Abstract

Atherosclerosis is the process of hardening and narrowing the arteries. Atherosclerosis is generally associated with cardiovascular diseases such as strokes, heart attacks, and peripheral vascular diseases. Since the usage of the synthetic drug, statins, leads to various side effects, the plants flavonoids with antiartherosclerotic activity gained much attention and were proven to reduce the risk of atherosclerosis in vitro and in vivo based on different animal models. The flavonoids compounds also exhibit lipid lowering effects and anti-inflammatory and antiatherogenic properties. The future development of flavonoids-based drugs is believed to provide significant effects on atherosclerosis and its related diseases. This paper discusses the antiatherosclerotic effects of selected plant flavonoids such as quercetin, kaempferol, myricetin, rutin, naringenin, catechin, fisetin, and gossypetin. Being a chronic inflammatory disease, atherosclerosis is becoming the leading cause of death in most of the developed countries. Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) like myocardial infarction (heart attack), acute coronary syndrome, or stroke arise through the development of plaques and lesions inside the arteries. Hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, and obesity give high risks for the progression of CVDs. Statins are widely used as the clinical treatment for atherosclerosis due to its excellent efficacy in reducing the low density lipoprotein (LDL) level. Statins competitively inhibit the HMG-CoA reductase enzyme that plays a great role in catalyzing the rate-limiting step in the biosynthesis of cholesteror. The increase in hepatic LDL receptors’ expression is triggered by the reduction of hepatocyte cholesterol concentration and helps to clear LDL from the circulation.