The role of berberine in Covid-19: potential adjunct therapy

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is a global diastrophic disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Covid-19 leads to inflammatory, immunological, and oxidative changes, by which SARS-CoV-2 leads to endothelial dysfunction (ED), acute lung injury (ALI), acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and multi-organ failure (MOF). Despite evidence illustrating that some drugs and vaccines effectively manage and prevent Covid-19, complementary herbal medicines are urgently needed to control this pandemic disease. One of the most used herbal medicines is berberine (BBR), which has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiviral, and immune-regulatory effects; thus, BBR may be a prospective candidate against SARS-CoV-2 infection. This review found that BBR has anti-SARS-CoV-2 effects with mitigation of associated inflammatory changes. BBR also reduces the risk of ALI/ARDS in Covid-19 patients by inhibiting the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines and inflammatory signaling pathways. In conclusion, BBR has potent anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antiviral effects. Therefore, it can be utilized as a possible anti-SARS-CoV-2 agent. BBR inhibits the proliferation of SARS-CoV-2 and attenuates the associated inflammatory disorders linked by the activation of inflammatory signaling pathways. Indeed, BBR can alleviate ALI/ARDS in patients with severe Covid-19. In this sense, clinical trials and prospective studies are suggested to illustrate the potential role of BBR in treating Covid-19.

COVID 19 virus elimination from food using microwave oven

“…SARS-CoV-2 is a large genomic RNA virus with a genome size of 27–34 kb ( Al-Kuraishy et al, 2022a ). It primarily infects lung cells because they express angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) ( Babalghith et al, 2022 ). Middle East Respiratory Syndrome CoV (MERS-CoV), SARS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2 share genetic similarities, though SARS-CoV-2 is less pathogenic and has a higher transmissibility rate than SARS-CoV ( Al-Kuraishy et al, 2022b ).…”

Dantrolene and ryanodine receptors in COVID‐19: The daunting task and neglected warden

“…A current pandemic viral infection caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) leads to the progress of COVID‐19 48,49 . COVID‐19 is mainly asymptomatic in ~80% of infected patients.…”

“…A current pandemic viral infection caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) leads to the progress of COVID-19. 48,49 COVID-19 is mainly asymptomatic in $80% of infected patients. Only 15% develop mild to moderate symptoms, including dry cough, myalgia, headache, anosmia, sweating and extrapulmonary symptoms like vomiting, diarrhoea, kidney impairment and CNS manifestations.…”

A perspective study of the possible impact of obeticholic acid against SARS-CoV-2 infection

“…It has been demonstrated that increasing bile acid production under high body temperature promotes the generation of chenodeoxycholic acid from gut microbiota. In addition, chenodeoxycholic acid limits SARS-CoV-2 proliferation and associated tissue injury in mice through activation of FXR (Babalghith et al 2022 ). Notably, through modulation of bile acid metabolism, gut microbiota provokes the stimulation of anti-inflammatory FXR (Hollman et al 2012 ; Zhang et al 2013 ) with following supression of the proliferation of the virus of Covid-19 (Spagnolello et al 2021 ).…”