**1. Introduction**

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186 Current Trends in Atherogenesis

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Atherosclerosis and vascular disorders, which result from atherosclerosis, represent one of the major problems in the modern medicine and public health. Atherosclerosis is character‐ ized by structural and functional changes of large arteries. The approaches for the treatment of atherosclerosis require at least the prevention of growth of atherosclerotic lesions and re‐ duction in the lipid core mass, which would followed by plaque stabilization. Taken togeth‐ er, these approaches could theoretically result in the regression of arterial lesions.

Atherosclerosis develops in the arterial wall and remains asymptomatic until ischemia of distal organs is evident. Therapy of clinical manifestations of atherosclerosis is largely aimed at reducing symptoms or affecting hemodynamic response and often does not affect the cause or course of disease, namely the atherosclerotic lesion itself. Of course, anti-atherosclerotic effects of statins revealed in many prospective clinical trials may be considered; however, statins have never been recognized as the drugs indicated just for direct treatment or preven‐ tion of atherosclerosis. They are used predominately in the course of hypolipidemic thera‐ py, and the effects of treatment are estimated by success in reaching the target level of low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, but not the regression of atherosclerotic lesion or intimamedia thickness. The last should be considered as beneficial effect, which is mainly due to pleiotropic mechanisms of action. Atherosclerosis develops over many years, so anti-athero‐ sclerotic therapy should be a long-term or even lifelong therapy. Tachyphylaxis, long-term toxicity and cost amongst other issues may present problems for the use of conventional medications in a long-term. Drugs based on natural products can be a good alternative.

© 2013 Orekhov et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2013 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

In epidemiological studies of hypercholesterolemia, a high level of plasma cholesterol and the plasma concentration of LDL are significantly associated with the development of pre‐ mature atherosclerosis [1]. Cholesterol accumulation in the arterial wall is the main sign of atherosclerosis. It was suggested that LDL is the major source of cholesterol deposited in the vessel wall.

Glycosylation is another type of in vivo LDL modification. Glycosylated LDL was found in the blood of patients with diabetes mellitus [14]. This LDL is also atherogenic, i.e. induces intracellular lipid accumulation [15]. Oxidation is probably also one type of an atherogenic modification of LDL in vivo. There are indirect evidences of the presence of oxidized LDL

Use of Natural Products for Direct Anti-Atherosclerotic Therapy

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/52967

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Autoantibodies are produced in response to the appearance of modified LDL (either desialy‐ lated, glycosylated or oxidized) in the bloodstream [16-18]. Autoantibodies to desialylated LDL react with both modified and, though with a lesser affinity, native lipoproteins [17,19,20]. The interaction between anti-LDL autoantibodies and the lipoprotein results in the formation of LDL-containing immune complexes [12]. Desialylated LDL which enter the cells as a component of immune complexes possess a higher atherogenic potential compared with free lipoprotein, i.e. induce a more intense cholesterol accumulation in the cell [21,22]. The interaction with anti-LDL converts native non-atherogenic LDL into atherogenic, i.e. en‐ ables it to induce intracellular cholesterol accumulation which accompanied by enhanced cell proliferation and the extracellular matrix production [17,20]. We have found circulating immune complexes consisting of LDL and anti-LDL autoantibodies in the blood of most atherosclerotic patients [21,22]. A positive correlation between level of LDL-containing im‐

mune complexes and the severity of atherosclerosis has been demonstrated [23-25].

We and others have demonstrated that LDL is able to form complexes with cellular debris, collagen, elastin, and proteoglycans of human aortic intima [26-28]. Addition of these com‐ plexes to cultured cells stimulated intracellular accumulation of lipids. Experiments with io‐ dinated LDL showed an increased uptake and decreased intracellular degradation of

In 1989 we showed that in vivo and in vitro modified LDLs are spontaneously self-associat‐ ed under cell culture conditions, while native LDLs do not forms self-associates [29]. A posi‐ tive correlation between atherogenic activity of modified LDLs and the degree of LDL selfassociation has been established [30,31]. Lipoprotein associates isolated by gel filtration induced a dramatic increase in the lipid accumulation by cultured human aortic intimal cells. Removal of LDL associates from the incubation medium by filtration through filter with pore diameter 0.1 µm completely prevented intracellular lipid accumulation. Thus,

Thus, we can conclude that formation of large complexes (self-associates, immune com‐ plexes, and complexes with connective tissue matrix) by modified LDL leads to intracellular lipid accumulation through enhanced cellular uptake and slow intracellular degradation of

Taken together, our data allow us to identify possible targets for anti-atherosclerotic thera‐ py. The first target is atherogenic modification (desialylation) of LDL particle in blood. Pre‐

in vivo [16].

lipoproteins in complexes.

lipoprotein particles.

self-association increases atherogenic potential of LDL.

**3. Anti-Atherogenic and Anti-Atherosclerotic Drugs**

Accumulation of cholesterol and other lipids is the most prominent manifestation of athero‐ sclerosis at the arterial cell level. In addition to lipid accumulation, elevated proliferative ac‐ tivity of vascular cells and enhanced synthesis of the extracellular matrix are characteristics of cellular atherogenesis. Collagen and glycoproteins are the main components of the extrac‐ ellular matrix which forms a fibrous plaque.

Intracellular lipid accumulation can be induced by LDL; however native lipoprotein does not increase the cholesterol content of the cell [2]. On the other hand, incubation of cell cul‐ ture with chemically modified LDLs results in a massive accumulation of cholesterol in the cells [2]. The in vitro studies revealed a great number of atherogenic modifications of LDL, i.e. modifications which lead to cellular lipidosis [2]. This findings suggest that modified, but not native LDLs are the source of lipids accumulated in arterial cells. Arterial intimal cells populating atherosclerotic lesion are overloaded with lipids, their cytoplasm is almost completely filled with lipid inclusions [3]. These cells are referred to as foam cells.
