Neuroprotective effects of berberine in animal models of Alzheimer’s disease: a systematic review of pre-clinical studies

Abstract

Background Berberine is an isoquinoline alkaloid extracted from various Berberis species which is widely used in East Asia for a wide range of symptoms. Recently, neuroprotective effects of berberine in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) animal models are being extensively reported. So far, no clinical trial has been carried out on the neuroprotective effects of berberine. However, a review of the experimental data is needed before choosing berberine as a candidate drug for clinical experiments. We conducted a systematic review on AD rodent models to analyze the drug effects with minimal selection bias. Methods Five online literature databases were searched to find publications reporting studies of the effect of berberine treatment on animal models of AD. Up to March 2018, 15 papers were identified to describe the efficacy of berberine. Results The included 15 articles met our inclusion criteria with different quality ranging from 3 to 5. We analyzed data extracted from full texts with regard to pharmacological effects and potential anti-Alzheimer’s properties. Our analysis revealed that in multiple memory defects animal models, berberine showed significant memory-improving activities with multiple mechanisms, such as anti-inflammation, anti-oxidative stress, cholinesterase (ChE) inhibition and anti-amyloid effects. Conclusion AD is likely to be a complex disease driven by multiple factors. Yet, many therapeutic strategies based on lowering β-amyloid have failed in clinical trials. This suggest that the threapy should not base on a single cause of Alzheimer’s disease but rather a number of different pathways that lead to the disease. Overall we think that berberine can be a promising multipotent agent to combat Alzheimer’s disease.

Berberine for prevention of dementia associated with diabetes and its comorbidities: A systematic review

“…Growing evidence suggests that both AD and VaD are associated with diabetes [7,8,15,16,215,216], and the risk of dementia development could be reduced by successful intervention of diabetes and its comorbidities [13,215,217]. As summarized in previous review articles, berberine is a promising antidiabetic agent [20,21,24,163], and preclinical evidence suggests that berberine has neuroprotective effects [25,[218][219][220][221]. Here, we collectively evaluated the effectiveness of berberine as a treatment for diabetes-associated dementia by two database searches (Fig.…”

Berberine Facilitates Extinction of Drug-Associated Behavior and Inhibits Reinstatement of Drug Seeking

“…In our next study, we plan to examine differences in gut microbiota in berberineand non-berberine treated mice as we hypothesize that these differences might be associated with differences in relapse propensity. Furthermore, a number of studies found that berberine has multifunctional properties and can inhibit the activity of important pathogenic enzymes, ameliorate intracellular oxidative stress, attenuate neuroinflammation, trigger autophagy, and protect neurons against recognition memory damage (de Oliveira et al, 2019;Yuan et al, 2019;Zhao et al, 2019). Undeniably, more research is needed to understand the effects of pre-extinction berberine intervention on relapse and uncover the underlying neurochemical and molecular mechanisms.…”

Bioactive Molecules from Indian Medicinal Plants as Possible Candidates for the Management of Neurodegenerative Disorders

“…Berberine (33) has been shown to be neuroprotective through the Nrf2 upregulation and also alleviates rotenone-induced cytotoxicity by antioxidation and activation of PI3K/Akt signaling pathway in SH-SY5Y cells [82]. Neuroprotective effects of berberine have also been confirmed in animal models of Alzheimer's disease [83]. Berberine nanoparticles have shown protective effect against LPS-induced neurodegenerative changes [84].…”