A Systematic Review of Potential Therapeutic Use of Lycium Barbarum Polysaccharides in Disease

Abstract

Objective. To evaluate the effect of Lycium barbarum polysaccharides in the treatment and/or prevention of diseases of different etiologies and systems. Methods. We performed an Entrez PubMed literature search using keywords “lycium”, “barbarum”, “polysaccharides”, “anti-fibrotic”, “anti-apoptotic”, “anti-oxidizing”, “anti-aging”, “neuroprotection”, “metabolism”, “diabetes”, “hyperlipidemia”, “neuroprotection”, and “immunomodulation” on the 14th of August 2018, resulting in 207 papers, of which 20 were chosen after filtering for ‘English language’ and ‘published within 10 years’ as well as curation for relevance by the authors. Results. The 20 selected papers included 2 randomized control trials (1 double-blinded RCT and 1 double-blinded placebo-controlled RCT), 11 in vivo studies, 5 in vitro studies, 1 study with both in vivo and in vitro results, and 1 chemical study. There is good evidence from existing studies on the antifibrotic, antioxidizing, neuroprotective, anticancer, and anti-inflammatory effects of Lycium barbarum polysaccharides. However, there is a need for further studies in the form of large-scale clinical trials to support its use in humans. There is also significant potential for LBP as a safe and effective topical treatment in ocular surface diseases, owing to promising in vitro results and a lack of demonstrated toxic effects to corneal epithelial cells. Conclusion. Results from existing studies suggest that LBP is a promising therapeutic agent, particularly in the management of liver disease, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes. One major limitation of current research is a lack of standardization and quality control for the LBP used. The availability of research-grade LBP will inevitably promote future research in this field worldwide.

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Lycium barbarum polysaccharide alleviates oxygen glucose deprivation-induced PC-12 cells damage by up-regulating miR-24

“…LBPs contains 6 monosaccharides, including xylose, rhamnose, mannose, galactose, arabinose and glucose, which exert multiple therapeutic functions such as anti-cancer, antiinflammation, anti-fibrosis and antioxidant [21]. Noteworthily, LBPs have been evidenced to have neuro protective efficacy and are beneficial in cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases [21]. It is reported LBPs can induce cell autophagy to protect against peripheral neuropathy in streptozotocininduced diabetic rats [22].…”

Lycium barbarum Polysaccharide Suppresses Expression of Fibrotic Proteins in Primary Human Corneal Fibroblasts

“…Chien et al investigated the potential therapeutic effects of LBP extract in dry eye disease. Rats treated with oral LBP extract had a significantly higher Schirmer's test score and tear break-up time with reduced fluorescein staining compared to other groups in a dose-dependent manner [27,28]. Du et al assessed the effect of LBP extract in UV-B damaged corneal epithelial cells and found that LBP prevents apoptosis of injured corneal epithelial cells via inhibition of the JNK-Bax-caspase 3 pathway [17].…”

“…Our in vitro model demonstrates the anti-fibrotic potential of LBP extract. One of the major concerns with the use of LBP has been a lack of availability of standardized research-grade LBP formulation [27]. Previous studies have resourced LBP from large-scale nutraceutical companies which offer a large range of LBP purity and sourcing [27].…”

A critical examination of the main premises of Traditional Chinese Medicine

“…Furthermore, potential pharmacological interference with conventional drugs may be common and remains poorly investigated. For instance, high quality evidence about the clinical efficacy of Pannax ginseng, Lycium barbarum and Cinnamon, the three most extensively exported Chinese herbs, is practically non-existent [89][90][91]. Moreover, a comprehensive report of Cochrane reviews on Chinese herbal medicines (CHM) suggested that only 16% of all included primary studies use adequate sequence generation.…”