New Insights into Cardiovascular Diseases Treatment Based on Molecular Targets

Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Nov 24;24(23):16735. doi: 10.3390/ijms242316735.

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) which consist of ischemic heart disease, stroke, heart failure, peripheral arterial disease, and several other cardiac and vascular conditions are one of the most common causes of death worldwide and often co-occur with diabetes mellitus and lipid disorders which worsens the prognosis and becomes a therapeutic challenge. Due to the increasing number of patients with CVDs, we need to search for new risk factors and pathophysiological changes to create new strategies for preventing, diagnosing, and treating not only CVDs but also comorbidities like diabetes mellitus and lipid disorders. As increasing amount of patients suffering from CVDs, there are many therapies which focus on new molecular targets like proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9), angiopoietin-like protein 3, ATP-citrate lyase, or new technologies such as siRNA in treatment of dyslipidemia or sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 and glucagon-like peptide-1 in treatment of diabetes mellitus. Both SGLT-2 inhibitors and GLP-1 receptor agonists are used in the treatment of diabetes, however, they proved to have a beneficial effect in CVDs as well. Moreover, a significant amount of evidence has shown that exosomes seem to be associated with myocardial ischaemia and that exosome levels correlate with the severity of myocardial injury. In our work, we would like to focus on the above mechanisms. The knowledge of them allows for the appearance of new strategies of treatment among patients with CVDs.

Keywords: ANGPTL3; GLP-1 receptor agonists; PCSK9 inhibitors; SGLT-2 inhibitors; VCP/p97; bempedoic acid; cardiovascular diseases; diabetes; dyslipidemia; siRNA.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Cardiovascular Diseases* / drug therapy
  • Cardiovascular Diseases* / etiology
  • Cardiovascular Diseases* / prevention & control
  • Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2* / drug therapy
  • Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor / agonists
  • Humans
  • Hypoglycemic Agents / therapeutic use
  • Lipids / therapeutic use
  • Proprotein Convertase 9

Substances

  • PCSK9 protein, human
  • Proprotein Convertase 9
  • Lipids
  • Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor
  • Hypoglycemic Agents

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.