Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, Taipei Medical University, and Department of Ophthalmology, Wang Fang Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
J Biomed Sci. 2011 May 11;18(1):30. doi: 10.1186/1423-0127-18-30.
Salvianolic acids are the most abundant water-soluble compounds extracted from Radix Salvia miltiorrhiza (Danshen). In China, Danshen has been wildly used to treat cardiovascular diseases for hundreds of years. Salvianolic acids, especially salvianolic acid A (Sal A) and salvianolic acid B (Sal B), have been found to have potent anti-oxidative capabilities due to their polyphenolic structure. Recently, intracellular signaling pathways regulated by salvianolic acids in vascular endothelial cells, aortic smooth muscle cells, as well as cardiomyocytes, have been investigated both in vitro and in vivo upon various cardiovascular insults. It is discovered that the cardiovascular protection of salvianolic acids is not only because salvianolic acids act as reactive oxygen species scavengers, but also due to the reduction of leukocyte-endothelial adherence, inhibition of inflammation and metalloproteinases expression from aortic smooth muscle cells, and indirect regulation of immune function. Competitive binding of salvianolic acids to target proteins to interrupt protein-protein interactions has also been found to be a mechanism of cardiovascular protection by salvianolic acids. In this article, we review a variety of studies focusing on the above mentioned mechanisms. Besides, the target proteins of salvianolic acids are also described. These results of recent advances have shed new light to the development of novel therapeutic strategies for salvianolic acids to treat cardiovascular diseases.
丹酚酸是从丹参（Danshen）中提取的最丰富的水溶性化合物。在中国，丹参已被广泛用于治疗心血管疾病数百年。丹酚酸，特别是丹酚酸 A（Sal A）和丹酚酸 B（Sal B），由于其多酚结构而具有很强的抗氧化能力。最近，在各种心血管损伤的情况下，已经在体外和体内研究了丹酚酸在血管内皮细胞、主动脉平滑肌细胞以及心肌细胞中调节的细胞内信号通路。发现丹酚酸的心血管保护作用不仅是因为丹酚酸作为活性氧清除剂发挥作用，还因为白细胞-内皮细胞黏附的减少、主动脉平滑肌细胞中炎症和金属蛋白酶表达的抑制以及免疫功能的间接调节。丹酚酸与靶蛋白的竞争性结合以中断蛋白-蛋白相互作用也被发现是丹酚酸心血管保护的一种机制。在本文中，我们综述了各种专注于上述机制的研究。此外，还描述了丹酚酸的靶蛋白。这些最新进展的结果为开发新型治疗策略以治疗心血管疾病提供了新的思路。
