Chinese patent medicines for coronary microvascular disease: clinical evidence and potential mechanisms.

Coronary microvascular disease (CMVD) is a high risk factor for many cardiovascular events. Due to the limited understanding of its pathophysiological mechanism, modern medicine still lacks therapeutic drugs for CMVD. Existing clinical studies have shown that traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) can effectively improve the clinical symptoms and quality of life of CMVD patients. As an indispensable part of TCM, Chinese patent medicines (CPMs) are widely used in clinical practice. In the face of numerous oral CPMs for treatment of CMVD, how to choose a reasonable medication regimen is one of the important issues in clinic. Based on this, this paper reviewed the clinical efficacy and recommended level of 12 CPMs in the treatment of CMVD, which are recommended by expert consensus on diagnosis and treatment of coronary microvascular disease with integrated Chinese and Western medicine (WM). In addition, this study also systematically summarized the possible mechanisms of CPMs in the treatment of CMVD by protecting coronary microvascular endothelial cells, improving vascular endothelial function, inhibiting inflammation, reducing oxidative stress, promoting angiogenesis, and improving hemorheology, aiming to provide meaningful information for its clinical application.

Gut microbiota and hypertension: association, mechanisms and treatment.

OBJECTIVES: Hypertension is one of the most important risk factors for cardio-cerebral vascular diseases, which brings a heavy economic burden to society and becomes a major public health problem. At present, the pathogenesis of hypertension is unclear. Increasing evidence has proven that the pathogenesis of hypertension is closely related to the dysbiosis of gut microbiota. We briefly reviewed relevant literature on gut microbiota and hypertension to summarize the relationship between gut microbiota and hypertension, linked the antihypertension effects of drugs with their modulation on gut microbiota, and discussed the potential mechanisms of various gut microbes and their active metabolites to alleviate hypertension, thus providing new research ideas for the development of antihypertension drugs. METHODS: The relevant literature was collected systematically from scientific database, including Elsevier, PubMed, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Baidu Scholar, as well as other literature sources, such as classic books of herbal medicine. RESULTS: Hypertension can lead to gut microbiota imbalance and gut barrier dysfunction, including increased harmful bacteria and hydrogen sulfide and lipopolysaccharide, decreased beneficial bacteria and short-chain fatty acids, decreased intestinal tight junction proteins and increased intestinal permeability. Gut microbiota imbalance is closely related to the occurrence and development of hypertension. At present, the main methods to regulate the gut microbiota include fecal microbiota transplantation, supplementation of probiotics, antibiotics, diet and exercise, antihypertensive drugs, and natural medicines. CONCLUSIONS: Gut microbiota is closely related to hypertension. Investigating the correlation between gut microbiota and hypertension may help to reveal the pathogenesis of hypertension from the perspective of gut microbiota, which is of great significance for the prevention and treatment of hypertension.