Novel Drugs Development for Cardio-/Cerebrovascular Diseases

Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases are the leading causes of death worldwide. According to the current epidemiological data, it is expected that, till 2020, coronary artery disease and cerebral hemorrhage are still the first and second causes of death of human beings, even though the order of the death causes due to human diseases would be changed significantly. Despite various advances in the understanding of the diseases, pharmacological treatment by conventional medicine has not obtained satisfactory results. However, recent studies suggest that natural products and traditional herbal medicine are a potential candidate for the preventative treatment of the disorders. Therefore, we have invited the researchers to contribute few research/review papers to provide solid evidence that supports the application of bioactives/traditional herbal medicine (THM) in prevention and treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. The first paper of this special issue investigates the role of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARí µí»¿) in ginseng-induced modification of cardiac contractility. It was suggested that ginseng could enhance cardiac contractility through increased PPARí µí»¿ expression in cardiac cells. The second paper investigates the role of musclin, a novel skeletal muscle-derived factor found in the signal sequence trap of mouse skeletal muscle cDNAs, using animal model of hypertension and characterizes its direct effect on vascular contraction. This paper provides the evidence that supports the fact that musclin is involved in hypertension and, thus, it is appropriate to consider as a novel target for treatment of hypertension, and another paper in this issue suggests that allantoin, as imidazoline I-1 receptors (I-1R) agonist, has the potential to develop as a new therapeutic agent for hypertension. Amarogentin prevents platelet activation through the inhibition of PLCí µí»¾2-PKC cascade and MAPK pathway. This hypothesis is well presented in this special issue and findings suggest that amarogentin may offer therapeutic potential for preventing or treating thromboembolic disorders. Many clinical reports have suggested that the ascorbyl free radical (Asc •) can be treated as a noninvasive, reliable, real-time marker of oxidative stress, but its generation mechanisms in human blood have rarely been discussed. A paper in this issue studied upstream substances, enzyme inhibitors, and free radical scavengers to delineate the mechanisms of Asc • formation in human platelet-rich plasma (PRP). This paper shows a well-defined protocol that adopts the hypothesis that Asc • formation is associated with the inhibitors of NADPH oxidase (NOX), cyclooxygenase (COX), lipoxygenase (LOX), cytochrome P450 (CYP450), mitochondria complex III, nitric oxide synthase …