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Dear Colleagues,

The marine environment is a rich source of bioactive compounds, but only few of these have been fully characterised for their therapeutic potential. Chronic cardiovascular disease remains the major cause of premature death or chronic ill health. One way to address these problems could be the development of effective treatments using evidenced-based studies on marine bioactive compounds. Marine products including algae, pigments, minerals and fibre are potentially both sustainable and commercially viable and thus represents a realistic alternative for the prevention and treatment of chronic cardiovascular disease. As many of the marine products are functional foods, these can target the problem of food security by serving as the sources of macro- and micro-nutrients.

This Special Issue will highlight the updates on research that identifies cardiovascular benefits of the marine products and recognise extracted products for the effects on cardiovascular disease and co-morbidities using both pre-clinical and clinical settings.

Prof. Lindsay Brown
Dr. Sunil K Panchal
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Marine Drugs is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Cardiovascular
Hypertension
Seaweeds
Microalgae
Macroalgae
Pigments
Fibre
Minerals
Tropical

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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22 pages, 5545 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Attenuation of Metabolic Syndrome by EPA/DHA Ethyl Esters in Testosterone-Deficient Obese Rats

by Nikhil S. Bhandarkar, Senthil Arun Kumar, Jarad Martin, Lindsay Brown and Sunil K. Panchal

Mar. Drugs 2018, 16(6), 182; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/md16060182 - 24 May 2018

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4273

Abstract

Inducing testosterone deficiency, as the standard treatment of prostate cancer, may cause metabolic disorders including insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, central obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and type 2 diabetes. This study measured responses to testosterone deficiency in high-carbohydrate, high-fat (H) diet-fed rats. We then tested whether eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)/docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) ethyl esters (Omacor) reversed these metabolic changes. Male Wistar rats (8–9 weeks old) were divided into eight groups with four groups fed corn starch and four groups fed H diet. For each diet, one group received diet only; one group was orchidectomized; one group was given leuprolide (gonadotrophin-releasing hormone agonist, 2 mg/kg every 4th week); and the last group was treated with leuprolide and their diet was supplemented with 3% Omacor for the last eight weeks. The protocol was for 16 weeks. Leuprolide worsened metabolic syndrome symptoms and cardiovascular function, and orchidectomy produced greater responses. In H fed leuprolide-treated rats, Omacor decreased systolic blood pressure and left ventricular diastolic stiffness, reduced infiltration of inflammatory cells and collagen deposition in the heart, and reduced lipid accumulation and inflammatory cell infiltration without improving liver damage. These results suggest that Omacor has potential to attenuate metabolic complications in prostate cancer patients with induced testosterone deprivation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Natural Products for Cardiovascular Disease)

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Review

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10 pages, 876 KiB

Open AccessReview

Cardioprotective Effects of Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids: Dichotomy between Experimental and Clinical Studies

by Melissa Desnoyers, Kim Gilbert and Guy Rousseau

Mar. Drugs 2018, 16(7), 234; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/md16070234 - 10 Jul 2018

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 5419

Abstract

The high-fat diet of North Americans has a major impact on cardiovascular disease occurrence. Notably, fatty acids have been identified as important factors that could modulate such diseases, especially myocardial infarction (MI). Experimentally, omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) have demonstrated positive effects on cardiovascular disorders and have also shown cardioprotection by decreasing MI size. Although many animal experiments have clearly established the benefits of omega-3 PUFA, clinical studies have not reached similar conclusions. In fact, the findings of recent clinical investigations indicate that omega-3 PUFA play only a minor role in cardiovascular health. This dichotomy between experimental and clinical studies may be due to different parameters that are not taken into account in animal experiments. We have recently observed that the high consumption of omega-6 PUFA results in significant attenuation of the beneficial effect of omega-3 PUFA on MI. We believe that part of the dichotomy between experimental and clinical research may be related to the quantity of omega-6 PUFA ingested. This review of the data indicates the importance of considering omega-6 PUFA consumption in omega-3 PUFA studies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Natural Products for Cardiovascular Disease)

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