Abstract
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) have been recognized as the leading cause of mortality worldwide, accounting for 31% of global mortality. Among the risk factors of CVD, hyperlipidemia has been established as the most potent risk factor. Statins, a class of drug that reduces lower-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), are the preferred medical treatment. However, due to the development of statin-associated muscle symptoms, statins are associated with patients’ discontinuation and nonadherence. Other statin-induced side effects, such as hepatotoxicity and gastrointestinal upset, all contribute to patients choosing alternative medicines. Squalene (SQ), an unsaturated hydrocarbon naturally synthesized in plants and animals, could become the alternative treatment or supplementary agent for cardiovascular health. SQ has been shown to exert cardioprotective effect via its antioxidant activity. Oxidative stress and inflammatory responses are closely related to each other, which proposes an interdependence relation between antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. Therefore, this review explores the interdependence between the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of SQ implicated on cardiovascular health.
Highlights
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) have been recognized as the leading cause of mortality worldwide with approximately 17.9 million deaths per year [1]
This study indicates that SQ supplementation can produce antioxidant activity by reducing the oxidative stress level in lipoprotein fractions
The antioxidant properties of SQ are more pronounced compared to the anti-inflammatory properties
Summary
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) have been recognized as the leading cause of mortality worldwide with approximately 17.9 million deaths per year [1]. Many studies have established that for most hyperlipidemia patients, statins, a class of drugs that reduce LDL-C are the preferred medical treatment [7,12,13,14] Despite their extensive use, statins are associated with patients’ discontinuation and nonadherence which creates a major gap in the prevention and treatment of atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases. In a systematic review by Ibrahim et al, (2020) [31], on the efficacy of SQ in cardiovascular diseases, it was concluded that SQ occupies cardioprotective effects from its antioxidant property This property is associated with the abundance of double bonds in the.
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