Mentor: Myoung Lee

Metformin (1,1-dimethylbiguanide) is an oral anti-hyperglycemic drug used for type-2 diabetes. Type-2 diabetes happens when the cells don’t recognize insulin due to cell resistance to insulin. Metformin helps in counteracting insulin resistance to decrease hepatic glucose output and increase muscular glucose uptake. 1-¹³C-glucose, 1-¹³C-leucine, and 1-¹³C-methionine were provided to the L. Acidophilus at pH 6 with and without metformin. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) was used to observe the uptake of each molecule. Glucose was transported into cells and production of lactate was seen whereas no uptake of leucine was observed. Methionine uptake was present but only in small amount. Presence of metformin increased the rate of glucose uptake whereas it did not change the rate of uptake of leucine and methionine. The research is in progress to see the uptake at different glucose, methionine and metformin concentrations.

The binding of metformin with a prokaryotic protein (1t8r – AMP nucleosidase) was studied using molecular docking simulation via DockingServer. The binding of Metformin with AMP nucleosidase is not very strong and has a free energy of -4.51 kcal/mol and Inhibition constant (K_I) of 500 mM. The interactions of metformin with AMP nucleosidase were seen with 414 TYR, 415 ARG, 417 ARG, 475 LEU, 477 THR and 478 PHE residues.