Chongqing Productivity Promotion Center for the Modernization of Chinese Traditional Medicine, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400716, China; Engineering Research Center of Cell and Therapeutic Antibody Medicine, Ministry of Education, School of Pharmacy, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
Department of Clinical Laboratory, Hunan University of Medicine, Hunan 418000, China.
Fitoterapia. 2019 Apr;134:210-220. doi: 10.1016/j.fitote.2019.03.003. Epub 2019 Mar 2.
Hyperglycemia is a common endocrine system disease, which seriously affects people's health with a increasing morbidity in recent years. Rhizoma Coptidis (RC), one of the most commonly used traditional Chinese medicines, has been applied to treat diabetes in clinic for thousands of years. Since scientists demonstrated that alkaloids from RC owned the amazing anti-hyperglycemia activities 30 years ago, these compounds have been widely used for the treatment of diabetes and hyperglycemia with unconspicuous toxicities and side effects. With the help of molecular biology, immunology and other techniques, the mechanisms about anti-hyperglycemia effect of RC alkaloids have been extensively discussed. Numerous studies showed that RC alkaloids balanced the glucose homeostasis not only by widely recognizing insulin resistance pathways, but also by promoting insulin secretion, regulating intestinal hormones, ameliorating gut microbiota structures and many other ways. In this review, we combine the latest advances and systematically summarize the mechanisms of RC alkaloids in treating hyperglycemia and diabetic nephropathy to provide a deeper understanding of these natural alkaloids. In addition, the important role of gut microbiota associated with the glucose metabolism is also reviewed.
高血糖症是一种常见的内分泌系统疾病，近年来发病率不断上升，严重影响人们的健康。黄连（RC）是最常用的中药之一，几千年来一直应用于临床治疗糖尿病。自从科学家 30 年前证明 RC 中的生物碱具有惊人的降血糖活性以来，这些化合物已被广泛用于治疗糖尿病和高血糖症，且毒性和副作用不明显。借助分子生物学、免疫学和其他技术，RC 生物碱的降血糖作用机制得到了广泛的探讨。大量研究表明，RC 生物碱通过广泛识别胰岛素抵抗途径，促进胰岛素分泌，调节肠道激素，改善肠道微生物群结构等多种方式来平衡葡萄糖稳态。在本综述中，我们结合最新进展，系统总结了 RC 生物碱治疗高血糖和糖尿病肾病的作用机制，为深入了解这些天然生物碱提供了依据。此外，还综述了与葡萄糖代谢相关的肠道微生物群的重要作用。
