Therapeutic Effects of Wenxin Keli in Cardiovascular Diseases: An Experimental and Mechanism Overview

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the major public health problem and a leading cause of morbidity and mortality on a global basis. Wenxin Keli (WXKL), a formally classical Chinese patent medicine with obvious efficacy and favorable safety, plays a great role in the management of patients with CVDs. Accumulating evidence from various animal and cell studies has showed that WXKL could protect myocardium and anti-arrhythmia against CVDs. WXKL exhibited its cardioprotective roles by inhibiting inflammatory reaction, decreasing oxidative stress, regulating vasomotor disorders, lowering cell apoptosis, and protection against endothelial injure, myocardial ischemia, cardiac fibrosis, and cardiac hypertrophy. Besides, WXKL could effectively shorten the QRS and Q-T intervals, decrease the incidence of atrial/ventricular fibrillation and the number of ventricular tachycardia episodes, improve the severity of arrhythmias by regulating various ion channels with different potencies, mainly comprising peak sodium current (INa), late sodium current (INaL), transient outward potassium current (Ito), L-type calcium current (ICaL), and pacemaker current (If).

Identification of Target Genes of Antiarrhythmic Traditional Chinese Medicine Wenxin Keli

“…WXKL is an effective alternative to prevent potentially fatal arrhythmias after myocardial infarction in an animal model [21]. In this study, ECG showed that WXKL could significantly shorten the QT interval, slow down the heart rate after MI, and reduce the incidence of arrhythmia, consistent with the results summarized in a recent review [22].…”

Antiarrhythmic Mechanisms of Chinese Herbal Medicine Dingji Fumai Decoction

“…As the treatment of arrhythmias becomes increasingly diverse, the use of Chinese herbal medicines has spread from home to abroad and they are being widely and frequently used [12,13]. Wenxin Keli and Shensong Yangxin capsules are commonly used [14], and their antiarrhythmic mechanisms are being discovered [15][16][17]. DFD, as a noninvasive therapy, is widely used in hospitals and has a good curative effect [6].…”

Protective effects of Wenxin Keli against cardiac arrhythmias (Review)

“…WXKL at at a dose of 3 g/kg has been shown to improve intracellular mitochondrial membrane potential and oxygen consumption in primary atrial fibroblasts by reducing ROS in diabetic rats (62). WXKL has been shown to lead to a recovery of the level of malondialdehyde (MDA), the final product of lipid peroxidation, and superoxide dismutase (SOD) in rats/rabbits subjected to I/R (63). WXKL also improves the secretions of taurine and ketone bodies to overcome I/R-induced oxidative stress (17).…”