It has been well established that oxidative stress and inflammation are involved in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy. It has been shown that tropisetron exerts anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties. The current study was designed to investigate protective effects of tropisetron on early diabetic nephropathy in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Rats were divided into six groups: (i) untreated diabetic (streptozotocin group); (ii) untreated control; (iii) diabetic rats treated with tropisetron (3 mg/kg); (iv) normal rats treated with tropisetron (3 mg/kg); (v) diabetic rats treated with granisetron (3 mg/kg); and (vi) normal rats treated with granisetron (3 mg/kg); rats began receiving treatment at the time of diabetes induction for 2 weeks. At the termination of the experiments, bodyweight, kidney index, urinary albumin excretion, and glomerular filtration rate were measured. The levels of oxidative stress markers and tumour necrosis factor-α were also determined. Streptozotocin-treated animals showed significant loss of bodyweight and renal enlargement and dysfunction. Diabetic rats also exhibited an increase in malondialdehyde along with a significant decrease in glutathione, superoxide dismutase activity, and catalase activity. Furthermore, the diabetic animals demonstrated a significant rise in renal cortical, urinary tumour necrosis factor-α, and urinary albumin excretion. Both granisetron and tropisetron decreased blood glucose in diabetic animals, but this decrease was not significant for granisetron. Treatment with tropisetron, but not granisetron, prevented increases in oxidative stress and tumour necrosis factor-α, decreased urinary cytokine excretion and albuminuria, and improved renal morphological damage. In conclusion, the present study suggests that tropisetron may be a protective agent in early diabetic nephropathy, and its action is mediated, at least in part, by anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory mechanisms that appear to be independent of the 5-HT3 receptor.

Our results showed that tropisetron may have protective effects against HG-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. The mechanism responsible for this beneficial effect seems to be, at least in part, blockade of calcineurin/NFAT signalling pathway.

Cardiotoxicity is a life-threatening side effect of doxorubicin (DOX). Although the responsible mechanisms are largely unknown, it is demonstrated that DOX induces an elevation in the level of creatine kinase isoenzyme, lactic dehydrogenase, creatine phosphokinase, and troponin T in serum and reduces body/heart weight. In addition, cardiotoxicity is further confirmed by changes in ECG parameters and papillary muscle contractile force. Tropisetron is an effective antiemetic drug for chemotherapy-induced emesis. There is ample evidence that tropisetron exerts immune modulatory and anti-inflammatory properties. The present study was designed to investigate the protective effects of tropisetron pretreatment against DOX-induced cardiotoxicity in rats. In this study, DOX toxicity was induced by a single intraperitoneal injection (15 mg/kg), and in treated group, tropisetron (3 mg/kg; i.p) was administered 1 h prior to DOX injection. Our results indicated that tropisetron potently decreased body/heart weight loss and mortality rate and also improved ECG changes as well as heart contractility. In addition, tropisetron robustly counteracted the increase in the levels of serum biomarkers and alleviated the histopathological changes in rats' hearts as compared with the DOX group. Taken together, these results demonstrate that tropisetron has potent cardioprotective effects against DOX-induced cardiotoxicity.

Background: Ellagic acid, a major ellagitannin found in pomegranate extract, might be an attractive natural and safe bioactive compound for prevention of cardiac hypertrophy in many pathological conditions that are associated with elevated circulating angiotensin II (Ang II). Ang II stimulates multiple signal transduction pathways involved in hypertrophy including calcineurin/nuclear factor of activated T cell (NFAT). Objective: The present study aimed to explore the possible anti-hypertrophic activity of ellagic acid against Ang II-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and the role of calcineurin/ NFAT signaling pathway in this action. Methods: H9c2 myocardial cells were treated with different concentrations of ellagic acid one hour before exposure to Ang II. Biological markers of cardiac hypertrophy including changes in cell size and protein content, and atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) protein expression were assessed using light microscopy, Bradford method and western blotting, respectively. The effects of ellagic acid on the protein expression of calcineurin and nuclear localization of NFATc4 were also investigated using western blotting and immunofluorescence assay, respectively. Results: The results showed that pretreatment with ellagic acid could efficiently prevent Ang II-induced hypertrophic response which was associated with changes in hypertrophy-related biomarkers including increase in cell size and protein content, and ANP overexpression. Moreover, ellagic acid inhibited Ang II-induced calcineurin upregulation and nuclear localization of NFATc4. Conclusion: In summary, our findings showed that ellagic acid effectively inhibited Ang II-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. This is the first report demonstrating the role of calcineurin/NFAT pathway inhibition in this protective effects. Future in vivo studies are required to elucidate if ellagic acid could ameliorate cardiac hypertrophy and its transition to heart failure.

Tropisetron, a 5-HT3 antagonist receptor, is commonly used for the prevention of emesis following chemotherapy. Lines of evidence point to the anti-inflammatory and immune modulatory properties of tropisetron. The current study aims to investigate whether tropisetron is able to prevent the cardiotoxicity and neurotoxicity induced by doxorubicin (DOX) and vincristine besides its anti emetic effect in a co-administration protocol, since this combination therapy is widely used in various combination chemotherapy regimens. Jour n a l o f C linical T o x ic o log y

Background: Renal ischemia-reperfusion is known as the underlying pathophysiology of a variety of severe clinical disorders, such as acute renal failure. The use of antioxidants is one of the most important treatment strategies to reduce the ischemia-reperfusion induced injury due to the importance of reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress during ischemia reperfusion. Salvia spices, especially Salvia macrosiphon Boiss, are rich in antioxidant compounds. The present study aimed to investigate the protective effects of these substances on renal ischemia reperfusion. Materials and Methods: In this study, 42 Wistar rats were divided into six groups of seven animals per group. The groups included a sham, a control, and four treatments. One of the treatment groups was treated with luteolin, and the other three groups were treated with different concentrations (50, 100, 150 mg/kg) of Salvia macrosiphon Boiss methanolic extract for 20 days before ischemia. After 24 hours following ischemia, blood samples were taken from the rats, and their serum creatinine and urea levels were evaluated. Results: Salvia macrosiphon Boiss extract (at the dose of 100 mg/kg) significantly reduced urea and creatinine levels (P<0.001). Moreover, Luteolin decreased both ceratinine (P<0.01) and urea (P<0.05) levels. Conclusion: This study confirmed the positive and significant effect of Salvia macrosiphon Boiss extract and Luteolin on the studied factors. The observed effect could be in part due to the potential antioxidant properties of flavonoids and methanol extract of Salvia macrosiphon Boiss.