Gut Microbiota-Mediated Personalized Treatment of Hyperlipidemia Using Berberine
Open accessAbstract
Nitroreductases (NRs) are bacterial enzymes that reduce nitro-containing compounds.We have previously reported that NR of intestinal bacteria is a key factor promoting berberine (BBR) intestinal absorption.We show here that feeding hamsters with high fat diet (HFD) caused an increase in blood lipids and NR activity in the intestine.The elevation of fecal NR by HFD was due to the increase in either the fraction of NR-producing bacteria or their activity in the intestine.When given orally, BBR bioavailability in the HFD-fed hamsters was higher than that in those fed with normal chow (by +72%, *P<0.05).BBR (100 mg/kg/day, orally) decreased blood lipids in the HFD-fed hamsters (**P<0.01)but not in those fed with normal diet.Clinical studies indicated that patients with hyperlipidemia had higher fecal NR activity than that in the healthy individuals (**P<0.01).Similarly, after oral administration, the blood level of BBR in hyperlipidemic patients was higher than that in healthy individuals (*P<0.05).Correlation analysis revealed a positive relationship between blood BBR and fecal NR activity (r=0.703).Thus, the fecal NR activity might serve as a biomarker in the personalized treatment of hyperlipidemia using BBR.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Berberine enriches short-chain fatty-acid-producing bacteria, modulates bile-acid metabolism and remodels the microbiota in models of obesity and insulin resistance.
“Berberine enriches short-chain fatty-acid-producing bacteria, modulates bile-acid metabolism and remodels the microbiota in models of obesity and insulin resistance [95,97,98,99,100,101]”
From Berberine-Drug Interactions: Mechanisms, Clinical Relevance and Risk Stratification-A Narrative Review (2026) · cites this paper as [99]
The Results section reports that a high-fat diet altered gut microbiota composition in hamsters; it does not attribute that change to berberine. Searches for short-chain fatty acids, bile-acid metabolism, and berberine-driven microbiota changes in obesity or insulin-resistance models found no passage addressing those claims. The paper instead examines bacterial nitroreductase activity, berberine absorption, and lipid lowering. (LLM, conf=0.76)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 41 · Cited by 131
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- [1]National Pharmacopoeia Committee Berberine Hydrochloride and Berberine Hydrochloride Tablets. Pharmacopoeia of People's Republic of China/Part II Beijing Chemical Industry Press, Beijing 2015 875 876
- Authors
- Wang, Y., Tong, Q., Shou, J.-W., Zhao, Z.-X., Li, X.-Y., Zhang, X.-F., Ma, S.-R., He, C.-Y., Lin, Y., Wen, B.-Y., Guo, F., Fu, J., & Jiang, J.-D.
- Affiliations
- Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College (CN)
- First Hospital of Jilin University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Wang, Yan
- Venue
- Theranostics
- Publisher
- Ivyspring International Publisher
- Published
- 2017
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 2443-2451
- ISSN
- 1838-7640 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5525748
- OpenAlex
- W2734471317
- Cited by
- 131
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 11
- FWCI
- 8.40
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- Theranostics (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (81321004, 81573493, 2016-I2M-1-011, 2016GH320002)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Berberine and alkaloids research
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Drug Transport and Resistance Mechanisms
- Keywords
- berberine, hyperlipidemia, nitroreductase, gut microbiota, intestinal absorption, bioavailability, high-fat diet, personalized medicine, biomarkers, serum lipids
- MeSH terms
- Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Administration, Oral, Adult, Aged, Animals, Hypolipidemic Agents, Berberine, Feces, Female, Humans, Hyperlipidemias, Male, Mesocricetus, Middle Aged, Nitroreductases, Precision Medicine, Diet, High-Fat
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
