Abstract
Atherosclerosis, a chronic luminal stenosis disorder occurred in large and medium arteries, is the principle pathological basis of cardiovascular diseases with the highest morbidity and mortality worldwide. In oriental countries, traditional Chinese medicine Cortex Moutan has been widely used for the treatment of atherosclerosis-related illnesses for thousands of years. Paeonol, a bioactive monomer extracted from Cortex Moutan, is an important pharmacological component responsible for the antiatherosclerotic effects. Numerous lines of findings have established that paeonol offers beneficial roles against the initiation and progression of atherosclerotic lesions through inhibiting proatherogenic processes, such as endothelium damage, chronic inflammation, disturbance of lipid metabolism, uncontrolled oxidative stress, excessive growth, and mobilization of vascular smooth muscle cells as well as abnormality of platelet activation. Investigations identifying the atheroprotective effects of paeonol present substantial evidence for potential clinical application of paeonol as a therapeutic agent in atherosclerosis management. In this review, we summarize the antiatherosclerotic actions by which paeonol suppresses atherogenesis and provide newly insights into its atheroprotective mechanisms and the future clinical practice.
Highlights
Exposed to numerous social and health problems such as aging of population, progressive urbanization, elevated energy intake, reduced physical exercise, and air pollution, more and more people are insulted by cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) [1]
Paeonol (2′-hydroxy-4′-methoxyacetophenone) is a bioactive constituent extracted from Cortex Moutan and has been reported to possess extensive pharmacological properties for alleviating atherosclerotic lesions, which is associated with improvement of endothelial injury, repression of vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) proliferation and migration, amelioration of inflammation and oxidative stress, inhibition of platelet activation and aggregation and decrease of blood lipids, etc. [6,7,8,9,10,11]
Experimental data have manifested that paeonol obviously lowers reactive oxygen species (ROS) content, abrogates the upregulation of MDA and oxidized low-density lipoprotein, restores the level of Bcl2/Bax and caspase-3, and decreases expression of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, and monocyte chemotactic protein (MCP)-1 in the oxidative stress environment [45,46,47]. These findings show that encumbering oxidative stress-evoked acceleration of lipid peroxidation, induction of vascular endothelial injury, and activation of inflammatory pathways are imperative components in the antiatherogenic effects of paeonol
Summary
Exposed to numerous social and health problems such as aging of population, progressive urbanization, elevated energy intake, reduced physical exercise, and air pollution, more and more people are insulted by cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) [1]. Paeonol (2′-hydroxy-4′-methoxyacetophenone) is a bioactive constituent extracted from Cortex Moutan and has been reported to possess extensive pharmacological properties for alleviating atherosclerotic lesions, which is associated with improvement of endothelial injury, repression of vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) proliferation and migration, amelioration of inflammation and oxidative stress, inhibition of platelet activation and aggregation and decrease of blood lipids, etc. Paeonol has been employed alone or in combination with other TCMs to effectively protect the cardiovascular system, suggesting that paeonol is potentially to act as an alternative or complementary agent for compensating for the limited efficiency and uncertain safety of modern drugs regarding atherosclerosis treatment [4, 12,13,14]. Considering the pharmacological activities and therapeutic potentials of paeonol in dealing with atherosclerosis, we put Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity forward an overview concerning the atheroprotective roles of paeonol and the underlying mechanisms identified in preclinical studies
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