Tart cherry intake and serum uric acid: Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials and evidence from network pharmacology

Zhang Z, Feng Z, Yan W, Wu T, Xia J, Yu J, Yang J, Wang Y, Sun G · Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Pooled across four trials, tart cherry lowered serum uric acid by a standardized mean difference of -0.22 (95% CI -0.43 to -0.01), a confidence interval that stops just short of zero, with I-squared of 88%. Seven of the eight comparisons are individually null; the pooled estimate rests on one open-label three-arm trial with an SMD of -3.63 (95% CI -4.54 to -2.72), and Egger's test (p < 0.01) flagged small-study asymmetry that the authors call inconclusive with fewer than ten comparisons.

Population

Participants in 4 randomized trials, 8 comparisons

Intervention

Tart cherry in any form

Comparator

Placebo or usual diet

Limitations

Four trials totalling 392 people is a thin base for a pooled estimate, two of the four were open-label, and the heterogeneity is described by the authors as substantial. The network-pharmacology half is computational target prediction, not evidence of an effect in a person. Funded by China's National Key R&D Program.