IMR Press / RCM / Volume 23 / Issue 2 / DOI: 10.31083/j.rcm2302060
Open Access Review
Natural products from traditional Chinese medicine for the prevention and treatment of heart failure: progress and perspectives
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1 Department of Cardiology, Affiliated Hangzhou First People’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, 310006 Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
2 Translational Medicine Research Center, Affiliated Hangzhou First People’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, 310006 Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
3 Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, 310053 Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
4 Pharmaceutical Informatics Institute, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, 310009 Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
*Correspondence: xyzhzsyxnk@163.com (Yizhou Xu); zhongyigangly@163.com (Yigang Zhong)
These authors contributed equally.
Academic Editors: Brian Tomlinson and Takatoshi Kasai
Rev. Cardiovasc. Med. 2022, 23(2), 60; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.rcm2302060
Submitted: 29 October 2021 | Revised: 19 December 2021 | Accepted: 20 December 2021 | Published: 12 February 2022
(This article belongs to the Special Issue State-of-the-Art Cardiovascular Medicine in Asia 2021)
Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Abstract

Heart failure (HF) is the end stage of several cardiovascular diseases with high mortality worldwide; however, current chemical drugs have not beneficial effect on reducing its mortality rate. Due to its properties of multiple targets components with multiple targets, natural products derived from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) have exerts unique effects on the amelioration of the clinical symptoms of HF, yet, TCM is not widely used in the clinic since the potential therapeutic targets have not been fully investigated. Therefore, in this review, we briefly summarized the pathophysiological mechanism of HF and reviewed the published clinical evaluations of TCM and natural products from Chinese herbs to treat HF. Then, the therapeutic potential and the underlying mechanisms by which the natural products from Chinese herb exert their protective effects were further summarized. We concluded from this review that natural products from Chinese herbs have been shown to be more effective in treating HF by targeting multiple signaling pathways, including anticardiac hypertrophy, antifibrotic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidative and antiapoptotic activities. However, the major limitations of these compounds is that there are a lack of large scale, multicenter, randomized and controlled clinical trials for their use in treatment of HF, and the toxic effects of natural products from Chinese herbs also needed further investigation. Despite these limitations, further clinical trials and experimental studies will provide a better understanding of the mechanism of natural products from Chinese herbs and promote their wide use to treat HF.

Keywords
Natural products
Chinese herb
Heart failure
Cardiac hypertrophy
Inflammation
fibrosis
Oxidative stress
Myocardial apoptosis
Figures
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