Bioactive Compounds in Diabetic Cardiomyopathy: Current Approaches and Potential Diagnostic and Therapeutic Targets

Background: Diabetic Cardiomyopathy (DCM) has an adverse effect on health and occurs with or without concurrent vascular disease. Although several pathological mechanisms have been implicated in DCM, oxidative stress is widely thought to be the foremost cause for DCM pathogenesis. Objective: In this review, we focused on the role of bioactive compounds from different sources such as plant and marine products in cardiomyopathy. Results: Natural Products (NPs) and their constituents were traditionally considered implausible as therapeutic agents. In the last few decades, studies on the use of NPs in the pharmaceutical field have reduced due to problems such as the requirement of compatibility of conventional NP extract libraries with high-throughput selection. The characteristics of NP structures such as high chemical variety, biochemical specificity, and other molecular properties that make them favorable as direct structures for drug synthesis and that distinguish them from combinatorial and synthetic compound libraries have been documented since ancient times. Conclusion: Consequently, the aim of this review was to provide an overview on the recent progress and development of bioactive compounds in DCM and to focus on the cellular mechanisms underlying cardiomyocyte dysfunction in their therapeutic targets.