The arachidonic acid (AA) pathway plays a key role in cardiovascular biology, carcinogenesis, and many inflammatory diseases, such as asthma, arthritis, etc. Esterified AA on the inner surface of the cell membrane is hydrolyzed to its free form by phospholipase A2 (PLA2), which is in turn further metabolized by cyclooxygenases (COXs) and lipoxygenases (LOXs) and cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes to a spectrum of bioactive mediators that includes prostanoids, leukotrienes (LTs), epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs), dihydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (diHETEs), eicosatetraenoic acids (ETEs), and lipoxins (LXs). Many of the latter mediators are considered to be novel preventive and therapeutic targets for cardiovascular diseases (CVD), cancers, and inflammatory diseases. This review sets out to summarize the physiological and pathophysiological importance of the AA metabolizing pathways and outline the molecular mechanisms underlying the actions of AA related to its three main metabolic pathways in CVD and cancer progression will provide valuable insight for developing new therapeutic drugs for CVD and anti-cancer agents such as inhibitors of EETs or 2J2. Thus, we herein present a synopsis of AA metabolism in human health, cardiovascular and cancer biology, and the signaling pathways involved in these processes. To explore the role of the AA metabolism and potential therapies, we also introduce the current newly clinical studies targeting AA metabolisms in the different disease conditions.

花生四烯酸（AA）途径在心血管生物学、癌变以及许多炎症性疾病，如哮喘、关节炎等中发挥着关键作用。细胞膜内表面的酯化AA被磷脂酶A2水解成游离形式（ PLA2），进而被环加氧酶 (COX) 和脂氧合酶 (LOX) 以及细胞色素 P450 (CYP) 酶进一步代谢为一系列生物活性介质，包括前列腺素、白三烯 (LT)、环氧二十碳三烯酸 (EET)、二羟基二十碳四烯酸 (二HETE）、二十碳四烯酸（ETE）和脂氧素（LX）。后者的许多介质被认为是心血管疾病（CVD）、癌症和炎症性疾病的新型预防和治疗靶点。本综述旨在总结 AA 代谢途径的生理学和病理生理学重要性，并概述 AA 与其在 CVD 和癌症进展中的三个主要代谢途径相关的作用的分子机制，将为开发 CVD 和癌症进展的新治疗药物提供宝贵的见解。抗癌剂，例如 EET 或 2J2 抑制剂。因此，我们在此概述了人类健康、心血管和癌症生物学中的 AA 代谢以及这些过程中涉及的信号通路。为了探讨 AA 代谢的作用和潜在的治疗方法，我们还介绍了当前针对不同疾病条件下的 AA 代谢的最新临床研究。