Pharmacokinetic-Pharmacodynamic Modeling of Metformin for the Treatment of Type II Diabetes Mellitus

Metformin is an antihyperglycemic agent commonly used for the treatment of Type II diabetes mellitus. However, its effects on patients are derived usually from clinical experiments. In this study, a dynamic model of Type II diabetes mellitus with the treatment of metformin is proposed. The Type II diabetic model is a modification of an existing compartmental diabetic model. The dynamic simulation of the metformin effect for a Type II diabetic patient is based on the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic relationship with a human body. The corresponding model parameters are estimated by optimization using clinical data from published reports. Then, the effect of metformin in both intravenous and oral administration on a Type II diabetes mellitus model are compared. The combination treatment of insulin infusion plus oral metformin is shown to be superior than the monotherapy with oral metformin only. These results are consistent with the clinical understanding of the use of metformin. For further work, the model can be analyzed for evaluating the treatment of diabetes mellitus with different pharmacological agents.