Research Progress of Effect of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Prevention and Treatment of Atherosclerosis Based on Signal Pathway Related to Inflammatory Response / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

Atherosclerosis （AS） is a chronic inflammatory disease which has great threat to human health in our society. The coronary heart disease， stroke and other cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases caused by it have a high mortality and disability rate. AS is characterized by endothelial dysfunction， lipoproteins accumulation and inflammatory cell infiltration， with a complex pathological mechanism during its evolution. Inflammatory response runs through the whole process of occurrence and development of AS， and is a common link of many pathological factors. Intervention of inflammatory response is an effective way and important strategy to control AS. By virtue of its unique advantages， traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） plays an important role in the clinical treatment. According to the TCM theory， the formation and development of AS are closely related to five factors， namely wind， fire， phlegm， blood stasis and deficiency. Among them， blood stasis and turbid phlegm are the most closely related. Blood stasis and turbid phlegm are both pathological products and pathogenic factors. Their formation is mainly due to the imbalance of Yin and Yang in the whole body， dysfunction of viscera and organs and obstruction of transfusion of Qi， blood and body fluid. The pathogenic factors are not only independent， but also related. In recent years， there are more and more studies on the intervention effect and mechanism of TCM on AS， but the intervention effect of TCM on the inflammatory response signaling pathways has not been reported. In this paper， it mainly introduces the understanding of the effect of TCM against AS and seven signaling pathways relating to the intervention effect of TCM on the inflammatory response， which are Janus kinase/signal transduction and activator of transcription （JAK/STAT） signaling pathway， nuclear factor-κB （NF-κB） signaling pathway， mitogen-activated protein kinase （MAPK） dependent signaling pathway， reactive oxygen species （ROS） dependent signaling pathway， CD40-CD40L signaling pathway and Toll-like receptor （TLR） dependent signaling pathway.