Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 19, Issue 27, 2013

The metabolic syndrome (MetS) is characterized by a cluster of cardiovascular risk factors, including central obesity, hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia and hypertension, which are highly associated with increased morbidity and mortality of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). The association between these metabolic disorders and the development of CVD is believed to be multifactorial, where insulin resistance, oxidative stress, low-gr Read More

The metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a cluster of risk factors including obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, elevated blood pressure and glucose intolerance. The MetS increases the risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes. Each component of the MetS causes cardiac dysfunction and their combination carries additional risk. The mechanisms underlying cardiac dysfunction in the MetS are complex and Read More

Glucocorticoids include steroid hormones released from the adrenal cortex or synthetic analogues developed for various inflammatory and immune disorders. GCs are known to play an important role in maintaining the body’s metabolic balance, but their irregular activity has been associated with complications like Cushing’s syndrome, insulin resistance, and heart disease. Conventional GC action is through their nuc Read More

The melanocortin-3 receptor (MC3R) is a G protein-coupled receptor involved in regulating energy metabolism, cardiovascular function, and inflammation. To gain a better understanding of the structure-function relationship of the MC3R, we used alaninescanning mutagenesis to investigate the functions of residues 247–273 in the third intracellular loop (ICL3) of the human MC3R (hMC3R). Ligand binding and signa Read More

Patients with diabetes exhibit significantly altered renin-angiotensin system (RAS) control. Recently, it has been determined that hyperglycemic conditions induce an increase in angiotensin II (AT II) expression; specifically by cardiomyocytes. Altered RAS has been shown to be associated with an increase in oxidative stress and cardiac dysfunction leading to the development of cardiac hypertrophy. The transient outward potass Read More

Metabolic syndrome is well known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. As the key feature of metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance occurs when target tissues cannot respond properly to insulin and develops in multiple organs, including the vasculature and heart. Accumulating evidence has suggested insulin-induced PI3K-Akt-eNOS survival signaling as a potent therapeutic target for cardiovascular Read More

Chloride (Cl-) channels participate in the regulation of cardiac function in response to stress although the underlying regulatory mechanism remains poorly understood. This study was designed to examine the impact of the pro-apoptotic stimulus staurosporine (STS) on the volume-sensitive outwardly rectifying Cl- current (ICl,Vol) in cardiomyocytes and possible regulatory mechanism involved with a focus on phosphatidylinos Read More

MicroRNA-34a (miR-34a) promotes apoptosis via down-regulating many anti-apoptotic proteins. Aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) is an anti-apoptotic enzyme whose activity decline associates with myocardial injury. We tested hypothesis that miR-34a might play a pro-apoptotic role in myocardial infarction (MI) by down-regulating ALDH2. MiR-34a was highly increased while ALDH2 expression was decreased after experi Read More

This study was designed to evaluate the role of ULK1 in AMPK-mediated myocardial autophagy and contractile dysfunction following acute alcohol challenge. Wild-type and AMPK knockout mice were challenged with ethanol (3 g/kg/d, i.p.) for 3 days. Myocardial function was evaluated using echocardiography and edge-detection. Western blot analysis was employed to evaluate the levels of AMPK, Raptor, mTOR, the AMPK do Read More

The metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a constellation of multiple metabolic risk factors including obesity, glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia and hypertension. Individuals with MetS are found to be afflicted with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus and overall cardiovascular diseases. One of the common comorbidities of MetS is the impairment of heart function en route to loss of cardiomyocyt Read More

This study was designed to evaluate the distribution of Tregs/Th17/Th1 cells in type 2 diabetic patients with foot disease before and after human umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cell (hUCB-MSCs) transplantation. Fifteen diabetic patients with foot disease under insulin therapy received hUCB-MSC transplantation. The hUCB-MSCs were directly injected into the quadriceps thigh muscles in patients with foot disease (cell qu Read More

Despite positive effects on the plasma lipid profile and vascular events, statin use is associated with various side effects. Among these, statins might cause a disruption of a number of regulatory pathways including insulin signaling. This may affect insulin sensitivity, pancreatic beta-cell function and adipokine secretion. The statin-associated risk of new-onset diabetes (NOD) appears to be a dose-dependent class effect. It still rem Read More

After the withdrawal of troglitazone and rosiglitazone, pioglitazone remains the sole thiazolidinedione (TZD) still available. Pioglitazone is efficacious in improving glycemic control and reduce the risk of cardiovascular events. Although generally well-tolerated, pioglitazone was withdrawn by some national medicines agencies (e.g. in France and Germany) due to reports of increased incidence of bladder cancer. In this article, we rev Read More

Elevated serum uric acid (SUA) levels (i.e. hyperuricaemia) have been associated with metabolic syndrome (MetS) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Elevated SUA levels predict the onset of type 2 diabetes (T2DM). SUA levels are increased during the early stages of impaired glucose metabolism. Furthermore, in diabetic patients, hyperuricaemia has been linked to both micro- and macrovascular com Read More

Although the obesity epidemic is constantly expanding at very high costs for health care systems, the currently available options for the pharmacotherapy of obesity are very limited. This is not due to lack of interest or research on the subject but rather to the poor efficacy and/or safety profile of the majority of the antiobesity drugs developed up to now. Since the late fifties, various medications were brought to ad Read More

Ghrelin is a peptide hormone produced mainly in the stomach that has widespread tissue distribution and diverse hormonal, metabolic and cardiovascular activities. The circulating ghrelin concentration increases during fasting and decreases after food intake. Ghrelin secretion may thus be initiated by food intake and is possibly controlled by nutritional factors. Lean subjects have increased levels of circulating ghrelin com Read More

Microalbuminuria (MA), excessive albumin excretion in the urine, is defined in different ways. MA is more prevalent among patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) and/or hypertension and correlates with adverse renal and cardiovascular (CV) outcomes. Several cross-sectional and prospective studies have demonstrated a positive association between MA and CV outcomes in the general population but also specific populations s Read More

We aimed to summarise recent advances in the therapy of diabetic neuropathy. Although all therapeutic choices in the treatment of diabetes mellitus itself are based on clear pathophysiological basis, this approach is less present in the treatment of the “forgotten complication”, diabetic neuropathy. As part of pathogenetic oriented treatment, the role of glycemic control and cardiovascular risk factors are reviewed. The Read More