Research Progress on Effect of Hypoglycemic Mechanism of Berberine in Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

In recent years, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has an increasing incidence worldwide along with the improvement of people' s living standards, and emerged as a serious threat to human health. T2DM is a progressive metabolic disease characterized by hyperglycemia, and its routine therapies include diet control, the use of oral hypoglycemic drugs or subcutaneous injection with insulin. At present, in addition to chemical drugs, such as metformin and thiazolidinediones, researchers have also found that natural medicines and traditional Chinese medicine compounds have mild hypoglycemic and insulin sensitizing effects. Besides, these drugs also have effects in alleviating diabetes complications and maintaining glucose homeostasis. Berberine is an isoquinoline alkaloid mainly isolated from Coptis chinensis with multiple pharmacological activities. Currently, berberine is considered to be one of the most promising natural hypoglycemic agents for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. However, mechanisms of the hypoglycemic effect of berberine were complex. In this review, we summarized the pharmacological mechanisms of hypoglycemic effect of berberine, including improving insulin resistance, promoting insulin and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) secretion, inhibiting hepatic gluconeogenesis, reducing glucose absorption in intestinal cells, suppressing oxidative stress and inflammation and modulating gut microbiota, clarified the mechanisms of hypoglycemic effect of berberine could help to understand the pharmacology of berberine in the treatment of diabetes mellitus and provided evidence for rational application of berberine in the treatment of type 2 diabetes.