Iranian Journal of

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Background: Metformin is used in treatment of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). The present study was aimed to study the pharmacokinetic and pharmaco-dynamic of metformin 500 mg tablet in healthy volunteers.
Methods: The test and reference metformin hydrochloride 500 mg tablets were administered to 12 healthy volunteers in a cross-over study. Metformin serum concentration and decrease in blood sugar levels (dBSL) were used for study of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic.
Results: There was no correlation between phramacodynamic and pharmacokinetic para-meters. Also there was no increase in dBSL-(AUC0-12) with increase metformin serum concentration-time. The results of our study show that both products could be bioequivalent according to serum concentration and not blood sugar data.
Conclusion: There was no concentration – effect (dBSL) correlation for both products. Metformin didn’t decrease the blood glucose in healthy volunteers. In some volunteers there was no increase in blood sugar after meal and dextrose 20% oral solution administration which could be related to decreased absorption of glucose from gastrointestinal tract caused by metformin.

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Background: Xanthohumol is one of the main bioactive compounds extracted from the female flowers of the hops plant (Humulus lupulus L), that has been shown in several studies to have anti-cancer effects.The MAPK/ERK pathway is one of the key pathways in the regulation of gene expression, cell growth and survival. The abnormal activation of this pathway leads to the uncontrolled cell proliferation in thyroid cancer. This study aims to perform a bioinformatic screening of the proteins in the MAPK/ERK pathway and introduce them as target protein to Xanthohumol. In addition, due to the significant role of EGFR, Grb2, SOS proteins in the MAPK/ERK pathway, they have also been studied.
Method: Using SwissADME software, first the physicochemical, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic characteristics of Xanthohumol are predicted. Then three-dimensional structure of Xanthohumol and target proteins (EGFR, Grb2, SOS, RAS, BRAF, MEK1, MEK2, ERK1, ERK2) were collected from PubChem database and Protein Data Bank, finally, using Auto Dock 4.1.the molecular docking were studied.
Results: Our study shows lack of cytotoxicity in Xanthohumol. In addition, Xanthohumol with proper physicochemical properties does not induce drug resistance through pump P-glycoprotein mechanism. Analysis of molecular docking indicate that Xanthohumol has inhibitory potential to the all proteins studied. Note that its strongest interaction is with MEK2 protein with binding energy-7.04kcal.mol^-1.
Conclusion: According to our results, Xanthohumol has inhibitory potential to the all proteins present in the MAPK/ERK pathway. It lacks cytotoxicity. Thus, it can be considered as an alternative inhibitor for the MAPK/ERK pathway in thyroid cancer cells.