Is the anti-diabetic agent sodium tungstate an anti-inflammatory factor?

What is it about?

Diabetes is an inflammatory disease and anti-diabetic treatments are expected to correct it. Sodium tungstate is an inorganic salt with a strong anti-diabetic effect in animal models of diabetes. We hypothesized that sodium tungstate exerts anti-inflammatory effects as part of its anti-diabetic action. Unexpectedly, in vitro treatment of human renal cells with sodium tungstate induced the secretion of cytokines, especially pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6, IL-8 and MCP-1. More studies are needed to understand the physiological effect of this new immunomodulatory action, in order to define if it is contributing to the reparative effects or it represents a side effect of sodium tungstate treatment.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Diabetes affects millions of people worldwide but there are no effective treatments yet. Sodium tungstate has shown a strong anti-diabetic effect in animal models of diabetes, normalizing glycemia and triglyceridemia without risk of hypoglycemia and overweight. However, after only one human trial with inconclusive results, no further studies were attempted because of the lack of a complete analysis of sodium tungstate side effects. In this work, we have determined that sodium tungstate induces secretion of higher levels of pro- than anti-inflammatory cytokines by human renal proximal tubule epithelial cells in vitro, which might be translated as a side effect in the kidney.