Key result
Artesunate treatment restrained diabetes-induced cardiovascular complications in rats by maintaining heart and body weight, reducing blood glucose, and decreasing RAGE/NF-κB pathway expression.
Why the study?
The study aimed to evaluate the effect of artesunate on reducing cardiovascular complications in type 1 diabetes and investigate the mechanism involving the RAGE/NF-κB signaling pathway.
Does artesunate prevent cardiovascular complications in a rat model of type 1 diabetes mellitus?
Does artesunate prevent cardiovascular complications in a rat model of type 1 diabetes mellitus?
p-value: p=<0.05
Artesunate may protect against diabetes-associated cardiovascular complications by inhibiting the RAGE/NF-κB signaling pathway in a preclinical model.
ART may protect against diabetic cardiovascular injury in rats via RAGE/NF-κB inhibition; leaves open clinical translation and optimal dosing.
BACKGROUND: The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of artesunate (ART) on the reduction of cardiovascular complications in a type 1 diabetes model and to investigate the associated mechanism based on the receptor for advanced glycation end-product (RAGE)/NF-κB signaling pathway. METHODS: A total of 40 male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into five groups: The healthy, diabetic, 50 mg/kg ART (ig) treatment diabetic, 100 mg/kg ART (ig) treatment diabetic, and 6 U/kg insulin (iH) treatment diabetic groups. The treatment lasted 4 weeks after the diabetic model was established via intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin. Blood samples were collected, and cardiovascular tissues were harvested and processed to measure various parameters after the animals were sacrificed. The myocardium and aortic arch tissues were evaluated using hematoxylin-eosin and Masson staining. Expression levels of RAGE, NF-κB, matrix metalloproteinase MMP9, MMP1 and CD68 in the myocardium and aortic arch tissues were detected using immunohistochemistry, and mRNA expression was determined using reverse transcription-quantitative PCR. RESULTS: The results of the present study demonstrated that ART treatment may restrain diabetes-induced cardiovascular complications by maintaining heart and body weight while reducing blood glucose, as well as regulating blood lipid indicators to normal level (P < 0.05). The expression levels of NF-κB, CD68, MMP1, MMP9 and RAGE were decreased in the ART-treated diabetic rats (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: ART treatment may have a protective role against diabetes-associated cardiovascular complications in diabetic rats by inhibiting the expression of proteins in the RAGE/NF-κB signaling pathway and downstream inflammatory factors. High concentrations of ART had a hypoglycemic effect, while a low concentration of ART prevented cardiovascular complications.
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Chen et al. (2021) studied Type 1 diabetes mellitus (n=40). Artesunate vs. Untreated diabetes (PBS) was evaluated on Cardiovascular complications (physiological indices and protein expression) (p=<0.05). Artesunate treatment restrained diabetes-induced cardiovascular complications in rats by maintaining heart and body weight, reducing blood glucose, and decreasing RAGE/NF-κB pathway expression.
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