Curcumin Management of Myocardial Fibrosis and its Mechanisms of Action: A Review

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (08) ◽  
pp. 1675-1710 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yonghui Yu ◽  
Jinghui Sun ◽  
Ru Wang ◽  
Jiangang Liu ◽  
Peili Wang ◽  
...  

Myocardial fibrosis is implicated as a leading risk factor for heart failure, arrhythmia, and sudden death after cardiac injury, as the excessive interstitial extracellular matrix impedes heart contraction and electrical conduction. Complicated mechanisms involving oxidative stress, pro-inflammatory cytokines, chemokine families, NLRP3 inflammasomes, growth factors, and non-coding RNAs participate in cardiac fibrogenesis and make it difficult to designate specific and effective therapies. Oriental herbs have been popular for thousands of years in the health care of Asian residents, due to their multi-targeted, multi-faceted approaches and their multi-functional effects in fighting difficult and complicated diseases, including cardiovascular disorders such as myocardial fibrosis. Curcumin, a natural polyphenol and yellow pigment obtained from the spice turmeric, was found to have strong anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Increasing evidence has shown that curcumin can be used to prevent and treat myocardial fibrosis, when the myocardium suffers pathological pro-fibrotic changes in vivo and in vitro. The present review focuses on recent studies elucidating the mechanisms of curcumin in treating different pathologic conditions, including ischemia, hypoxia/reoxygenation, pressure or volume overload, and hyperglycemia or high-fat-induced cardiac fibrosis. Novel analogs such as C66, B2BrBC, Y20, and J17 have been designed to maximize the therapeutic potentials of curcumin. These optimized curcumin analogs with improved bioavailability and pharmacokinetic profiles need to be clinically verified before curcumin could be recommended for the treatment of myocardial fibrosis.

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Ni ◽  
Yihai Liu ◽  
Lina Kang ◽  
Lian Wang ◽  
Zhonglin Han ◽  
...  

AbstractHuman trophoblast stem cells (TSCs) have been confirmed to play a cardioprotective role in heart failure. However, whether trophoblast stem cell-derived exosomes (TSC-Exos) can protect cardiomyocytes from doxorubicin (Dox)-induced injury remains unclear. In the present study, TSC-Exos were isolated from the supernatants of human trophoblasts using the ultracentrifugation method and characterized by transmission electron microscopy and western blotting. In vitro, primary cardiomyocytes were subjected to Dox and treated with TSC-Exos, miR-200b mimic or miR-200b inhibitor. Cellular apoptosis was observed by flow cytometry and immunoblotting. In vivo, mice were intraperitoneally injected into Dox to establish a heart failure model. Then, different groups of mice were administered either PBS, adeno-associated virus (AAV)-vector, AAV-miR-200b-inhibitor or TSC-Exos via tail vein injection. Then, the cardiac function, cardiac fibrosis and cardiomyocyte apoptosis in each group were evaluated, and the downstream molecular mechanism was explored. TSC-Exos and miR-200b inhibitor both decreased primary cardiomyocyte apoptosis. Similarly, mice receiving TSC-Exos and AAV-miR-200b inhibitor exhibited improved cardiac function, accompanied by reduced apoptosis and inflammation. The bioinformatic prediction and luciferase reporter results confirmed that Zeb1 was a downstream target of miR-200b and had an antiapoptotic effect. TSC-Exos attenuated doxorubicin-induced cardiac injury by playing antiapoptotic and anti-inflammatory roles. The underlying mechanism could be an increase in Zeb1 expression by the inhibition of miR-200b expression. In summary, this study sheds new light on the application of TSC-Exos as a potential therapeutic tool for heart failure.


2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 1928-1938 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mian Cheng ◽  
Gang Wu ◽  
Yue Song ◽  
Lin Wang ◽  
Ling Tu ◽  
...  

