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Review
. 2021 Mar 17:12:631100.
doi: 10.3389/fphar.2021.631100. eCollection 2021.

A New Therapeutic Candidate for Cardiovascular Diseases: Berberine

Yun Cai  1 , Qiqi Xin  2   3 , Jinjin Lu  4 , Yu Miao  2   3 , Qian Lin  5 , Weihong Cong  2   3 , Keji Chen  2   3
Affiliations
Review

A New Therapeutic Candidate for Cardiovascular Diseases: Berberine

Yun Cai et al. Front Pharmacol. .

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of death in the world. However, due to the limited effectiveness and potential adverse effects of current treatments, the long-term prognosis of CVD patients is still discouraging. In recent years, several studies have found that berberine (BBR) has broad application prospects in the prevention and treatment of CVD. Due to its effectiveness and safety for gastroenteritis and diarrhea caused by bacterial infections, BBR has been widely used in China and other Asian countries since the middle of the last century. The development of pharmacology also provides evidence for the multi-targets of BBR in treating CVD. Researches on CVD, such as arrhythmia, atherosclerosis, dyslipidemia, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, myocarditis and cardiomyopathy, heart failure, etc., revealed the cardiovascular protective mechanisms of BBR. This review systematically summarizes the pharmacological research progress of BBR in the treatment of CVD in recent years, confirming that BBR is a promising therapeutic option for CVD.

Keywords: berberine; cardiovascular diseases; natural product; safety; therapeutic effects.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Chemical structure of berberine. Berberine has been found to exhibit biological activities including the reduction of blood sugar, regulation of lipids, as well as anti-arrhythmic and cardio-protective effects. With the progress of modern pharmacological research, the properties of BBR in the treatment of multiple disease have gradually been discovered.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
The summarization of effects and main signal pathways regulated by berberine in its organ-and tissue-protective effects from both in vivo and in vitri studies. (↑: increase; ↓: decrease).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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