Pathological Mechanisms of Brain-Heart Mutual Damage and Treatment with Traditional Chinese Medicine: A review / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

The brain and heart has a tight relationship upon physiology and pathology during the development of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases with clinical conditions interacting with each other and complex pathological mechanisms. Clinical studies prove that cerebral diseases such as stroke usually happen with cardiac diseases as complications， and cardiac diseases such as atrial fibrillation can also cause cerebral diseases， which can even aggravate brain atrophy and lead to cognitive impairment. Traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） also believes that “the substance of Shenming is located in the brain and the function in the heart.” Specifically， Yuanshen is in the brain and Shishen is in the heart， which thus makes the heart and brain closely related. If Shenming in any of them is impaired， the other one would also be injured. Therefore， the pathological mechanisms of brain-heart mutual damage have become one of the current research hotspots. This paper， combined with the clinical research status of the brain-heart mutual damage， summarized its pathological mechanisms from the perspectives of inflammatory responses， dysregulation of autonomic nervous system， apoptosis， energy metabolism and oxidative stress. The necessity of “brain-heart concurrent regulation” was proposed and the research progress on the treatment of cerebral and cardiac diseases with TCM represented by Naoxintong capsule was profiled in the light of heart and brain function described by TCM and the holistic concept of TCM treating cerebral and cardiac diseases. This paper reviews the pathological mechanisms of brain-heart mutual damage and the research progress on its treatment with TCM， which can provide reference for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and further research on them.