Impact of Metformin on BRCA1 Expression and Breast Cancer Risk in T2DM Patients

This study aims at detecting the level of BRCA1 protein as a marker of breast cancer in Iraqi women previously suffering from type 2 diabetes mellitus. The study includes: 80 participants they were divided into three subgroups based on drugs strategy and duration of disease, with ages (40–70) years. Blood samples were collected from Ibn AL-Bitar Hospital in Baghdad / Iraq between the period from November 2022 to February 2023. Some biochemical parameters were measured for all study groups, which include: -Fasting blood sugar (FBS) and Lipid profile, which were measured by enzymatic oxidation method. Using an enzymatic process, Insulin levels and Insulin-like Growth Factors (IGF-1) and Estrogen-receptor-alpha (ERα) levels, and Breast Cancer Susceptibility Protein1(BRCA-1) were measured via an ELISA. Glycated Hemoglobin (HbA1c) level was measured with a sandwich-immunodetection method. Finally, Homeostasis model assessment-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) was calculated according to the specific formula. The result showed that the P-value for the comparison of groups were not significant for FBS, HbA1c, and lipid profile, while BRCA1, ERα, Insulin, IGF-1, and HOMA IR showed significance with P-value of 0.0001. The main finding is that patients taking metformin only less than one year which contributed to increase the level of BRCA1. There is a positive association between BRAC1 level with ERα, insulin, and IGF-1 levels. According to ROC-analysis, BRCA1 showed high sensitivity and specificity. We conclude that BRCA1protin is a good parameter to predict the incidence of breast cancer in women with type 2 diabetes and metformin increases the concentration of BRCA1-portien.