Trial reportPLoS neglected tropical diseases2025
Safety and tolerability of metformin in overweight and obese patients with dengue: An open-label clinical trial (MeDO).
Trial report in PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It reports registered trial NCT04377451. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
Metformin as Adjunctive Therapy in Overweight and Obese Patients With Dengue: an Open-label Safety and Tolerability Trial
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A systematic mapping review of therapeutic clinical trials in dengue.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Pooled it
- Assessing the burden of diabetes mellitus in dengue patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.New microbes and new infections · 2026Article
- Observational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
27 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDespite dengue being a major public health problem, there are no antiviral or adjunctive treatments for the disease. Novel therapeutics are needed, particularly for patients at high risk of severe disease, including those living with obesity. Metformin reduces dengue viral replication in vitro through AMPK activation and may also have beneficial immunomodulatory effects.
methodsWe conducted an open label trial at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, enrolling 120 patients with dengue and obesity (60 treatment arm, 60 control arm receiving standard of care only). Within the treatment arm, the first 10 patients were prescribed low dose metformin, and the remaining 50 patients received weight-based dosing of 1-1.5g/day. The primary outcome was the number of adverse events (AEs), and secondary outcomes were clinical and laboratory parameters, including fever clearance time, platelet nadir, percentage of haematocrit change from baseline, maximum creatinine and highest AST/ALT, and the kinetics of plasma viraemia and NS1 antigenaemia.
resultsThe majority of patients in both groups had dengue with warning signs. Six patients in the metformin group and 5 controls developed dengue shock syndrome, and no patients died. There were more AEs recorded in the metformin treated group than in the control group (mean±SD: 15 ± 4 vs. 11 ± 6), particularly the high-dose metformin group (15 ± 5). Twenty-five patients (42%) had to stop the study drug due to AEs, including severe diarrhea (n = 12), dengue shock (n = 5), increased lactate of >3mmol/L (n = 4), hypoglycemia (n = 3), and persistent vomiting (n = 1). There were no clear differences in secondary outcomes between the two groups.
conclusionsMetformin was poorly tolerated in patients with dengue, mainly due to gastrointestinal side effects. Metformin did not beneficially affect clinical evolution or virological parameters compared to supportive care alone. Our data does not support progression to larger phase 3 trials of metformin in patients with dengue.
trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04377451 (May 6th, 2020).
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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 Socratic graph.