ReviewPharmacology & therapeutics2012
Insulin in the brain: there and back again.
Review in Pharmacology & therapeutics, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 284 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
284 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 567 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mechanisms and Pathogenesis of Diabetic Cognitive Impairment: A Comprehensive Review.Aging and disease · 2025Pooled it
- Effects of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors citalopram and escitalopram on glucolipid metabolism: a systematic review.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Pooled it
- Exploring the Association Between Cognitive Decline and Triglyceride-Glucose Index: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Brain and behavior · 2024Pooled it
- The influence of insulin on anticipation and consummatory reward to food intake: A functional imaging study on healthy normal weight and overweight subjects employing intranasal insulin delivery.Human brain mapping · 2022Trial
- Metabolic reprogramming in diabetic panvascular disease: Molecular mechanism and therapeutic strategies.iScience · 2026Review
- Insulin-mediated ciliary remodeling in the choroid plexus epithelium.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2026Article
- Antibody-Based Biologics for CNS Disorders.Antibodies (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Insulin Regulates AKT/GSK-3β Signalling, Tau Phosphorylation, and Redox Homeostasis in SH-SY5Y Neuroblastoma Cells.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- From brain bioenergetics to hypothalamic glucoregulation: A shared-systems hypothesis for intrinsic dysglycemia in schizophrenia.Reviews in endocrine & metabolic disorders · 2026Review
- Exercise Increases the Sensitivity of Cerebral Glucose Metabolism to Intranasal Insulin in Young, Healthy Adults.Journal of neurochemistry · 2026Article
- Metabolic Contributions to Learning and Feeling: Why They Matter and How to Make the Most of Them.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- Intracerebroventricular streptozotocin-induced animal model of Alzheimer's disease: revealing dose optimization, administration regimen, and molecular pathways.Laboratory animal research · 2026Review
- The metabolic roots of memory loss: interlinking the Diabetes-Alzheimer's hypothesis.Metabolic brain disease · 2026Review
- Metabolism and the Mind: Investigating the Link Between Glucose Control and Reinforcement Learning in Humans.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- Insulin Signaling in Alzheimer's Disease: Association with Brain Insulin Resistance.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Impact and Significance of Viral Vectors for siRNA Delivery in the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease.Current pharmaceutical biotechnology · 2026Review
- Central cytometabolic functional vascular coupling in health and disease.npj metabolic health and disease · 2025Review
- Article
- Neuroprotective effects of semaglutide and metformin against rotenone-induced neurobehavioral changes in male diabetic rats.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2025Article
- Intracerebroventricular insulin injection acutely normalizes the augmented exercise pressor reflex in male rats with type 2 diabetes mellitus.The Journal of physiology · 2025Article
224 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Insulin performs unique functions within the CNS. Produced nearly exclusively by the pancreas, insulin crosses the blood-brain barrier (BBB) using a saturable transporter, affecting feeding and cognition through CNS mechanisms largely independent of glucose utilization. Whereas peripheral insulin acts primarily as a metabolic regulatory hormone, CNS insulin has an array of effects on brain that may more closely resemble the actions of the ancestral insulin molecule. Brain endothelial cells (BECs), the cells that form the vascular BBB and contain the transporter that translocates insulin from blood to brain, are themselves regulated by insulin. The insulin transporter is altered by physiological and pathological factors including hyperglycemia and the diabetic state. The latter can lead to BBB disruption. Pericytes, pluripotent cells in intimate contact with the BECs, protect the integrity of the BBB and its ability to transport insulin. Most of insulin's known actions within the CNS are mediated through two canonical pathways, the phosphoinositide-3 kinase (PI3)/Akt and Ras/mitogen activated kinase (MAPK) cascades. Resistance to insulin action within the CNS, sometimes referred to as diabetes mellitus type III, is associated with peripheral insulin resistance, but it is possible that variable hormonal resistance syndromes exist so that resistance at one tissue bed may be independent of that at others. CNS insulin resistance is associated with Alzheimer's disease, depression, and impaired baroreceptor gain in pregnancy. These aspects of CNS insulin action and the control of its entry by the BBB are likely only a small part of the story of insulin within the brain.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.