Angiotensin 1–7 increases cardiac tolerance to ischemia/reperfusion and mitigates adverse remodeling of the heart—The signaling mechanism

Abstract

BackgroundThe high mortality rate of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) remains the most pressing issue of modern cardiology. Over the past 10 years, there has been no significant reduction in mortality among patients with AMI. It is quite obvious that there is an urgent need to develop fundamentally new drugs for the treatment of AMI. Angiotensin 1–7 has some promise in this regard.ObjectiveThe objective of this article is analysis of published data on the cardioprotective properties of angiotensin 1–7.MethodsPubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, and Google Scholar were used to search articles for this study.ResultsAngiotensin 1–7 increases cardiac tolerance to ischemia/reperfusion and mitigates adverse remodeling of the heart. Angiotensin 1–7 can prevent not only ischemic but also reperfusion cardiac injury. The activation of the Mas receptor plays a key role in these effects of angiotensin 1–7. Angiotensin 1–7 alleviates Ca2+ overload of cardiomyocytes and reactive oxygen species production in ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) of the myocardium. It is possible that both effects are involved in angiotensin 1–7‐triggered cardiac tolerance to I/R. Furthermore, angiotensin 1–7 inhibits apoptosis of cardiomyocytes and stimulates autophagy of cells. There is also indirect evidence suggesting that angiotensin 1–7 inhibits ferroptosis in cardiomyocytes. Moreover, angiotensin 1–7 possesses anti‐inflammatory properties, possibly achieved through NF‐kB activity inhibition. Phosphoinositide 3‐kinase, Akt, and NO synthase are involved in the infarct‐reducing effect of angiotensin 1–7. However, the specific end‐effector of the cardioprotective impact of angiotensin 1–7 remains unknown.ConclusionThe molecular nature of the end‐effector of the infarct‐limiting effect of angiotensin 1–7 has not been elucidated. Perhaps, this end‐effector is the sarcolemmal KATP channel or the mitochondrial KATP channel.