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This study aims to evaluate the effects of betanin on AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), Sirtuin1 (SIRT1) and Sirtuin6 (SIRT6) gene expression as well as the tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin 6 (IL-6) cytokine release in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and healthy controls.

PBMCs isolated from whole blood of 50 patients with CAD and 48 healthy subjects aged 45 to 60 years were treated with 10 and 20 µM of betanin for 24 h. Real-time polymerase chain reaction was performed to assess gene expression levels of AMPK, SIRT1 and SIRT6. The supernatants of the cultured cells were used to assess the IL-6 and TNF-α protein levels by ELISA.

Treatment with both doses of betanin significantly increased AMPK, SIRT1 and SIRT6 expression in PBMCs of CAD patients compared to control non-treated cells (p < 0.05). In PBMCs of healthy subjects, only treatment with high dose of betanin showed significant increase in AMPK (p = 0.007), SIRT1 (p = 0.013) and SIRT6 (p = 0.024) expression compared to control non-treated cells. Betanin (20 µM) also significantly decreased TNF-α and IL-6 concentrations in the culture supernatants of the CAD patients compared to control non-treated cells (p < 0.001).

Betanin could enhance AMPK, SIRT1 and SIRT6 gene expressions in PBMCs and represent a useful complementary treatment to reduce the proinflammatory status accompanied with CAD.