Berberine AND Smad

BACKGROUND: In diabetic patients, complications are the leading cause of death and disability, while diabetic lung damage has received little research. The Coptis inflorescence extract (CE) has hypoglycemic properties, but the mechanism of its protective role on diabetic lung injury is understood. PURPOSE: This study aims to explore the protective actions and molecular mechanism of CE and its active ingredients in diabetic lung disease. METHOD: Twenty-nine metabolites were identified in the metabolomic profile of CE using HPLC-ESI/MS, and high-content substances of berberine (BBR) and linarin (LIN) were isolated from CE using column chromatography...

Berberine (BBR), a natural alkaloid derived from Coptis, has anticancer activity. Some researchers have found that it could restrain epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of melanoma, neuroblastoma, and other tumor cells. However, it is unclear whether BBR can reverse EMT in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and gastric carcinoma (GC). In our study, BBR inhibited the migration and invasion of HepG2, MGC803, and SGC7901 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Transcription sequencing assays showed that Vimentin, MMP, and Smad3 were downregulated, but Smad2, Smad6, TAB2, ZO-1, and claudin 7 were upregulated when treated with BBR...

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignant tumours in the world. Recent reports have revealed natural products displayed inhibition on colon cancer potential by suppressing transforming growth factor-β/Smads induced epidermal-mesenchymal transition (EMT). In this article, 12 kinds of natural berberine analogues were screened for their effects on the inhibition of the colon cancer cells, the results showed that demethyleneberberine (DM-BBR) exhibited an interesting and potential effect on inducing the apoptosis of HCT-116 cells with drug concentrations of 6, 12 and 18 μM...

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect of berberine (BBR) on skeletal muscle mass and metabolism and the possible mechanism. METHODS: Eight-week-old male C57BL/6 mice were fed with a high-fat diet (HFD) for 8 weeks to establish the insulin resistance obesity model. Then, mice were randomly divided into two groups (normal chow diet (NCD) and HFD), while NCD and HFD were further classified into two groups respectively, which were NCD+CS (Carmellose Sodium), NCD+BBR, HFD+CS and HFD+BBR...

Objective Transdifferentiation exists between stromal cells or between stromal cells and cancer cells. Evodiamine and berberine are predominant pharmacological components of Zuojin pill, a prescription of Traditional Chinese Medicine, playing crucial functions in remolding of tumor microenvironment. This study aimed to explore the effect of combination of evodiamine with berberine (cBerEvo) on the phenotypic transition of colon epithelial cells induced by tumor-associated fibroblasts, as well as the involved mechanisms...

Berberine (BR) acts as an AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activator which possesses antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. In this study, we have investigated the effects of BR against cerulein-induced chronic pancreatitis (CP) via inhibition of TGF-β/Smad signaling and M2 macrophages polarization in AMPK dependent manner. Cerulein-induced CP mice were treated with BR (3 and 10 mg/kg), intraperitoneally every day for 21 days. Our results indicated that, BR treatment (10 mg/kg) significantly reduced oxidative-nitrosative stress, histological alterations, inflammatory cells infiltration and collagen deposition in pancreatic tissue...

BACKGROUND: Cardiac fibrosis is a crucial aspect of cardiac remodeling that can severely affect cardiac function. Cardiac fibroblasts surely influence this process. Besides, macrophage plays an essential role in cardiac remodeling after heart injury. However, whether macrophage influence fibroblasts remain a question worth exploring. This study aimed to define the role of berberine (BBR) on isoprenaline (ISO)-induced cardiac fibrosis in an in vivo rat model and try to figure out the mechanism in vitro study...

Although several studies confirmed that berberine may attenuate airway inflammation in mice with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), its underlying mechanisms were not clear until now. We aimed to establish an experiment mouse model for COPD and to investigate the effects of berberine on airway inflammation and its possible mechanism in COPD model mice induced by cigarette smoke extract (CSE). Twenty SPF C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into PBS control group, COPD model group, low-dose berberine group and high-dose berberine group, 5 mice in each group...

Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a heterogeneous pathological process in lung tissues with a considerable mortality rate. Currently, combination therapy represents an effective approach to treat PF. Dexamethasone (Dxs) and berberine (BBR) are widely applied to inhibit the progression of PF. Dxs plus penehyclidine hydrochloride or alfacalcidol have been reported more effective in therapy compared with any single drug treatment. However, whether Dxs plus BBR induces an increased antifibrotic effect remains unknown...

Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a self-regulated physiological process required for tissue repair that, in non-controled conditions may lead to fibrosis, angiogenesis, loss of normal organ function or cancer. Although several molecular pathways involved in EMT regulation have been described, this process does not have any specific treatment. This article introduces a systematic review of effective natural plant compounds and their extract that modulates the pathological EMT or its deleterious effects, through acting on different cellular signal transduction pathways both in vivo and in vitro ...

Tumour-associated fibroblasts (TAFs) mediate the differentiation of adjacent stromal cells. Berberine (BBR), a monomer of traditional Chinese herbs, exhibits a potent therapeutic effect against cancer. However, the effects of BBR on the differentiation of normal colonic epithelial cells induced by TAFs have not been determined. In the present study, we selected the TAF-like myofibroblast cell line CCD-18Co. CCD-18Co-derived conditioned medium (CM) and co-culture induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) changes in colonic epithelial HCoEpiC cells with decreased E-cadherin and increased vimentin and α-SMA expression...

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a serious diabetic complication with renal hypertrophy and expansion of extracellular matrices in renal fibrosis. Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of renal tubular epithelial cells may be involved in the main mechanism. Berberine (BBR) has been shown to have antifibrotic effects in liver, kidney and lung. However, the mechanism of cytoprotective effects of BBR in DN is still unclear. In this study, we investigated the curative effects of BBR on tubulointerstitial fibrosis in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic mice and the high glucose (HG)-induced EMT in NRK 52E cells...

Demethyleneberberine (DMB) is an essential metabolite of Berberine (BBR) in vivo. Recent reports have revealed multiple novel therapeutic applications of BBR. However, the pharmacological activities of DMB remain to be elucidated. This study aimed to demonstrate the hepatoprotective and anti-fibrotic effects of DMB both in vitro and in vivo. Here we showed that DMB protects against thioacetamide (TAA)-induced hepatic fibrosis in mice and exhibits a higher safety profile as compared to BBR. Flow cytometry and Western blotting analysis showed that DMB is able to suppress the activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and induce cell apoptosis through the nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) cascade...

BACKGROUND: Berberine, a plant alkaloid, has been used since many years for treatment of gastrointestinal disorders. It also shows promising medicinal use against metabolic disorders, neurodegenerative disorders and cancer; however its efficacy in neuroblastoma (NB) is poorly explored. HYPOTHESIS: EMT is important in cancer stemness and metastasis resulting in failure to differentiate; thus targeting EMT and related pathways can have clinical benefits. STUDY DESIGN: Potential of berberine was investigated for (i) neuronal differentiation and cancer stemness inhibition, (ii) underlying molecular mechanisms regulating cancer-stemness and (iii) EMT reversal...

UNLABELLED: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a fibroproliferative lung disorder of unknown aetiology. Transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1)-mediated Smad and non-Smad signaling cascades are considered as central players in accelerating pulmonary fibrosis. We earlier reported berberine's amelioration against TGF-β1-mediated pro-fibrotic effects in bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis. The present study aimed to determine the regulatory role of berberine on abrogated Smad 2/3 and FAK-dependent PI3K/Akt-mTOR signaling cascades in bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of berberine (BBR) on unbalanced expression of renal tissue TGF-beta1/SnoN and Smad signal pathway in rats with early diabetic nephropathy (DN), and discuss BBR's effect on DN rats with early diabetic nephropathy and its possible mechanism. METHOD: DN rat model were established by injecting streptozotocin (STZ). The rats were divided into six groups: the control group, the model group, three BBR (50, 100, 200 mg x kg(-1)) treatment groups and the enalapril treatment group...