Research and Development of Natural Products Atherosclerosis
Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease driven by lipid, which mainly occurs in the branches or bends of the great and middle arteries, and is the main reason for high incidence rate and mortality of cardiovascular diseases. Atherosclerosis is a multifactorial disease, involving chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, metabolic disorder, epigenetics and various non genetic risk factors (environmental pollution, smoking, diet and lifestyle). At present, statins are the most important drugs for the treatment of atherosclerosis, which are mainly based on the prevention and treatment of lipid-lowering and anti-inflammatory. Although statins are widely used and effective, increasing evidence suggests that long-term use of statins may lead to many serious adverse reactions, such as liver damage, muscle toxicity, and gastrointestinal irritation. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop alternative drugs for the treatment of atherosclerosis.
In recent years, natural drugs have received extensive attention in the prevention or treatment of atherosclerosis because of their relatively low toxicity. Natural medicines are all drugs derived from nature with clear therapeutic effects, including active substances from plants, animals, minerals, and microorganisms. More importantly, some natural drug extracts or monomers, such as panax notoginseng saponins, gynostemma pentaphyllum saponins, wogonin, rosmarinic acid, etc., can play an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti apoptotic role by regulating TLR4/SYK, NF – κ B, p38 MAPK, Bcl-2/Bax and other signal pathways, thus treating atherosclerosis. Therefore, this topic focuses on the research results of natural products in the prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis, providing reference for the treatment of atherosclerosis and new drug research.