Berberine, a Herbal Metabolite in the Metabolic Syndrome: The Risk Factors, Course, and Consequences of the Disease.

In recent years, the health of patients exposed to the consequences of the metabolic syndrome still requires the search for new solutions, and plant nutraceuticals are currently being intensively investigated. Berberine is a plant alkaloid possessing scientifically determined mechanisms of the prevention of the development of atherosclerosis, type 2 diabetes, and obesity, as well as cardiovascular complications and cancer. It positively contributes to elevated levels of fasting, postprandial blood glucose, and glycosylated hemoglobin, while decreasing insulin resistance. It stimulates glycolysis, improving insulin secretion, and inhibits gluconeogenesis and adipogenesis in the liver; by reducing insulin resistance, berberine also improves ovulation. The anti-obesity action of berberine has been also well-documented. Berberine acts as an anti-sclerotic, lowering the LDL and testosterone levels. The alkaloid exhibits an anti-inflammatory property by stalling the expression of cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) and prostaglandin E2. Berberine is neuroprotective and acts as an antidepressive. However, the outcomes in psychiatric patients are nonspecific, as it has been shown that berberine improves metabolic parameters in schizophrenic patients, acting as an adjuvant during antipsychotic treatment. Berberine acts as an anticancer option by inducing apoptosis, the cell cycle arrest, influencing MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase), and influencing transcription regulation. The inhibition of carcinogenesis is also combined with lipid metabolism.

Biological Activity of Berberine-A Summary Update.

Berberine is a plant metabolite belonging to the group of isoquinoline alkaloids with strong biological and pharmacological activity. Currently, berberine is receiving considerable interest due to its anticancer activity based on many biochemical pathways, especially its proapoptotic and anti-inflammatory activity. Therefore, the growing number of papers on berberine demands summarizing the knowledge and research trends. The efficacy of berberine in breast and colon cancers seems to be the most promising aspect. Many papers focus on novel therapeutic strategies based on new formulations or search for new active derivatives. The activity of berberine is very important as regards sensitization and support of anticancer therapy in combination with well-known but in some cases inefficient therapeutics. Currently, the compound is being assessed in many important clinical trials and is one of the most promising and intensively examined natural agents.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of 4'-O-acetyl-isoxanthohumol and its analogues as antioxidant and antiproliferative agents.

Isoxanthohumol (2) and its 4'-O-monoacylated (3) and 7,4'-O-diacetylated (4) derivatives were synthesized and evaluated in vitro for their cytotoxic activity against several cancer cell lines of various origins: MCF-7 (breast), A549 (lung), MESSA (uterine sarcoma), LoVo (colon), drug-resistant human cancer cells (MESSA/DX and LoVo/DX), glioblastoma (U-118 MG), and also towards the non-cancerous cell line MCF-10A (normal breast cells). An antiproliferative assay indicates that 7,4'-di-O-acylisoxanthohumol (4) has similar cytotoxicity to its precursor, isoxanthohumol (2), against selected cell lines (A549, MES-SA, MES-SA/5DX, and U-118 MG). Compound 4 was only slightly more cytotoxic to lung, colon, breast (cancerous and normal) and uterine sarcoma (drug sensitive and drug resistant) cell lines compared to its monoacylated derivative (3). Both acylated isoxanthohumols showed preferential activity against tumor cells (MCF-7) and low cytotoxicity to normal cells (MCF-10A), which suggests selectivity of the acylated isoxanthohumols towards cancer cells. Additionally, the activity of the acylated isoxanthohumols was higher than for 2. To the best of our knowledge this is the first report on bioactivity of monoacylated isoxanthohumol (3) and its ester derivatives as antiproliferative compounds in drug resistant cell cultures. Acylation of 2 decreased the antioxidant activity determined by the DPPH method in the order isoxanthohumol (2) >4'-O-acetylisoxanthohumol (3) >7,4'-di-O-acetylisoxanthohumol (4).