Therapeutic potential role of vitamin C in prevention and control of heart transplant rejection and cardiac allograft vasculopathy. A need for consideration

Abstract

AbstractThe burden of cardiovascular diseases is rising rapidly globally. Heart transplant is one of the most last resort medical option for patients with heart failure. Unfortunately, this surgical intervention is associated with several serious complications including heart transplant rejection (HTR) and Cardiac Allograft Vasculopathy (CAV) which can manifest just within few years' posttransplant. These complications affect significantly the prognosis and quality of life among postheart transplant patients. Several medications including immunosuppressant, antibiotics, antihypertensive, and statins have been used during posttransplant care so as to address such complications. Unfortunately, most of those drugs are expensive and pose a number of serious side effects to the patients enough to compromise patients' quality of life too. Several studies on Vitamin C are therapeutically suggestive that it can be used during postheart transplant care with more cost‐effective benefits with less and minimized side effects compared to the current drugs in place. It should be considered pharmacologically that Vitamin C has a great potential role clinically in prevention and control of HTR and CAV development. On the light of such findings as described above, we recommend more studies especially clinical trials and molecular studies to determine whether Vitamin C can be repositioned to replace or to be used along the current drug regimens used in postheart transplant care for prevention and control of HTR and CAV.