Backgroud: Myocardial fibrosis results in myocardial remodelling and dysfunction. Celastrol, a traditional oriental medicine, has been suggested to have cardioprotective effects. However, its underlying mechanism is unknown. This study investigated the ability of celastrol to prevent cardiac fibrosis and dysfunction and explored the underlying mechanisms. Methods: Animal and cell models of cardiac fibrosis were used in this study. Myocardial fibrosis was induced by transverse aortic constriction (TAC) in mice. Cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis were evaluated based on histological and biochemical measurements. Cardiac function was evaluated by echocardiography. The levels of transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β1), extracellular signal regulated kinases 1/2 (ERK1/2) signalling were measured using Western blotting, while the expression of miR-21was analyzed by real-time qRT-PCR in vitro and in vivo. In vitro studies, cultured cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) were treated with TGF-β1 and transfected with microRNA-21(miR21). Results: Celastrol treatment reduced the increased collagen deposition and down-regulated α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), brain natriuretic peptides (BNP), beta-myosin heavy chain (β-MHC), miR-21 and p-ERK/ERK. Cardiac dysfunction was significantly attenuated by celastrol treatment in the TAC mice model. Celastrol treatment reduced myocardial fibroblast viability and collagen content and down-regulated α-SMA in cultured CFs in vitro. Celastrol also inhibited the miR-21/ERK signalling pathway. Celastrol attenuated miR-21 up-regulation by TGF-β1 and decreased elevated p-ERK/ERK levels in CFs transfected with miR-21. Conclusion: MiR-21/ERK signalling could be a potential therapeutic pathway for the prevention of myocardial fibrosis. Celastrol ameliorates myocardial fibrosis and cardiac dysfunction, these probably related to miR-21/ERK signaling pathways in vitro and in vivo.


Author(s):  
Ke Meng ◽  
Huabo Cai ◽  
Simin Cai ◽  
Yucai Hong ◽  
Xiaoming Zhang

Background: Accumulating evidence suggested that bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) have therapeutic potential for diabetes and heart diseases. However, the effects of BMSC on reducing myocardial fibrosis need to be optimized. This study aimed to investigate the mechanism of adiponectin (APN) modified BMSCs on myocardial fibrosis in diabetic model in vivo and in vitro.Methods: The high-fat diet combined with streptozotocin (STZ) injection were used to induced diabetic rat model. H9c2 cells were cultured under a high glucose medium as in vitro model. The BMSCs were modified by APN plasmid or APN small interfering RNA (siRNA), then transplanted to the diabetic rats by a single tail-vein injection, or co-cultured with H9c2 cells.Results: We demonstrated that diabetic rats showed typical diabetic symptoms, such as decreased cardiac function, accumulation of pathological lesions and collagen expression. However, these impairments were significantly prevented by the APN modified BMSCs treatment while no effects on APN siRNA modified BMSCs treated diabetic rats. Moreover, we confirmed that APN modified BMSCs could attenuate the expression of TGF-beta1/smad to suppress the myocardial fibrosis in the diabetic rats and high glucose induced H9c2 cells.Conclusion: The present results for the first time showed that APN modified BMSCs exerted protection on cardiac fibrosis via inhibiting TGF-beta1/smad signal pathway in diabetic rats. Our findings suggested that APN modified BMSCs might be a novel and optimal therapy for the diabetic cardiomyopathy in future.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeping Qiu ◽  
Jingwen Zhao ◽  
Fanyi Huang ◽  
Luhan Bao ◽  
Yanjia Chen ◽  
...  

AbstractMyocardial fibrosis and ventricular remodeling were the key pathology factors causing undesirable consequence after myocardial infarction. However, an efficient therapeutic method remains unclear, partly due to difficulty in continuously preventing neurohormonal overactivation and potential disadvantages of cell therapy for clinical practice. In this study, a rhACE2-electrospun fibrous patch with sustained releasing of rhACE2 to shape an induction transformation niche in situ was introduced, through micro-sol electrospinning technologies. A durable releasing pattern of rhACE2 encapsulated in hyaluronic acid (HA)—poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) core-shell structure was observed. By multiple in vitro studies, the rhACE2 patch demonstrated effectiveness in reducing cardiomyocytes apoptosis under hypoxia stress and inhibiting cardiac fibroblasts proliferation, which gave evidence for its in vivo efficacy. For striking mice myocardial infarction experiments, a successful prevention of adverse ventricular remodeling has been demonstrated, reflecting by improved ejection fraction, normal ventricle structure and less fibrosis. The rhACE2 patch niche showed clear superiority in long term function and structure preservation after ischemia compared with intramyocardial injection. Thus, the micro-sol electrospun rhACE2 fibrous patch niche was proved to be efficient, cost-effective and easy-to-use in preventing ventricular adverse remodeling.


Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marko Dachev ◽  
Jana Bryndová ◽  
Milan Jakubek ◽  
Zdeněk Moučka ◽  
Marian Urban

Conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) are distinctive polyunsaturated fatty acids. They are present in food produced by ruminant animals and they are accumulated in seeds of certain plants. These naturally occurring substances have demonstrated to have anti-carcinogenic activity. Their potential effect to inhibit cancer has been shown in vivo and in vitro studies. In this review, we present the multiple effects of CLA isomers on cancer development such as anti-tumor efficiency, anti-mutagenic and anti-oxidant activity. Although the majority of the studies in vivo and in vitro summarized in this review have demonstrated beneficial effects of CLA on the proliferation and apoptosis of tumor cells, further experimental work is needed to estimate the true value of CLA as a real anti-cancer agent.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dezhong Wang ◽  
Yuan Yin ◽  
Shuyi Wang ◽  
Tianyang Zhao ◽  
Fanghua Gong ◽  
...  

