Cardiovascular and metabolic diseases (CVMD) are the leading causes of death worldwide, underscoring the urgent necessity to develop new pharmacotherapies. Berberine (BBR) is an eminent component of traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine for more than 2000 years. Recently, BBR has attracted much interest for its pharmacological actions in treating and/or managing CVMD. Recent discoveries of basic, translational and clinical studies have identified many novel molecular targets of BBR (such as AMPK, SIRT1, LDLR, PCSK9, and PTP1B) and provided novel evidences supporting the promising therapeutic potential of BBR to combat CVMD. Thus, this review provides a timely overview of the pharmacological properties and therapeutic application of BBR in CVMD, and underlines recent pharmacological advances which validate BBR as a promising lead drug against CVMD.

Aab Cardiovascular Research Institute Department of Medicine University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry Rochester NY USA

Applied Biotechnology Research Center Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences Tehran 14359 16471 Iran

Department of Biology Science Faculty Selcuk University Campus Konya Turkey

Department of Chemical Biological Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences University of Messina 98168 Messina Italy

Department of Health Sciences Faculty of Science University of Mauritius Réduit Mauritius

Department of Natural Drugs Faculty of Pharmacy University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno Palackého tř 1946 1 612 42 Brno Czech Republic

Department of Pharmacognosy School of Pharmaceutical Sciences Lovely Professional University Phagwara Punjab India

Department of Pharmacognosy School of Pharmacy Zanjan University of Medical Sciences Zanjan Iran

Department of Pharmacy University of Naples Federico 2 Naples Italy

Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Chirurgia Sezione di Endocrinologia Università Federico 2 di Napoli Naples Italy

Institute of Pharmacology and Experimental Toxicology Faculty of Medicine University of Ljubljana SI 1000 Ljubljana Slovenia

Research Group on Community Nutrition and Oxidative Stress University of the Balearic Islands Palma de Mallorca Spain and CIBEROBN Instituto de Salud Carlos 3 Madrid Spain

The 1st Affiliated Hospital of USTC Division of Life Sciences and Medicine University of Science and Technology of China Hefei Anhui 230001 P R China

Traditional Medicine and History of Medical Sciences Research Center Health Research Institute Babol University of Medical Sciences Babol Iran

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Berberine in Human Oncogenic Herpesvirus Infections and Their Linked Cancers

A Microbiological, Toxicological, and Biochemical Study of the Effects of Fucoxanthin, a Marine Carotenoid, on Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the Enzymes Implicated in Its Cell Wall: A Link Between Mycobacterial Infection and Autoimmune Diseases