Trial reportNature communications2021
Berberine is an insulin secretagogue targeting the KCNH6 potassium channel.
Trial report in Nature communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. It is linked to trial NCT03972215 (Effect of Berberine on Insulin Release at a High Blood Glucose Level in Normal Man), which is not on this map. Cited by 62 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Effect of Berberine on Insulin Release at a High Blood Glucose Level in Normal Man
Who cites it
62 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 115 citations in OpenAlex.
- The effects of Gegen Qinlian decoction and its main constituents on glucolipid metabolic disorders in diabetes: an overview of systematic reviews and meta-analysis.Systematic reviews · 2025Pooled it
- The effects of berberine supplementation on cardiovascular risk factors in adults: A systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Pooled it
- Neuroprotective Effect and Possible Mechanisms of Berberine in Diabetes-Related Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Animal Studies.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Pooled it
- Glucose-lowering effect of berberine on type 2 diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Pooled it
- Berberine for preventing colorectal adenoma recurrence and neoplasm occurrence: 6-Year follow-up of a randomized clinical trial.Cell reports. Medicine · 2025Trial
- The efficacy and safety of berberine in combination with cinnamon supplementation in patients with type 2 diabetes: a randomized clinical trial.European journal of nutrition · 2025Trial
- The Clinical Efficacy of Gegen Qinlian Decoction in Treating Type 2 Diabetes is Positively Correlated with the Dose ofDrug design, development and therapy · 2024Trial
- Berberine attenuates diabetic kidney injury via FOXO1/SP1-associated regulation of renal SGLT-2 expression.Chinese medicine · 2026Article
- Composite Hydrogel Loading Polysaccharides Derived fromBiomolecules · 2026Article
- Structural Elucidation and Engineering of the (S)-scoulerine 2-O-Methyltransferase Enabling Regioselective Epiberberine Biosynthesis in Coptis chinensis.Plant biotechnology journal · 2026Article
- DICL: a manually curated database of ion channels and ligands as a useful platform for drug discovery targeting ion channels.Journal of cheminformatics · 2026Article
- Deep single-cell decoding of human pancreatic islets reveals T2D β-cell gene expression defects.The EMBO journal · 2026Article
- Berberine alleviates radiation-induced intestinal injury by inhibiting cellular senescence.Radiation oncology (London, England) · 2026Article
- Danhong Injection targets CaMKII through Dihydrotanshinone I to alleviate cardiomyocyte death and inflammation in viral myocarditis.Science China. Life sciences · 2026Article
- Voltage-gated potassium channels as important modulators of glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in pancreatic β-cells: insights from rodent and human studies.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2026Review
- Berberine: A Rising Star in the Management of Type 2 Diabetes-Novel Insights into Its Anti-Inflammatory, Metabolic, and Epigenetic Mechanisms.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Berberine's impact on health: Comprehensive biological, pharmacological, and nutritional perspectives.Metabolism open · 2025Review
- The Effects of Several Natural Protoberberine Alkaloids and Cinnamic Acid Derivatives Used for Traditional Medicine on the Membrane Boundary Potential and Lipid Packing Stress.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- From Human to Mouse and Back Again: Genetic and Genomic Ta(i)les of Islet Dysfunction in Type 2 Diabetes.Annual review of genetics · 2025Review
- The Beneficial Effects of Berberine on Brain Functions in Age-Related Neurological Disorders: From Molecular Signaling to Treatment.Food science & nutrition · 2025Review
2 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
12 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Coptis chinensis is an ancient Chinese herb treating diabetes in China for thousands of years. However, its underlying mechanism remains poorly understood. Here, we report the effects of its main active component, berberine (BBR), on stimulating insulin secretion. In mice with hyperglycemia induced by a high-fat diet, BBR significantly increases insulin secretion and reduced blood glucose levels. However, in mice with hyperglycemia induced by global or pancreatic islet β-cell-specific Kcnh6 knockout, BBR does not exert beneficial effects. BBR directly binds KCNH6 potassium channels, significantly accelerates channel closure, and subsequently reduces KCNH6 currents. Consequently, blocking KCNH6 currents prolongs high glucose-dependent cell membrane depolarization and increases insulin secretion. Finally, to assess the effect of BBR on insulin secretion in humans, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, two-period crossover, single-dose, phase 1 clinical trial (NCT03972215) including 15 healthy men receiving a 160-min hyperglycemic clamp experiment is performed. The pre-specified primary outcomes are assessment of the differences of serum insulin and C-peptide levels between BBR and placebo treatment groups during the hyperglycemic clamp study. BBR significantly promotes insulin secretion under hyperglycemic state comparing with placebo treatment, while does not affect basal insulin secretion in humans. All subjects tolerate BBR well, and we observe no side effects in the 14-day follow up period. In this study, we identify BBR as a glucose-dependent insulin secretagogue for treating diabetes without causing hypoglycemia that targets KCNH6 channels.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.