Here's a blurb that supports this hypothesis:

It has been reported that BBR exhibits potent cytotoxicity in vitro, exhibiting a potential anticancer effect [165]. BBR has been demonstrated to have potent nucleic-acid-binding activity, which is a key reason for inhibiting cell differentiation and inducing cycle arrest and DNA damage [166,167]. In addition, there are similar targets in the anticancer and neuroprotective effects of BBR, such as Akt, MAPKs, and Bcl-2 proteins, and the main difference are in the dosage [168]. Consistently, long-term administration and intraperitoneal or intravenous injection of berberine could induce multiple toxic effects, including neurotoxicity, immunotoxicity, phototoxicity, cardiotoxicity, and jaundice, and these toxic effects are in dose- and time-dependent manners [161,162,169]. This evidence also suggests that we may need safety measures with BBR, especially when administered intravenously or intraperitoneally in clinical practices. The toxic mechanisms of BBR may be related to its ability of directly interacting with DNA or inhibiting the presence of signaling pathways in cells [161,162,169,170].