Targeting Retinol-Binding Protein 4 (RBP4) in the Management of Cardiometabolic Diseases

The ancient use of herbs for the treatment of various human diseases have been documented, with several scientific literatures supporting the use of medicinal plants. There is however a major concern about the phyto-constituents in the plants that performs the healing function and the mechanism by which it works for different ailments are still a research prospect. Cardiometabolic disease (CMD) is no doubt becoming more frequent globally and this is due to poor approach in therapy, contrary effects linked with intensive control, inept strategies with old drugs, inadequate control of some risk factors and lack of knowledge of the pathophysiological mechanisms that lead to this malaise. Retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4) are predominantly secreted in the liver and adipose tissues and several researches have observed that elevation in serum levels of RBP4 often observed in obese experimental animals and human subjects causes CMD (obesity, insulin resistance, hyperlipidemia, etc.). RBP4 has gained special attention in the last 20 years in the field of metabolism research. This review aims to show research interaction of some medicinal plants targeting RBP4 in treating CMD and to encourage researchers, who are interested in CMD drug design, to focus on medicinal plants that inhibit the secretion of serum RBP4 in the adipose tissue for therapeutic approach to CMD. It also aims to identify the major bioactive compounds of plants that serves as a better and cheaper drug candidate for CMD and also study the signaling pathway which the plant material uses to regulate the metabolic consequences.