Immunological axis of berberine in managing inflammation underlying chronic respiratory inflammatory diseases

Tew XN 1 , Xin Lau NJ 1 , Chellappan DK 2 , Madheswaran T 3 , Zeeshan F 3 , Tambuwala MM 4 Show all authors , Aljabali AA 5 , Balusamy SR 6 , Perumalsamy H 7 , Gupta G 8 , Oliver BG 9 , Hsu A 10 , Wark P 10 , Reddy K 9 , Wadhwa R 11 , Hansbro PM 12 , Dua K 13

Affiliations 

  • 1 School of Pharmacy, International Medical University (IMU), Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, 57000, Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Life Sciences, School of Pharmacy, International Medical University (IMU), Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, 57000, Malaysia. Electronic address: Dinesh_Kumar@imu.edu.my
  • 3 Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, School of Pharmacy, International Medical University (IMU), Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, 57000, Malaysia
  • 4 School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ulster University, Coleraine, County, Londonderry, BT52 1SA, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
  • 5 Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Yarmouk University, Irbid, 21163, Jordan
  • 6 Department of Food Science and Biotechnology, Sejong University, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, 05006, Republic of Korea
  • 7 Graduate School of Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Kyung Hee University, Yongin, 446-701, Republic of Korea
  • 8 School of Pharmacy, Suresh Gyan Vihar University, Jagatpura, 302017, Mahal Road, Jaipur, India
  • 9 School of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Ultimo, NSW, 2007, Australia; Respiratory Cellular and Molecular Biology Group, Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, Australia
  • 10 School of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Ultimo, NSW, 2007, Australia
  • 11 Discipline of Pharmacy, Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Ultimo, NSW, 2007, Australia; School of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Ultimo, NSW, 2007, Australia
  • 12 Discipline of Pharmacy, Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Ultimo, NSW, 2007, Australia; School of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Ultimo, NSW, 2007, Australia; Priority Research Centre for Healthy Lungs, Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI) & School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, The University of Newcastle (UoN), Callaghan, NSW, 2308, Australia
  • 13 School of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Ultimo, NSW, 2007, Australia; Discipline of Pharmacy, Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Ultimo, NSW, 2007, Australia; Priority Research Centre for Healthy Lungs, Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI) & School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, The University of Newcastle (UoN), Callaghan, NSW, 2308, Australia; School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Shoolini University, Bajhol, Sultanpur, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, 173 229, India. Electronic address: Kamal.Dua@uts.edu.au
Chem Biol Interact, 2020 Feb 01;317:108947.
PMID: 31968208 DOI: 10.1016/j.cbi.2020.108947

Abstract

Inflammatory responses play a remarkable role in the mechanisms of acute and chronic respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, pulmonary fibrosis and lung cancer. Currently, there is a resurgence in the use of drugs from natural sources for various ailments as potent therapeutics. Berberine, an alkaloid prominent in the Chinese traditional system of medicine has been reported to exert therapeutic properties in various diseases. Nevertheless, the number of studies focusing on the curative potential of berberine in inflammatory diseases involving the respiratory system is limited. In this review, we have attempted to discuss the reported anti-inflammatory properties of berberine that function through several pathways such as, the NF-κB, ERK1/2 and p38 MAPK pathways which affect several pro-inflammatory cytokines in the pathophysiological processes involved in chronic respiratory diseases. This review would serve to provide valuable information to researchers who work in this field and a new direction in the field of drug discovery with respect to respiratory diseases.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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