Novel wine in an old bottle:Preventive and therapeutic potentials of andrographolide in atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease(ASCVD)frequently results in sudden death and poses a serious threat to public health worldwide.The drugs approved for the prevention and treatment of ASCVD are usually used in combination but are inefficient owing to their side effects and single therapeutic targets.Therefore,the use of natural products in developing drugs for the prevention and treatment of ASCVD has received great scholarly attention.Andrographolide(AG)is a diterpenoid lactone compound extracted from Andrographis paniculata.In addition to its use in conditions such as sore throat,AG can be used to prevent and treat ASCVD.It is different from drugs that are commonly used in the prevention and treatment of ASCVD and can not only treat obesity,diabetes,hyperlipidaemia and ASCVD but also inhibit the pathological process of atherosclerosis(AS)including lipid accumulation,inflammation,oxidative stress and cellular abnormalities by regulating various targets and pathways.However,the pharmacological mechanisms of AG underlying the prevention and treatment of ASCVD have not been corroborated,which may hinder its clinical development and application.Therefore,this review summarizes the physiological and pathological mechanisms underlying the development of ASCVD and the in vivo and in vitro pharmacological effects of AG on the relative risk factors of AS and ASCVD.The findings support the use of the old pharmacological compound(‘old bottle’)as a novel drug(‘novel wine’)for the prevention and treatment of ASCVD.Additionally,this review summarizes studies on the availability as well as pharmaceutical and pharmacokinetic properties of AG,aiming to provide more information regarding the clinical application and further research and development of AG.

Study on the energy level limitations of triplet-triplet annihilation upconversion with anthracene-isomerized dimers as annihilators

The enhancement in the efficiency of triplet-triplet annihilation upconversion(TTA-UC)is mainly determined by the triplet energy transfer(TET)and triplet-triplet annihilation(TTA)between the sensitizers and annihilators.The TET process works efficiently by adjusting the concentration ratio of the sensitizers and annihilators.The efficiency of TTA is determined by the properties of the annihilator.Because TTA is a Dexter-type energy transfer and is affected by the diffusion rate,the energy levels of the excited states and the molecular size are both crucial in TTA.In this study,four isomerized dimers of 9,10-diphenlanthracene(DPA)and anthracene(An)were designed and prepared as annihilators for TTA-UC.The singlet and triplet energy levels could be adjusted by altering the connection position while maintaining the molecular weight and size.When PtOEP was used as the sensitizer,the maximum upconversion efficiency of 9-[4-(9-anthracenyl)phenyl]-10-phenylanthracene(9DPA-9An)was~11.18%.This is four times higher than that of 9,10-diphenyl-2,9-bianthracene(2DPA-9An,2.63%).The calculation of the energies of T_(1)and the higher triplet state(T_(3),because E(T_(2))is similar to the E(T)of these dimers)for these dimers has provided insights into the underlying reasons.These indicated that the energy gap value of 2×E(T_(1))-E(T_(3))is the determining factor for TTA efficiency.This work may provide a better understanding of the excited-state energy levels,which is crucial for designing novel annihilators to enhance the TTA-UCefficiency.