Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Jan 15, 2022; 13(1): 65-69
Published online Jan 15, 2022. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v13.i1.65
Gut microbiota-derived metabolites are novel targets for improving insulin resistance
Rosana MC Bastos, Érika B Rangel
Rosana MC Bastos, Érika B Rangel, Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, São Paulo 05652-001, SP, Brazil
Érika B Rangel, Nephrology Division, Federal University of São Paulo, São Paulo 04023-900, SP, Brazil
Author contributions: Bastos RMC and Rangel ÉB wrote the letter; Rangel ÉB revised the letter and gave the final approval.
Supported by São Paulo Research Foundation, No. 2013/19560-6 and No. 2017/23195-2; and EFSD (European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes)/Sanofi (to Rangel ÉB).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Érika B Rangel, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Senior Scientist, Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, Av Albert Einstein 627, Building A, 2SS, São Paulo 05652-001, SP, Brazil. erikabr@uol.com.br
Received: July 3, 2021
Peer-review started: July 3, 2021
First decision: July 28, 2021
Revised: August 1, 2021
Accepted: December 31, 2021
Article in press: December 31, 2021
Published online: January 15, 2022
Processing time: 191 Days and 11 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: The gut-microbiota-derived metabolites play a key role in metabolic diseases. Insulin signaling pathways are directly targeted by these metabolites, as they promote an increase in glucose uptake and lipid oxidation in skeletal muscle; a decrease in lipogenesis and gluconeogenesis associated with an increase in lipid oxidation in the liver; and an improvement in thermogenesis and inflammation in the adipose tissue. Collectively, these findings pave the way for the development of novel drugs or for investigation of the therapeutic potential of drugs currently used to treat insulin resistance, targeting the gut-microbiota-derived metabolites.