ArticleAnnals of laboratory medicine2024
Metformin Suppresses Both PD-L1 Expression in Cancer Cells and Cancer-Induced PD-1 Expression in Immune Cells to Promote Antitumor Immunity.
Article in Annals of laboratory medicine, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Bibliometric analysis of metformin as an immunomodulator (2013-2024).Frontiers in immunology · 2024Pooled it
- Immune checkpoints and immunoregulation in metabolic diseases and cancers: pathological mechanisms and therapeutic potential.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2026Review
- Targeting metabolic reprogramming in HPV-associated oral squamous cell carcinoma: current advances, challenges, and clinical prospects.Journal of molecular histology · 2026Review
- Metformin as an Innate Immune Modulator: Metabolic and Epigenetic Reprogramming of Innate Immune Cells and Therapeutic Implications.Current issues in molecular biology · 2026Review
- The regulatory roles and therapeutic strategies of the solute carrier transporters in cancer metabolism.NPJ precision oncology · 2026Review
- Transcending risk factors: the implications of redefining diabetes as an immunometabolic disease for infectious disease studies.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Ubiquitination in cancer: mechanisms and therapeutic opportunities.Cancer communications (London, England) · 2025Review
- Advancing Natural Killer Cell Therapy: Genetic Engineering Strategies for Enhanced Cancer Immunotherapy.Annals of laboratory medicine · 2025Review
- Enhanced Antitumor Activity of Korean Black Soybean Cultivar 'Soman' by Targeting STAT-Mediated Aerobic Glycolysis.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The effect of concomitant drugs on oncological outcomes in patients treated with immunotherapy for metastatic urothelial carcinoma: a narrative review.Oncology research · 2025Review
- Metabolic-immune axis in the tumor microenvironment: a new strategy for prognostic assessment and precision therapy in DLBCL and FL.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Pterostilbene inhibits non-small cell lung cancer progression by activating the STING pathway and enhancing antitumor immune response.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- AMPK: The energy sensor at the crossroads of aging and cancer.Seminars in cancer biology · 2024Review
- Prognostic impact of metformin in solid cancer patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors: novel evidences from a multicenter retrospective study.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Metformin, a drug prescribed for patients with type 2 diabetes, has potential efficacy in enhancing antitumor immunity; however, the detailed underlying mechanisms remain to be elucidated. Therefore, we aimed to identify the inhibitory molecular mechanisms of metformin on programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression in cancer cells and programmed death 1 (PD-1) expression in immune cells. Methods: We employed a luciferase reporter assay, quantitative real-time PCR, immunoblotting analysis, immunoprecipitation and ubiquitylation assays, and a natural killer (NK) cell-mediated tumor cell cytotoxicity assay. A mouse xenograft tumor model was used to evaluate the effect of metformin on tumor growth, followed by flow-cytometric analysis using tumor-derived single-cell suspensions. Results: Metformin decreased AKT-mediated β-catenin S552 phosphorylation and subsequent β-catenin transactivation in an adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activation-dependent manner, resulting in reduced Conclusions: Metformin blocks both PD-L1 and PD-1 within the tumor microenvironment. This study provided a mechanistic insight into the efficacy of metformin in improving immunotherapy in human cancer.
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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.