Editorial Bioactives and Traditional Herbal Medicine for ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2015/320545.pdf · and stroke. Heart failure can arise as consequence of large myocardial

EditorialBioactives and Traditional Herbal Medicine for the Treatment ofCardiovascular/Cerebrovascular Diseases 2015

Joen-Rong Sheu,1 Pitchairaj Geraldine,2 and Mao-Hsiung Yen3

1Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 110, Taiwan2Department of Animal Science, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu 620 024, India3Department of Pharmacology, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan

Correspondence should be addressed to Joen-Rong Sheu; [email protected]

Received 8 June 2015; Accepted 8 June 2015

Copyright © 2015 Joen-Rong Sheu et al.This is an open access article distributed under theCreative CommonsAttribution License,which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are still the principal causeof death worldwide.Weakened endothelial function followedby inflammation of the vessel wall hints at atheroscle-rotic lesion formation that causes myocardial infarctionand stroke. Heart failure can arise as consequence of largemyocardial infarctions. In its more severe stages, heartfailure patients have a life anticipation that is parallel todestructive cancers. Accordingly, the increase in risk factorload by metabolic diseases and age augments the incidencefor vascular and cardiac diseases and provides a challengefor developing efficient treatments.There is widespread proofto show that drug treatment of conventional risk factors iseffective in reducing cardiovascular events. More effectivetreatment of CVD with various classes of antihypertensivedrugs has been associated with greater benefits, but somerecent studies suggest wemay be reaching the optimal level oftreated blood pressure in some patient groups. Apart from thetreatment of cardiovascular risk factorswith pharmacologicalagents and the use of antithrombotic drugs, there is growingawareness of the role of dietary factors and herbal medicinesin the prevention of CVD and the possibility of their use intreatment. Investigators from different places of the worldlike China, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and so forthcontributed to this special issue by presenting tremendouspapers. These papers deliver an analysis in this field andcreate innovative contributions concerning themechanismofaction of bioactives and traditional herbal medicine for thetreatment of cardiovascular/cerebrovascular diseases.

Some interesting papers in this special issue addressthe cardioprotective effects of Chinese herbal medicine and

natural compounds. For instance, a paper summarized thesynergetic cardioprotective potential of herbal combinationof four plants, namely, Terminalia arjuna, Cactus grandi-florous, Crataegus oxyacantha, and Piper nigrum throughcurative and preventive mode of treatment analysis and thispaper reported preadministration and postadministration ofherbal mixture restore the levels of biomarker of cardiotox-icity, which includes cardiac marker enzymes, lipids profile,and antioxidant enzymes. Similarly, another paper in thisissue reports the cardioprotective effects of Sundarban honeyon cardiac troponin I, cardiac marker enzymes, the lipidprofile, lipid peroxidation products, and histoarchitecture ofthe myocardium against isoproterenol-induced myocardialinfarction in Wistar rats. Pinggan Qianyang recipe (PQR), aChinese medicine recipe, has long been used for calming theliver. It has also been used to treat essential hypertension withsatisfactory results. Consistent with this concern, this specialissue published a paper that reports PQR exerts its antihyper-tensive effect through deterioration of the vascular remod-eling process. The mechanism might be associated withregulating differentially expressed miRNAs in aorta tissue.

Despite the fact that there are major developments intreating ischemic stroke over the last decade, stroke is still aserious concern for which effective drug therapy is not yetavailable. In the search for neuroprotective agents from nat-ural sources, a number of plant extracts and several naturalproducts were isolated and reported to provide neuroprotec-tion against ischemic stroke. A few papers in this special issuereport the neuroprotective effects of Chinese herbalmedicineand natural compounds. For instance, Antrodia camphorata

Hindawi Publishing CorporationEvidence-Based Complementary and Alternative MedicineVolume 2015, Article ID 320545, 2 pageshttp://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/320545

2 Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

(A. camphorata), a fungus generally used in Chinese folkmedicine for the treatment of viral hepatitis and cancer, hasshown neuroprotective effects in embolic rats. This effectmay correlate with the downregulation of the iNOS, HO-1, Bax, and activated caspase-3 and the inhibition of OH∘signals. Another study shows alpha-lipoic acid attenuatesmiddle cerebral artery occlusion-induced cerebral ischemiaand reperfusion injury via insulin receptor-dependent andPI3K/Akt-dependent inhibition of NADPH oxidase. More-over, an interesting study in this special issue established theeffects of tetramethylpyrazine (TMP) on functional recoveryand neuronal dendritic plasticity after experimental stroke. Inthis study, the authors have shown that enhanced dendriticplasticity contributes to TMP-elicited functional recoveryafter ischemic stroke.

Hinokitiol is a naturally occurring compound isolatedfrom the wood of Chamaecyparis taiwanensis. It is involvedin multiple biological activities, including antimicrobial andantitumorigenic activities. Although hinokitiol has beenreported to inhibit inflammation, its immunological regula-tion in lymphocytes remains inadequate. With this context, awell-designed study reported that hinokitiol downregulatedcyclin D3, E2F1, and Cdk4 expression and upregulated p21expression in concanavalinA- (ConA-) stimulatedT lympho-cytes. It further demonstrated that hinokitiol upregulates p21expression and attenuates IFN-𝛾 secretion in T lymphocytesfrom the spleens ofmice, thereby arresting the cell cycle in theG0/G1 phase. These authors concluded that hinokitiol pro-vides benefits in treating patients with autoimmune diseases.We expect that this special issue grants inventive awarenessto increase the therapeutic value of herbal and/or Chinesemedicines for treatment or prevention of cardiovascular andischemia-reperfusion injury-related disorders.

Joen-Rong SheuPitchairaj Geraldine

Mao-Hsiung Yen

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Editorial Bioactives and Traditional Herbal Medicine for ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2015/320545.pdf · and stroke. Heart failure can arise as consequence of large myocardial