Berberine is a novel cholesterol-lowering drug working through a unique mechanism distinct from statins

Kong, Weijia; Wei, Jing; Abidi, Parveen; Lin, Meihong; Inaba, Shin-ichi; Liu, Cong; Wang, Yanling; Wang, Zizheng; Si, Shuyi; Pan, Hongqiu; Wang, Shukui; Wu, Jingdan; Wang, Yue; Li, Zhuorong; Li, Jingwen; Jiang, Jian‐Dong

doi:10.1038/nm1135

Cited by 1,214 publications

(1,065 citation statements)

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“…This discrepancy may have resulted from the differences in the diet composition, especially dietary cholesterol and fat levels, bile acid supplementation, and the time of BBR administration between the present study and previous studies [13,26,42,43]. It could also be due to the differences in cholesterol metabolism between humans and animal species [44][45][46].…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 56%

“…The cholesterol-lowering property of BBR was initially observed in atherosclerotic human aortic intimal cells [41] and later in rodents [13,26,42,43] and humans [13].H o wever, the current study did not reveal a significant effect of BBR on plasma cholesterol in rats fed a semi-synthetic, high-cholesterol and high-fat diet for 1.5 months. This discrepancy may have resulted from the differences in the diet composition, especially dietary cholesterol and fat levels, bile acid supplementation, and the time of BBR administration between the present study and previous studies [13,26,42,43].…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 40%

“…Alterations in any one of these pathways affect cholesterol homeostasis resulting in changes in plasma cholesterol levels [12][13][14]. A higher efficacy would be expected if multiple pathways were altered favourably toward decreases of cholesterol input and/or increases of cholesterol output/excretion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous studies demonstrated that the cholesterol-lowering efficacy of BBR was higher than most of current natural products but moderate compared to statin drugs [13,26,27]. BBR lowers plasma cholesterol through upregulating LDLreceptor mediated cholesterol clearance [13]. In addition, BBR has also reported to reduce plasma TAG levels in humans and animals [13,26,27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…BBR lowers plasma cholesterol through upregulating LDLreceptor mediated cholesterol clearance [13]. In addition, BBR has also reported to reduce plasma TAG levels in humans and animals [13,26,27]. Because BBR and phytosterols reduce cholesterol via distinct mechanisms, it was hypothesized that the combination of BBR and PS would synergistically lower blood cholesterol.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Co-administration of berberine and plant stanols synergistically reduces plasma cholesterol in rats

Xiao-ming¹,

Chen

Zidichouski³

et al. 2008

Atherosclerosis

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The objective of the present study was to determine the beneficial effects and the safety of oral administration of the combination of berberine (BBR) and plant stanols (PS) on plasma lipid profiles in male Sprague-Dawley rats. Four groups of animals were fed a cornstarch-casein-sucrose-based high-cholesterol (2%, w:w) and high-fat (27.5%) diet. Three treatment groups were supplemented with either BBR (100 mg kg −1 body weight d −1 ), PS (1% in diet, w:w), or the combination of both (BBRPS). After 6 wk, animals were sacrificed and followed immediately with the collection of blood and organ samples. Lipid analysis revealed that PS lowered plasma total cholesterol (T-C) by 18% (p = 0.067) and non-HDL-cholesterol (non-HDL-C) by 29% (p = 0.013) as compared with the control, while BBR had no effect on both T-C and non-HDL-C. The combination treatment of BBRPS reduced plasma T-C by 41% (p = 0.0002) and non-HDL-C by 59% (p < 0.0001) compared to the control group. BBR reduced plasma TG levels by 31% at a marginal significance relative to the control (p = 0.054), whereas PS had no effect. BBRPS showed an additive effect of BBR and PS on plasma TAG. PS and BBRPS both decreased liver cholesterol (p = 0.0027 and 0.0002, respectively). BBR and PS, either alone or in combination, did not show any toxic effects as assessed by plasma concentration of hepatic biochemical parameters. These results demonstrate that BBR and PS, when combined, synergistically lower plasma cholesterol levels and significantly reduce liver cholesterol, without the observation of any toxic effects. Crown

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