Protective effects of Ping-Lv-Mixture (PLM), a medicinal formula on arrhythmias induced by myocardial ischemia-reperfusion

Cepharanthine action in preventing obesity and hyperlipidemia in rats on a high-fat high sucrose diet

Background

It was demonstrated that cepharanthine (CEP), derived from Stephania cepharantha hayata, is a potent inhibitor of the ABCC10 transmembrane protein. It is approved to be a natural product or remedy. The present study focuses on investigating whether cepharanthine effectively reduces hyperlipidemia and obesity in an experimental hyperlipidemic rat model.

Method

Four groups of Wistar rats were assigned randomly to the following groups: a high-fat high sucrose diet (HFHS), normal-fat diet (NFD), HFHS plus cepraranthine (10 mg/kg) (HFHS-C), and a HFHS diet with atorvastatin (HFHS-A). The responses of rats were observed on the basis of serum and hepatic biochemical parameters, food intake, and body weight after CEP treatment, and assessing the histopathological modifications by the optical microscope in the liver and its cells.

Results

Significant improvement in the serum total cholesterol (TC), serum triglycerides (TG), and serum low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels were observed following CEP treatment. We have also observed significant improvement in the structure of liver tissue and reduced-fat droplets in the cytoplasm. Moreover, CEP had a significant effect in preventing the gain in body weight of animals, and food intake was not significantly affected.

Conclusion

Our research results revealed that CEP significantly improved dyslipidemia and prevented the accumulation of fatty deposits in the rats' liver tissue fed an HFHS diet. In addition, CEP exerted an anti-obesity effect.

Mechanism-based targeting of cardiac arrhythmias by phytochemicals and medicinal herbs: A comprehensive review of preclinical and clinical evidence

Cardiac arrhythmias, characterized by an irregular heartbeat, are associated with high mortality and morbidity. Because of the narrow therapeutic window of antiarrhythmic drugs (AADs), the management of arrhythmia is still challenging. Therefore, searching for new safe, and effective therapeutic options is unavoidable. In this study, the antiarrhythmic effects of medicinal plants and their active constituents were systematically reviewed to introduce some possible candidates for mechanism-based targeting of cardiac arrhythmias. PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane library were searched from inception to June 2021 to find the plant extracts, phytochemicals, and multi-component herbal preparations with antiarrhythmic activities. From 7337 identified results, 57 original studies consisting of 49 preclinical and eight clinical studies were finally included. Three plant extracts, eight multi-component herbal preparations, and 26 phytochemicals were found to have antiarrhythmic effects mostly mediated by affecting K+ channels, followed by modulating Ca2+ channels, upstream target pathways, Nav channels, gap junction channels, and autonomic receptors. The most investigated medicinal plants were Rhodiola crenulata and Vitis vinifera. Resveratrol, Oxymatrine, and Curcumin were the most studied phytochemicals found to have multiple mechanisms of antiarrhythmic action. This review emphasized the importance of research on the cardioprotective effect of medicinal plants and their bioactive compounds to guide the future development of new AADs. The most prevalent limitation of the studies was their unqualified methodology. Thus, future well-designed experimental and clinical studies are necessary to provide more reliable evidence.

Hypolipidemic effect of Fragarianilgerrensis Schlecht. medicine compound on hyperlipidemic rats

BACKGROUND

Fragarianilgerrensis Schlecht. medicine compound (FN-MC) is a kind of Chinese herbs' compound consisted of Fragarianilgerrensis Schlecht. and Centella asiatica (L.) Urban. The study was to investigate the hypolipidemia effect of FN-MC in a hypolipidemic rat model.

METHODS

Male SD rats were randomly divided into five groups: normal-fat diet (NFD) group, high-fat diet (HFD) group, FN-MC (2 g/Kg) group, FN-MC (4 g/Kg) group and simvastatin (PDC) group. After FN-MC treatment, body weight, food intake, serum and hepatic biochemistry parameters of rats were measured and the pathological changes of liver and its cells were observed by optical microscope and transmission electron microscopy.

RESULTS

The results showed that FN-MC significantly decreased the levels of serum triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein (LDL-C), apolipoprotein B (ApoB) and hepatic malondialdehyde (MDA), while increased serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL-C), apolipoprotein A1 (ApoA1) and hepatic Superoxide Dismutase (SOD). FN-MC also improved the structure of liver and decreased the lipid drops in the cytoplasm significantly. In addition, FN-MC significantly decreased the weight gain and had no significant effects on food intake.

CONCLUSIONS

The study suggested that FN-MC exhibited strong ability to improve the dyslipidemia and prevent hepatic fatty deposition in rats fed with high-fat diet. Meanwhile, FN-MC exerted anti-obesity and antioxidant properties.

HIGHLIGHTS

Fragarianilgerrensis Schlecht. medicine compound possesses a hypolipidemic effect on hyperlipidemic rat model Fragarianilgerrensis Schlecht. medicine compound administration improves the antioxidant capacity of rats Fragarianilgerrensis Schlecht. medicine compound prevents hepatic fatty deposition.

First report of fingerprinting dried herbal products using a subtractive diversity array

Introduction Sequence - independent microarrays have never been used to identify and authenticate dried herbal plants.

METHODS

We report successful fingerprinting of seven species: Leonurus sibiricus, Astragalus membranaceus, Coix lachryma-jobi, Magnolia biondii, Abutilon theophrasti, Physalis alkekengi, and Salvia miltiorrhiza from dried tissues using a sequence-independent microarray, "Subtracted Diversity Array".

RESULTS

Herbal plants could be identified from tissues as they were sold at the clinic. Hierarchical cluster of these species generated using SPSS v.15.0 confirmed to their predicted taxonomical relationships as specified in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II classification system. A polymorphism rate of 40.7% was achieved from the 376 spots used for fingerprinting. Functional characterization of polymorphic features by sequencing revealed 27.1% of those were retroelements or genes.

