Exploring The Cardioprotective Potential of Natural Flavonoids in Ischemia Models

Flavonoids are classes of polyphenolics compounds in many fruits and medicinal plants that have been found to possess substantial cardioprotective capabilities in pre-clinical models of myocardi AL-SAWFY (2017). This is a review of their role in the inhibition of myocardial damage by exhibiting multimodal actions such as antioxidant protection, anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic, and autophagic processes. Most flavonoids like quercetin, kaempferol, apigenin ligature, luteolin, naringenin, and hesperidin have a consistent effect on rodent models, where they reduce infarct size, increase cardiac performance and protect the integrity of the mitochondrion. Mechanically, their activity mimics the Nrf2/ARE and PI3K/Akt signaling, inhibition of NF-kB and MAPK signaling as well as AMPK/mTOR controlled autophagic flow to improve the survival of cardiomyocytes and tissue recovery. Clinical translation of these encouraging findings is hampered by shortcomings in bioavailability, a lack of pharmacokinetic data and inability to demonstrate or elicit a response in comorbid or large animal models. To make full use of the therapeutic effect of flavonoids in ischemic heart disease, future studies should fill these gaps by applying standardized protocols, long-term studies, as well as human trials. Their versatile nature and multi-targeted activity, along with non-toxicity in animal investigations lead to the possibility of using flavonoids as effective supplementary methods or supplements to traditional approaches of cardioprotection.