Nutraceuticals as therapeutic agents for atherosclerosis

Atherosclerosis, a chronic inflammatory disorder of medium and large arteries and an underlying cause of cardiovascular disease (CVD), is responsible for a third of all global deaths. Current treatments for CVD, such as optimized statin therapy, are associated with considerable residual risk and several side effects in some patients. The outcome of research on the identification of alternative pharmaceutical agents for the treatment of CVD has been relatively disappointing with many promising leads failing at the clinical level. Nutraceuticals, products from food sources with health benefits beyond their nutritional value, represent promising agents in the prevention of CVD or as an add-on therapy with current treatments. This review will highlight the potential of several nutraceuticals, including polyunsaturated fatty acids, flavonoids and other polyphenols, as anti-CVD therapies based on clinical and pre-clinical mechanism-based studies. •Atherosclerosis, an inflammatory disorder of the vasculature, is a major underlying cause of cardiovascular disease.•Current therapies are not fully effective and many promising pharmaceutical leads have failed at the clinical level.•Nutraceuticals are emerging as promising alternatives for prevention of atherosclerosis or as add-on with current therapies.•Unfortunately, research on nutraceuticals has considerably lagged those on pharmaceuticals.•This review summarizes our current knowledge on key nutraceuticals from clinical and pre-clinical mechanism-based studies.