Title:Role of Antioxidants for the Treatment of Cardiovascular Diseases: Challenges and Opportunities
Volume: 21
Issue: 30
Author(s): Amit K. Jain, Neelesh K. Mehra and Nitin K. Swarnakar
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Cardiovascular diseases, antioxidants, reactive oxygen species, oxidative stress, nanoparticles, nanocarriers, liposomes.
Abstract: Cardiovascular disorders or cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are major illness associated with heart and
blood vessels. Reactive oxygen species (ROS), generated during excessive oxidative stress, are responsible for the
pathophysiology of various cardiovascular disorders including atherosclerosis, cardiac hypertrophy, cardiomyopathy,
heart failure, ventricular remodeling, ischemia/reperfusion injury and myocardial infarction. Cellular “redox
homeostasis” generally maintains the healthy physiology in cardiac myocytes and endothelial cells. However, during
excessive oxidative stress body’s endogenous system fails to maintain normal physiology hence antioxidant
supplementation is necessary, which could scavenge the free radicals and other toxic radicals. Several antioxidants
such as CoQ10, beta carotene, lycopene, quercetin, reserveterol, vitamin C and vitamin E have shown preventive and therapeutic benefits
in different forms of CVD. However, poor biopharmaceutical properties and variable pharmacokinetics of several antioxidants limits
their use as therapeutic agents. Hence delivery of stable antioxidants at their site of action is a need of current scenario. Several novel carriers
based approaches have shown considerable benefits for the systemic and site specific delivery of antioxidants for the preventive and
therapeutic treatment of several cardiovascular diseases. In the present review, conventional as well as novel antioxidants have been discussed
with special emphasis for the treatment of CVD. Further, the current review also highlights the critical challenges for antioxidant
delivery and various novel carriers (nanoformulations) including, liposomes and nanoparticles explored for their efficient delivery in the
therapeutic management of CVD.
