Since its emergence in China in December 2019, COVID-19 has quickly spread around the globe causing a pandemic. Vaccination or the development of herd immunity seems the only way to slow down the spread of the virus; however, both are not achievable in the near future. Therefore, effective treatments to mitigate the burden of this pandemic and reduce mortality rates are urgently needed. Preclinical and clinical studies of potential antiviral and immunomodulatory compounds and molecules to identify safe and efficacious therapeutics for COVID-19 are ongoing. Two compounds, remdesivir, and dexamethasone have been so far shown to reduce COVID-19-associated death. Here, we provide a review of the potential therapeutic agents being considered for the treatment and management of COVID-19 patients.
  The combination of antiapoptotic and angiogenic actions may represent a pharmacotherapeutic strategy for the treatment of myocardial infarction. Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) is expressed in various cell types including endothelial and muscle cells and promotes their survival, migration, and proliferation.
 
  Myocardial microvascular endothelial cells were divided into four treatment groups, the sham, hypoxia, basic FGF (bFGF), and bFGF plus 2-methoxyestradiol groups, and subjected to 
  apoptotic analysis and Matrigel assays. An 
  model of myocardial infarction was established by ligaturing the left coronary artery of mice in the four treatment groups. Cardiac performance, myocardial injury, endothelial cell angiogenesis, and myocardial apoptosis were assessed.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/frax597.html  bFGF administration after myocardial infarction improved cardiac function and cell viability, attenuated myocardial injury and apoptosis, and enhanced angiogenesis. Western blotting of HIF-1α, p-AKT, VEGF, p53, BAX, and Bcl-2 showed that bFGF increased HIF-1α, p-AKT, VEGF, and Bcl-2 and decreased BAX protein levels.
 
  The results of the present study indicated that bFGF attenuates myocardial injury by inhibiting apoptosis and promoting angiogenesis 
  a novel HIF-1α-mediated mechanism and a potential utility of bFGF in protecting against myocardial infarction.
 The results of the present study indicated that bFGF attenuates myocardial injury by inhibiting apoptosis and promoting angiogenesis via a novel HIF-1α-mediated mechanism and a potential utility of bFGF in protecting against myocardial infarction.Doxorubicin (DOX) is broadly used in treating various malignant tumors. However, its cardiotoxicity limits its clinical use. Roxadustat (FG-4592) is a new hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase (HIF-PHD) inhibitor and has been approved for treating anemia in chronic kidney diseases (CKD) patients. However, the role of FG-4592 in DOX-induced cardiotoxicity remains unknown. In this study, mouse cardiac function was evaluated by echocardiography, plasma LDH/CK-MB, and heart HE staining. Cell viability, apoptosis, oxidative stress, inflammation, and HIF-target genes were evaluated in mouse cardiac tissue and cardiac cells exposed to DOX with FG-4592 pretreatment. DOX-sensitive HepG2 and MCF-7 cell lines were used to evaluate FG-4592 effect on the anticancer activity of DOX. We found that FG-4592 alleviated DOX-induced cardiotoxicity shown by the protection against cardiac dysfunction, cardiac apoptosis, and oxidative stress without the effect on inflammatory response. FG-4592 alone did not change the cardiac function, cardiomyocyte morphology, oxidative stress, and inflammation in vivo. FG-4592 could protect cardiomyocytes against DOX-induced apoptosis and ROS production in line with the upregulation of HIF-1α and its target genes of Bcl-2 and SOD2. Importantly, FG-4592 displayed anticancer property in cancer cells treated with or without DOX. These findings highlighted the protective effect of FG-4592 on DOX-induced cardiotoxicity possibly through upregulating HIF-1α and its target genes antagonizing apoptosis and oxidative stress.
  Treatment with Trastuzumab is associated with cardiotoxicity.If Trastuzumab could be administered in a safe manner to patients who develop a reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) of < 50% remains poorly understood.
 
  To evaluate the impact of a cardioncological approach in terms of adherence and continuation of oncological therapy with Trastuzumab.
 
  Internal databases of candidates for trastuzumab chemotherapy with evidence of cardiotoxicity according to echocardiographic criteria were retrospectively evaluated. Eighty-four female patients (age 51.7 years, 95% CI 49.5-53.8), were finally included. Patients were divided to receive a standard (n 27) or cardioncological (n 57) scheme. Baseline EF values were within normal limits (60.9, 95% CI 60 - 61.9%; p=0.5 between groups). The nadir of EF observed during trastuzumab therapy was more pronounced in the standard care group (40.6, 95% CI 37.3-43.9% vs. 46.3, 95% CI 44.3-48.3%; p=0.002). At re-challenge, after cardiotoxicity detection, all patientular impact of chemotherapy.The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-related Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection has been declared world pandemic causing a worrisome number of deaths, especially among vulnerable citizens, in 209 countries around the world. Although several therapeutic molecules are being tested, no effective vaccines or specific treatments have been developed. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, different traditional herbal medicines with promising results have been used alone or in combination with conventional drugs to treat infected patients. Here, we review the recent findings regarding the use of natural products to prevent or treat COVID-19 infection. Furthermore, the mechanisms responsible for this preventive or therapeutic effect are discussed. We conducted literature research using PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, and WHO website. Dissertations and theses were not considered. Only the situation reports edited by the WHO were included. The different herbal products (extracts) and purified molecules may exert their anti-SARS-CoV-2 actions by direct inhibition of the virus replication or entry. Interestingly, some products may block the ACE-2 receptor or the serine protease TMPRRS2 required by SARS-CoV-2 to infect human cells. In addition, natural products were shown to inhibit the SARS-CoV-2 life-cycle related proteins such as papain-like or chymotrypsin-like proteases. In conclusion, we suggest that natural products could be used alone or in combination as alternative medicines to treat/prevent COVID-19 infection. Moreover, their structures may offer clues for the development of anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs.