Cardiovascular Remodeling Post-Ischemia: Herbs, Diet, and Drug Interventions

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

In this Review, the Authors provide important evidence about alternative therapy strategies of cardiovascular disease. They described several important approaches, including therapy with diet, herbs, and polyphenols.  The main new finding is that the combination of these approaches can target independent pathways that could synergistically increase the efficiency of treating of cardiovascular disease.  

This Review can be published in Biomedicines because it attracts attention to preventive medicine of cardio-vascular diseases.  At the same time, it is important to insert new knowledge  and to make the Review more comprehensive.

 

 There are only several small concerns:

1.       Chapter  3. Cardiovascular Health and Diet. It would be good to insert a small fragment concerning the importance of diet for the growing heart, because many cardiovascular diseases have their roots in early postnatal development. This phenomenon was termed as Developmental origin of adult cardiovascular diseases. For example, it was recently indicated that neonatal lactose intolerance triggers long-term transcriptomic changes and cardiomyocyte remodeling (10.3390/ijms24087063).

2.      Chapter 4. Cardiovascular Health and Herbal Medicine. Please, extend the list of heart protecting herbs and other agents in the Text and in the Table (more plants, berries, propolis and others). It will attract citations.

3.       Chapter 5. Polyphenols and Cardiovascular Health. Please, prepare the Table for this chapter.

4.      It would be also good to insert a small chapter  focused on the importance of blood cortisol level control (for example, by medical hypnosis, meditation, art therapy and other), because cortisol level affects immunity, inflammation and blood pressure (It is not necessary, just to attract citation)

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The review topic is important to an audience of nutrition and herbal medicine practitioners. Overall, the management of CVD by each of drugs, diet and herbals is covered, but the paper would be improved by better organization and a summary of how combined therapy would be implemented safely and feasibly.

Specific comments:

Purpose of the review is clearly defined.

Line 38: set up (verb)

Line 65: specify which sex is a stronger predictor

Lines 77-78: provide a reference for the public's perception of non-pharmaceuticals as safer, less toxic than medications.

Lines 129 forward: You write of synergy among foods but then describe the benefits of fish oil supplements. Restrict this section to dietary patterns (preferred) or create a more inclusive subtitle. The DASH deserves to be described.

Line 233: "The biological activity and structural diversity of natural products are unsurpassed by any existing synthetic drug screening library," - This is a direct quote from the article cited.

Line 251: Citation 77 does not align with this statement. Provide the correct reference. Antioxidants is not a heart illness. Such a sweeping statement requires multiple original research references.

Lines 275-6: References needed.

Line 279: correct "conugate"

Line 316: "According to another research," needs correction.

Lines 303-383: This is one paragraph. Divide your descriptions into subsections, perhaps by polyphenol subclasses.

Lines 384-394: This paragraph seems out-of-order.  The section would flow better if you described chemical structures, then function and then impact on heart health.

A discussion of how these therapeutics can be combined is lacking. The concern of drug-nutrient/herbal interactions must be included.

 

Several errors need correction.

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors have addressed most of my concerns.

Comments:

Paragraphs (especially in CVD, Health & CVD & Herbal Medicine & Flavanoids) remain too long and should be separated into paragraphs covering one main topic. Use topic sentences at the beginning of each paragraph.

Line 234: Emanated is not the correct word.

Line 478: Circumstances is not the correct word.

505: Proof needs correction.

Needs moderate editing.

Author Response

Please, see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf