Pharmacodynamics Drug Interactions of Metformin with Aspirin and Nifedipine

Metformin is now being recognized as the standard therapy in T2D patients who are overweight. Metformin has many drug-disease interactions that can increase the risk of metformin-associated lactic acidosis. Therefore this study was conducted to evaluate any possible pharmacodynamic interactions between metformin and drugs used to treat chronic diseases e.g. Hypertension. The rats were fasted overnight before inducing diabetes with streptozotocin. The rats were given an intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (50 mg kg−1) freshly prepared in 0.1M sodium citrate buffer. The diabetic state was confirmed 72 h after streptozotocin injection. Diabetic rats were grouped into seven groups each group of five rats and distributed among the normal control group diabetic control group and the treatment groups. The treatment continued for 10 days. Blood samples were taken before treatment and after 10 days and analyzed for serum glucose, cholesterol, HDL, LDL, and triglycerides. In the diabetic control group which was given STZ alone the blood glucose level decreased significantly (p < 0.05) after 10 days but still above the hyperglycemic level (200mg/dl). The same was observed in the group treated with metformin. The group treated with nifedipine and aspirin showed significant reduction (p < 0.01) in the glucose level below the hyperglycemic level (200mg/dl). While the groups treated with (Metformin + Nifedipine) and (Metformin +Aspirin) showed highly significant reduction (P<0.001) in blood glucose level. These results conclude that the combination of (metformin +Nifedipine) and the combination of (Metformin + Aspirin) have highly significant hypoglycemic effect. It also showed that Nifedipine has promising role in reducing blood glucose level, lipid profile especially LDL-cholesterol, and body weight.