Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Feb 19:10:588517.
doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2020.588517. eCollection 2020.

Effects of Berberine on the Gastrointestinal Microbiota

Lichao Zhang  1   2   3 , Xiaoying Wu  1   2   4 , Ruibing Yang  5 , Fang Chen  6 , Yao Liao  1   2   3 , Zifeng Zhu  1   2   3 , Zhongdao Wu  1   2   3 , Xi Sun  1   2   3 , Lifu Wang  1   2   3
Affiliations
Review

Effects of Berberine on the Gastrointestinal Microbiota

Lichao Zhang et al. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. .

Abstract

The gastrointestinal microbiota is a multi-faceted system that is unraveling novel contributors to the development and progression of several diseases. Berberine has been used to treat obesity, diabetes mellitus, atherosclerosis, and metabolic diseases in China. There are also clinical trials regarding berberine use in cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and endocrine diseases. Berberine elicits clinical benefits at standard doses and has low toxicity. The mechanism underlying the role of berberine in lipid-lowering and insulin resistance is incompletely understood, but one of the possible mechanisms is related to its effect on the gastrointestinal microbiota. An extensive search in electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Web of Sciences, Science Direct) was used to identify the role of the gastrointestinal microbiota in the berberine treatment. The aim of this review was to summarize the pharmacologic effects of berberine on animals and humans by regulation of the gastrointestinal microbiota.

Keywords: berberine; diabetes; hyperlipidemia; intestinal flora; obesity.

PubMed Disclaimer

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
Effects of berberine on diseases by regulating intestinal flora. 1. Berberine can activate TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB signal pathway to play an anti-inflammatory role, and increase the populations of Bacteroidetes, Clostridia, Lactobacillales, Prevotellaceae, Alloprevotella, Butyricimonas, Coprococcus, Ruminococcus, Lactobacillus, Akkermansia, Verrucomicrobia, reduce the populations of Bacteroidales, Lachnospiraceae, Rikenellaceae, Desulfovibrio, Streptococcaceae, Clostridiaceae, Prevotella, Proteus, Saccharibacteria, Deferribacteres, Actinobacteria, which affect the development of diabetes. 2. Berberine affects liver diseases by regulating FXR and NF-κB signaling pathways through intestinal flora. 3. Berberine down-regulate F:B (Firmicutes : Bacteroidetes) and up-regulate SCFA-producing bacteria Allobaculum, Bacteroides, Blautia, Butyricicoccus, Phascolarctobacterium, A. muciniphila and GLP-1R in obesity. 4. Berberine regulates hyperlipidemia by reducing Prevotella, Escherichia, Clostridium Sutterella and increase Bacteroides, Parabacteroides, Blautia, Enterobacter, Akkermansia, Escherichia-Shigella, Incertae sedis, Lachnospiraceae FCS020, Clostridium sensu stricto 1. 5. In Enteropatia, berberine enriched the relative abundance of Firmicutes and decreased Proteobacteria at the phylum level. Meanwhile, berberine increased the propotion of unclassified_f_Porphyromonadaceae, unclassified_f_Lachnospiraceae, Lactobacillus, unclassified_o_Clostridiales, Ruminococcus, Prevotella, Clostridium IV, and decreased Escherichia/Shigella at the genera level. 6. Berberine affect the development of Atherosclerosis by changing the amount of Verrucomicrobia, Akkermansia in Apoe (−/−) mice fed a high-fat diet in the intestine.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Caliceti C., Franco P., Spinozzi S., Roda A., Cicero A. F. (2016). Berberine: New Insights from Pharmacological Aspects to Clinical Evidences in the Management of Metabolic Disorders. Curr. Med. Chem. 23 (14), 1460–1476. 10.2174/0929867323666160411143314 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cao Y., Pan Q., Cai W., Shen F., Chen G. Y., Xu L. M., et al. (2016). Modulation of Gut Microbiota by Berberine Improves Steatohepatitis in High-Fat Diet-Fed BALB/C Mice. Arch. Iran Med. 19 (3), 197–203. 0161903/AIM.008 - PubMed
    1. Chang X., Yan H., Fei J., Jiang M., Zhu H., Lu D., et al. (2010). Berberine reduces methylation of the MTTP promoter and alleviates fatty liver induced by a high-fat diet in rats. J. Lipid Res. 51 (9), 2504–2515. 10.1194/jlr.M001958 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chen H., Miao H., Feng Y. L., Zhao Y. Y., Lin R. C. (2014). Metabolomics in dyslipidemia. Adv. Clin. Chem. 66, 101–119. 10.1016/b978-0-12-801401-1.00004-9 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Chen X., Zhang Y., Zhu Z., Liu H., Guo H., Xiong C., et al. (2016). Protective effect of berberine on doxorubicininduced acute hepatorenal toxicity in rats. Mol. Med. Rep. 13 (5), 3953–3960. 10.3892/mmr.2016.5017 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types