A review on the role of nutraceuticals as simple as se(2+) to complex organic molecules such as glycyrrhizin that prevent as well as cure diseases

Promising Therapeutic Candidate for Myocardial Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury: What Are the Possible Mechanisms and Roles of Phytochemicals?

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is one of the most effective reperfusion strategies for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) despite myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury, causing one of the causes of most cardiomyocyte injuries and deaths. The pathological processes of myocardial I/R injury include apoptosis, autophagy, and irreversible cell death caused by calcium overload, oxidative stress, and inflammation. Eventually, myocardial I/R injury causes a spike of further cardiomyocyte injury that contributes to final infarct size (IS) and bound with hospitalization of heart failure as well as all-cause mortality within the following 12 months. Therefore, the addition of adjuvant intervention to improve myocardial salvage and cardiac function calls for further investigation. Phytochemicals are non-nutritive bioactive secondary compounds abundantly found in Chinese herbal medicine. Great effort has been put into phytochemicals because they are often in line with the expectations to improve myocardial I/R injury without compromising the clinical efficacy or to even produce synergy. We summarized the previous efforts, briefly outlined the mechanism of myocardial I/R injury, and focused on exploring the cardioprotective effects and potential mechanisms of all phytochemical types that have been investigated under myocardial I/R injury. Phytochemicals deserve to be utilized as promising therapeutic candidates for further development and research on combating myocardial I/R injury. Nevertheless, more studies are needed to provide a better understanding of the mechanism of myocardial I/R injury treatment using phytochemicals and possible side effects associated with this approach.

Cardioprotective Action of Glycyrrhizin on Diabetic Rats with Myocardial Remodeling

Introduction

Cardiovascular disorders are one of the prominent causes of risks of mortality which accounts for high rate of the deaths at a global level. The risk of deadly myocardial infraction grows because of diabetes which even causes the development of heart failure.

Objective

The objective of this study was to understand and study the effect of glycyrrhizin on diabetes suffering rats with myocardial remodeling.

Materials and Methods

Streptozotocin was used for induction of diabetes, and 8–12 weeks later, the assessment of inflammation, fibrosis, and cardiac damage was evaluated. Histopathological analysis and immunohistochemistry was performed to analyze the effect in various groups. Western blotting was performed to understand the proteins expressed in diabetes, and also, their expression was noted in treatment groups.

Results

There was a significant rise in TNF-α, dense fibrosis, and collagen deposits in the STZ diabetes group. The effects of hyperglycemia were significantly improved in the glycyrrhizin-treated group. DAPI, BrDu, and caspase staining was also performed to understand apoptosis in tissues where the diabetic groups reported significant apoptosis, while the effects were significantly lower in the treated group.

Conclusion

All the observations indicate that glycyrrhizin has cardioprotective action in diabetic rats with myocardial remodeling and is due to the inhibition of the NF-κB signaling pathway in the myocardial layer.

Glycyrrhizin treatment ameliorates post-traumatic stress disorder-like behaviours and restores circadian oscillation of intracranial serotonin

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has become a major disease that threatens human health. Neurotransmitters and the amygdala are found to be critical in the development and maintenance of PTSD. We aim to investigate the role of glycyrrhizin in treating PTSD. Contextual fear extinction and elevated plus maze test were applied to evaluate the anxiety and fear memory. Microdialysis and high-performance liquid chromatography were used to analyze the expression of amygdala neurotransmitters in PTSD animal models and to verify the effects of glycyrrhizin on major neurotransmitters. The protein levels of tryptophan hydroxylase 2 (TPH2) were examined by western bolt. Glycyrrhizin treatment significantly reduced anxiety and fear memory after 1 and 7 days of PTSD modelling. In addition, glycyrrhizin treatment restored the circadian rhythm changes of serotonin and TPH2. The present study found a significant circadian rhythm change of serotonin in the amygdala in PTSD rats. Besides, glycyrrhizin treatment restored the altered serotonin diurnal fluctuations, which raises important implications for PTSD treatment.

Protective effect of glycyrrhizin on myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury-induced oxidative stress, inducible nitric oxide synthase and inflammatory reactions through high-mobility group box 1 and mitogen-activated protein kinase expression

Glycyrrhizin, which is a type of perennial leguminous caudex, has been used in various Asian countries, including P.R. China, India and Japan, for thousands of years. The present study was designed to investigate the protective effect of glycyrrhizin on myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury through oxidative stress, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), and inflammatory reactions via high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) expression. Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into five groups: Sham; myocardial I/R injury + non-treated; myocardial I/R injury + 2 mg/kg glycyrrhizin; myocardial I/R injury + 4 mg/kg glycyrrhizin; and myocardial I/R injury + 10 mg/kg glycyrrhizin. Pre-treatment with glycyrrhizin significantly reduced infarct size and inhibited creatine kinase, creatine kinase-MB, lactate dehydrogenase and cardiac troponin T activities in rats with myocardial I/R injury. Furthermore, glycyrrhizin treatment significantly suppressed oxidative stress, iNOS protein expression and inflammatory reactions in rats with myocardial I/R injury. Additionally, treatment with glycyrrhizin significantly decreased the release of HMGB1 from the cerebral cortex into the serum in rats with myocardial I/R injury. Notably, glycyrrhizin significantly suppressed p-ERK, p-p38 MAPK and p-c-Jun N-terminal kinase protein expressions, and promoted extracellular signal-regulated kinase protein expression in rats with myocardial I/R injury. Collectively, the present study indicates that the protective effect of glycyrrhizin may reduce myocardial I/R injury through oxidative stress, iNOS and inflammatory reactions, via HMGB1 and MAPK expression.

Wine Flavonoids in Health and Disease Prevention

Wine, and particularly red wine, is a beverage with a great chemical complexity that is in continuous evolution. Chemically, wine is a hydroalcoholic solution (~78% water) that comprises a wide variety of chemical components, including aldehydes, esters, ketones, lipids, minerals, organic acids, phenolics, soluble proteins, sugars and vitamins. Flavonoids constitute a major group of polyphenolic compounds which are directly associated with the organoleptic and health-promoting properties of red wine. However, due to the insufficient epidemiological and in vivo evidences on this subject, the presence of a high number of variables such as human age, metabolism, the presence of alcohol, the complex wine chemistry, and the wide array of in vivo biological effects of these compounds suggest that only cautious conclusions may be drawn from studies focusing on the direct effect of wine and any specific health issue. Nevertheless, there are several reports on the health protective properties of wine phenolics for several diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, some cancers, obesity, neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, allergies and osteoporosis. The different interactions that wine flavonoids may have with key biological targets are crucial for some of these health-promoting effects. The interaction between some wine flavonoids and some specific enzymes are one example. The way wine flavonoids may be absorbed and metabolized could interfere with their bioavailability and therefore in their health-promoting effect. Hence, some reports have focused on flavonoids absorption, metabolism, microbiota effect and overall on flavonoids bioavailability. This review summarizes some of these major issues which are directly related to the potential health-promoting effects of wine flavonoids. Reports related to flavonoids and health highlight some relevant scientific information. However, there is still a gap between the knowledge of wine flavonoids bioavailability and their health-promoting effects. More in vivo results as well as studies focused on flavonoid metabolites are still required. Moreover, it is also necessary to better understand how biological interactions (with microbiota and cells, enzymes or general biological systems) could interfere with flavonoid bioavailability.