CONCLUSIONS

This technique provides a new way to produce markers for authenticating dried herbal samples.

Array-based techniques for fingerprinting medicinal herbs

Poor quality control of medicinal herbs has led to instances of toxicity, poisoning and even deaths. The fundamental step in quality control of herbal medicine is accurate identification of herbs. Array-based techniques have recently been adapted to authenticate or identify herbal plants. This article reviews the current array-based techniques, eg oligonucleotides microarrays, gene-based probe microarrays, Suppression Subtractive Hybridization (SSH)-based arrays, Diversity Array Technology (DArT) and Subtracted Diversity Array (SDA). We further compare these techniques according to important parameters such as markers, polymorphism rates, restriction enzymes and sample type. The applicability of the array-based methods for fingerprinting depends on the availability of genomics and genetics of the species to be fingerprinted. For the species with few genome sequence information but high polymorphism rates, SDA techniques are particularly recommended because they require less labour and lower material cost.

Emerging antiarrhythmic agents: a personal view from the Far East

INTRODUCTION

Arrhythmia treatments today take three different approaches. One uses electronic devices, such as electronic pacemakers or defibrillators, and this is regarded as life-saving in cases of bradyarrhythmias and ventricular fibrillation. Another is the ablation technique which eliminates abnormal pacemakers and/or conductive pathways by applying thermal or cryo-injury to pathological portions of the heart. The most classical one is the antiarrhythmic drugs, but are they effective and safe?

AREAS COVERED

Recent development of the understanding of arrhythmias, cardiac ionic channels and antiarrhythmic drugs covered by papers mostly published after 2000 are discussed.

EXPERT OPINION

The market size of the antiarrhythmic drugs is small, but various multichannel acting drugs may become candidates as antiarrhythmic drugs. As the cardiac ionic channels have become recognized as proteins, the molecular target for antiarrhythmic drugs has become apparent, but at the same time accurate data on clinical effectiveness and safety are required for drug approval; thus, few atrium selective drugs, such as IKur, IKACh and IKAde blocking drugs and amiodarone-like multichannel acting drugs are being developed.

Protection against in vivo focal myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury-induced arrhythmias and apoptosis by hesperidin

Among the heart diseases, ischemia and reperfusion (I/R) induced arrhythmias contribute to episodes of sudden death. Cardiac arrhythmias during ischemia reperfusion are believed to be related to oxidative stress. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine whether treatment with hesperidin alleviates arrhythmias and infarct size in experimentally-induced myocardial I/R injury using an in vivo rat model. In this study haemodynamics parameters, markers of inflammation, biomarkers of oxidative stress and tissue nitrite level and infarct size of the heart were estimated in various groups. I/R showed a significant decrease in tissue nitrite and antioxidant level and significant increase in arrhythmias, inflammation and myocardial cell apoptosis. Treatment with hesperidin showed a significant increase in tissue nitrite, antioxidant level and reduction in inflammation, arrhythmias and apoptosis. In conclusion, the protecting effect of hesperidin in I/R induced arrhythmias is due to reduction in inflammation and oxidative stress.

Cardioprotective effects of Astragali Radix against isoproterenol-induced myocardial injury in rats and its possible mechanism

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of the Chinese medical herb Astragali Radix on myocardial injury in vivo and its possible mechanisms. Myocardial injury in rats was induced by the subcutaneous injection of a high dose of isoproterenol for 10 days, and the therapeutic effects of Astragali Radix were observed. Cardiac hemodynamics, heart coefficient and marker enzymes in serum showed that Astragali Radix prevented isoproterenol-induced myocardial damage. Astragali Radix also improved the antioxidant status by decreasing the lipid peroxidative product malondialdehyde and increasing the activity of the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase. The observed depressions in sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase mRNA and protein expression as well as Ser(16)-phosphorylated phospholamban protein expression in isoproterenol-treated rats were attenuated by Astragali Radix treatment. Moreover, treatment with Astragali Radix showed higher myocardial cAMP content compared with the isoproterenol-alone group. These results suggest that the antioxidant property and partial prevention of changes in protein and gene expression of cardiac sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ regulatory proteins which may be mediated through the cAMP pathway could help to explain the beneficial effects of Astragali Radix on myocardial injury in vivo.

Temporal effect of Guanxin No. 2 on cardiac function, blood viscosity and angiogenesis in rats after long-term occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery

AIM

Cardiac infarction is one of the main causes of death in both developing and developed countries over past decades. Currently available approaches for treating patients with this disease are not satisfactory. Traditional Chinese medicines have been increasingly paid attention to. The aim of this study was to characterize the dynamic protective effects of Guanxin No. 2 decoction (GX II) on cardiac dysfunction combined with the blood viscosity and myocardial hypertrophy parameters in myocardial infarction (MI) rats.

METHODS

Male Sprague-Dawley rats (180-200 g) were randomly divided into three groups: sham-operated, coronary artery ligation (CAL), and CAL plus GX II (GX II, 10.0 g raw materials/kg/d, bid, p.o.). The experiment was carried out at 4 time points as the 3rd, 7th, 14th, and 28th day after ligation.

RESULT

It was found that on the one hand, GX II could significantly improve the heart function, and remarkably decrease infarct size and inhibit ventricular remodeling. On the other hand, GX II showed some unique effects such as angiogenesis which was induced in the left ventricular tissue. This result was consistent with the finding of an augmented vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in this area.

CONCLUSIONS

The studies demonstrated that GX II exerted extensively beneficial cardioprotective effect on CAL rats, it might stimulate angiogenesis of ischemic region to compensate blood supply to the heart via upregulated VEGF expression.