Flavonols and flavones - protecting against myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury by targeting protein kinases.

In acute myocardial infarction (AMI) the first line of treatment is to rapidly restore blood flow to the ischemic myocardium to limit infarct size. It is now well established that though clearly beneficial the positive outcomes of this intervention are limited by injury in response to the reperfusion itself in addition to the prior ischemia. This process is described as reperfusion injury and is considered to contribute to the arrhythmias, microvascular dysfunction and impaired cardiac contractility that is observed even after the restoration of coronary blood flow. Thus an important, currently unmet, therapeutic challenge is to address the outcomes of this reperfusion injury. In this article we review the evidence that flavonols and flavones may prove useful in preserving cardiac function after ischemia and reperfusion and consider the possible mechanisms, in particular the inhibition of kinases, by which they may exert protection.