AbstractAs a classically known mitogen, fibroblast growth factor 1 (FGF1) has been found to exert other pleiotropic functions such as metabolic regulation and myocardial protection. Here, we show that serum levels of FGF1 were decreased and positively correlated with fraction shortening in diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) patients, indicating that FGF1 is a potential therapeutic target for DCM. We found that treatment with a FGF1 variant (FGF1∆HBS) with reduced proliferative potency prevented diabetes-induced cardiac injury and remodeling and restored cardiac function. RNA-Seq results obtained from the cardiac tissues of db/db mice showed significant increase in the expression levels of anti-oxidative genes and decrease of Nur77 by FGF1∆HBS treatment. Both in vivo and in vitro studies indicate that FGF1∆HBS exerted these beneficial effects by markedly reducing mitochondrial fragmentation, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and cytochrome c leakage and enhancing mitochondrial respiration rate and β-oxidation in a 5’ AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)/Nur77-dependent manner, all of which were not observed in the AMPK null mice. The favorable metabolic activity and reduced proliferative properties of FGF1∆HBS testify to its promising potential for use in the treatment of DCM and other metabolic disorders.


Endocrinology ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 153 (8) ◽  
pp. 3692-3700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui-Ping Gu ◽  
Sen Lin ◽  
Ming Xu ◽  
Hai-Yi Yu ◽  
Xiao-Jun Du ◽  
...  

Myocardial fibrosis is a key pathological change in a variety of heart diseases contributing to the development of heart failure, arrhythmias, and sudden death. Recent studies have shown that relaxin prevents and reverses cardiac fibrosis. Endogenous expression of relaxin was elevated in the setting of heart disease; the extent of such up-regulation, however, is insufficient to exert compensatory actions, and the mechanism regulating relaxin expression is poorly defined. In the rat relaxin-1 (RLN1, Chr1) gene promoter region we found presence of repeated guanine (G)-rich sequences, which allowed formation and stabilization of G-quadruplexes with the addition of a G-quadruplex interactive ligand berberine. The G-rich sequences and the G-quadruplexes were localized adjacent to the binding motif of signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT)3, which negatively regulates relaxin expression. Thus, we hypothesized that the formation and stabilization of G-quadruplexes by berberine could influence relaxin expression. We found that berberine-induced formation of G-quadruplexes did increase relaxin gene expression measured at mRNA and protein levels. Formation of G-quadruplexes significantly reduced STAT3 binding to the promoter of relaxin gene. This was associated with consequent increase in the binding of RNA polymerase II and STAT5a to relaxin gene promoter. In cardiac fibroblasts and rats treated with angiotensin II, berberine was found to suppress fibroblast activation, collagen synthesis, and extent of cardiac fibrosis through up-regulating relaxin. The antifibrotic action of berberine in vitro and in vivo was similar to that by exogenous relaxin. Our findings document a novel therapeutic strategy for fibrosis through up-regulating expression of endogenous relaxin.


2021 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Habibeh Mashayekhi-Sardoo ◽  
Adeleh Mashayekhi‐Sardoo ◽  
Basil D. Roufogalis ◽  
Tannaz Jamialahmadi ◽  
Amirhossein Sahebkar

: Curcumin, a yellow pigment in Asian spice, is a natural polyphenol component of Curcuma longa rhizome. Curcuminoid components include curcumin, demethoxycurcumin (DMC), and bisdemethoxycurcumin (BDMC). Previous studies established curcumin as a safe agent based on preclinical and clinical evaluations and curcuminoids have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as “Generally Recognized as Safe” (GRAS). The present review collects and summarizes clinical and preclinical studies of curcumin interactions, with an emphasis on the effect of curcumin and curcumin analogs on the mRNA and protein levels of microsomal CYP450 enzymes (phase I metabolism) and their interactions with toxicants, drugs and drug probes. The literature search was conducted using keywords in various scientific databases, including Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, and Google Scholar. Studies concerning the impact of curcumin and curcumin analogs on microsomal enzyme activity are reviewed and include oral, topical, and systemic treatment in humans and experimental animals, as well as studies from in vitro research. When taken together the data identified some inconsistent results between various studies. The findings showed significant inhibition of CYP450 enzymes by curcumin and its analogs. However such effects often differed when curcumin and curcumin analogs were coadministered with toxicant and other drugs and drug probes. We conclude from this review that herb-drug interactions should be considered when curcumin and curcumin analogs are consumed.


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