Daphnetin suppresses experimental abdominal aortic aneurysms in mice via inhibition of aortic mural inflammation

Therapeutic potential of natural products and underlying targets for the treatment of aortic aneurysm

Aortic aneurysm is a vascular disease characterized by irreversible vasodilatation that can lead to dissection and rupture of the aortic aneurysm, a life-threatening condition. Thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA) and abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) are two main types. The typical treatments for aortic aneurysms are open surgery and endovascular aortic repair, which are only indicated for more severe patients. Most patients with aneurysms have an insidious onset and slow progression, and there are no effective drugs to treat this stage. The inability of current animal models to perfectly simulate all the pathophysiological states of human aneurysms may be the key to this issue. Therefore, elucidating the molecular mechanisms of this disease, finding new therapeutic targets, and developing effective drugs to inhibit the development of aneurysms are the main issues of current research. Natural products have been applied for thousands of years to treat cardiovascular disease (CVD) in China and other Asian countries. In recent years, natural products have combined multi-omics, computational biology, and integrated pharmacology to accurately analyze drug components and targets. Therefore, the multi-component and multi-target complexity of natural products have made them a potentially ideal treatment for multifactorial diseases such as aortic aneurysms. Natural products have regained popularity worldwide. This review provides an overview of the known natural products for the treatment of TAA and AAA and searches for potential cardiovascular-targeted natural products that may treat TAA and AAA based on various cellular molecular mechanisms associated with aneurysm development.

Controlling the nutritional status score: a new tool for predicting postoperative mortality in patients with infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm treated with endovascular aneurysm repair

Background

AAA is a fatal condition that commonly occurs during vascular surgery. Nutritional status exerts a significant influence on the prognosis of various pathological conditions Scores from the CONUT screening tool have been shown to predict outcomes of certain malignancies and chronic diseases. However, the ramifications of nutritional status on AAA patients undergoing EVAR have not been elucidated in prior studies. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the correlation between CONUT scores and postoperative prognostic outcomes in patients with AAA undergoing EVAR.

Methods

This was a retrospective review of 177 AAA patients treated with EVAR from June 2018 to November 2019 in a single center. Patient characteristics, CONUT scores, and postoperative status were collected. These patients were stratified into groups A and B according to CONUT scores. Subsequently, a comparative analysis of the baseline characteristics between the two cohorts was conducted. Cox proportional hazards and logistic regression analyses were employed to identify the autonomous predictors of mid-term mortality and complications, respectively.

Results

Compared with group A, patients in group B had higher midterm mortality (p < 0.001). Univariate analysis showed that CONUT scores; respiratory diseases; stent types; preoperative Hb, CRP, PT, and Fb levels were risk factors for death. Multivariate analysis confirmed that CONUT score [HR, 1.276; 95% CI, 1.029-1.584; p = 0.027] was an independent risk factor for mortality. Logistic regression analysis showed that prior arterial disease, smoking, and D-dimer levels were risk factors, although multivariate analysis showed smoking (OR, 3.492; 95% CI, 1.426-8.553; p = 0.006) was an independent risk factor. Kaplan-Meier curves showed that patients in group B had shorter mid-term survival than those in group A (log-rank p < 0.001).

Conclusion

Malnutrition was strongly associated with mid-term mortality in patients with infrarenal AAA treated with EVAR.

T cells in abdominal aortic aneurysm: immunomodulation and clinical application

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is characterized by inflammatory cell infiltration, extracellular matrix (ECM) degradation, and vascular smooth muscle cell (SMC) dysfunction. The inflammatory cells involved in AAA mainly include immune cells including macrophages, neutrophils, T-lymphocytes and B lymphocytes and endothelial cells. As the blood vessel wall expands, more and more lymphocytes infiltrate into the outer membrane. It was found that more than 50% of lymphocytes in AAA tissues were CD3+ T cells, including CD4+, CD8+T cells, γδ T cells and regulatory T cells (Tregs). Due to the important role of T cells in inflammatory response, an increasing number of researchers have paid attention to the role of T cells in AAA and dug into the relevant mechanism. Therefore, this paper focuses on reviewing the immunoregulatory role of T cells in AAA and their role in immunotherapy, seeking potential targets for immunotherapy and putting forward future research directions.

Daphnetin inhibits corneal inflammation and neovascularization on a mouse model of corneal alkali burn

Alkali burn is a significant contributor to corneal injury. Alkali burn-induced corneal inflammation often causes vision loss due to corneal neovascularization. Daphnetin (DAP) has been studied for its anti-inflammatory and antiangiogenic properties with encouraging results. Driven by those encouraging results, we sought to explore the effects of DAP in treating alkali burn-induced corneal inflammation and neovascularization and its mechanism of action. We found that the angiogenesis processes of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) induced by vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) were primarily attenuated by treatment with DAP, including proliferation, migration, and tube formation. Treatment of DAP significantly suppressed the VEGF-A-induced protein expression of VEGF receptor2 (VEGFR2), as well as the activation of downstream signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), AKT, and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling. In the mouse corneal alkali burn model, the inflammatory cell infiltrations and neovascularization in the cornea caused by alkali burn were inhibited by 10 µM DAP eye drops. Alkali burn-induced corneal protein expression of VEGF-A, VEGFR2, phosphorylated (p-)STAT3, p-AKT, and p-ERK in corneal tissue were reduced mainly by DAP. Moreover, the upregulation of inflammatory caused by alkali burn in the pathological process was significantly neutralized by DAP. Mechanistically, the inflammatory response could be alleviated by DAP in the way of inhibiting the expression levels of TLR4, p-NF-κB, NLRP3, ASC, Cleaved-caspase-1 (p20), mature-IL-1β (p17), and N-GSDM. In conclusion, our findings confirmed that the corneal inflammation and neovascularization caused by alkali burn could be inhibited by DAP in vitro and in vivo, elucidating the underlying mechanisms of its protective effects. DAP may have tremendous therapeutic potential for the treatment of corneal alkali burn.

Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm: Roles of Inflammatory Cells

Abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) are local dilations of infrarenal segment of aortas. Molecular mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of AAA remain not fully clear. However, inflammation has been considered as a central player in the development of AAA. In the past few decades, studies demonstrated a host of inflammatory cells, including T cells, macrophages, dendritic cells, neutrophils, B cells, and mast cells, etc. infiltrating into aortic walls, which implicated their crucial roles. In addition to direct cell contacts and cytokine or protease secretions, special structures like inflammasomes and neutrophil extracellular traps have been investigated to explore their functions in aneurysm formation. The above-mentioned inflammatory cells and associated structures may initiate and promote AAA expansion. Understanding their impacts and interaction networks formation is meaningful to develop new strategies of screening and pharmacological interventions for AAA. In this review, we aim to discuss the roles and mechanisms of these inflammatory cells in AAA pathogenesis.