Abstract
The high prevalence of obesity is a serious public health problem in today’s world. Both obesity and insulin resistance favor the development of metabolic syndrome (MetS), which is associated with a number of pathologies, especially type 2 diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular diseases. This serious problem highlights the need to search for new natural compounds to be employed in therapeutic and preventive strategies, such as oleanolic acid (OA). This research aimed to systematically review the effects of OA on the main components of MetS as well as oxidative stress in clinical trials and experimental animal studies. Databases searched included PubMed, Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, EMBASE, Cochrane, and CINAHL from 2013 to 2019. Thus, both animal studies (n = 23) and human clinical trials (n = 1) were included in our review to assess the effects of OA formulations on parameters concerning insulin resistance and the MetS components. The methodological quality assessment was performed through using the SYRCLE’s Risk of Bias for animal studies and the Jadad scale. According to the studies in our review, OA improves blood pressure levels, hypertriglyceridemia, hyperglycemia, oxidative stress, and insulin resistance. Although there is scientific evidence that OA has beneficial effects in the prevention and treatment of MetS and insulin resistance, more experimental studies and randomized clinical trials are needed to guarantee its effectiveness.
Highlights
The increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity entails a serious global public health problem
The main findings of this study are (i) oleanolic acid (OA) administration improves the hypertensive status, (ii) the disturbance of the lipid profile in hyperlipidemic and metabolic dysfunction situations is attenuated by OA, (iii) OA reduces the oxidative stress status, and (iv) the insulin resistance condition is improved by the action of OA
Another possible hypotensive mechanism of action of OA could be the increase of the production of nitric oxide (NO), a vasodilator factor that is diminished in endothelial disfunction induced by cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and dyslipidemia [15]
Summary
The increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity entails a serious global public health problem. It has been estimated that 39% of the world population over the age of 18 years is overweight, and 13% is obese, according to World Health Organization (WHO) data (2016) [1]. 18% of children and adolescents (5–19 years old) are either overweight or obese [1,2]. This situation is alarming because obesity and insulin resistance are two of the most important factors leading to metabolic syndrome (MetS) [3]. MetS consists of a set of cardiometabolic anomalies that lead to the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and of cardiovascular disease (CVD) [4,5]. MetS is associated with other clinical conditions such as oxidative stress, hypertension, dyslipidemia, hepatic steatosis, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and impaired glucose tolerance, among others [6]
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