Fluvastatin alleviates doxorubicin-induced cardiac and renal toxicity in rats via regulation of oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis associated genes expressions

Certolizumab enhances spinal cord injury recovery in rats through inhibition of the TNF-α signaling pathway and neuronal apoptosis

OBJECTIVE

Spinal cord injury (SCI), which is characterized by motor and/or sensory dysfunction, presents a significant health challenge resulting from mechanical trauma. Secondary injury, which follows the mechanical trauma and is driven by factors such as inflammation, plays a critical role in the SCI pathophysiology. Scientific evidence indicates that treatment strategies aimed at modulating inflammation during the acute phase of SCI alleviate the seconder injury. In this regard, the present study seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of certolizumab, a monoclonal antibody targeting TNF-α that is widely used in the treatment of various inflammatory diseases, in a SCI model.

METHODS

In this study, Control, Trauma, and Trauma + Certolizumab groups were established, each comprising eight male rats. One hour after SCI induction, rats in the Trauma + Certolizumab group were administered 10 µg Certolizumab dissolved in saline intraperitoneally, while rats in the Control and Trauma groups received an equivalent volume of saline. After Modified Tarlov Scoring was performed on the seventh day of the experiment, all rats were sacrificed. The effects of certolizumab on neuroinflammation and apoptosis in the SCI model were evaluated using histological, biochemical, and molecular analyses of blood and tissue samples obtained from the rats.

RESULTS

Certolizumab downregulated the expression of TNF-α, NF-κB, and IL-6. In addition, as evidenced by the TUNEL assay, Caspase-3 expression (an apoptotic marker), and Modified Tarlov Score results, certolizumab effectively suppressed inflammation-induced neural apoptosis and alleviated locomotor deficits.

CONCLUSION

Certolizumab treatment exerts a neuroprotective effect against secondary damage in SCI through the inhibition of neuroinflammation and apoptosis.

Ferroptosis mechanisms and regulations in cardiovascular diseases in the past, present, and future

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the main diseases that endanger human health, and their risk factors contribute to high morbidity and a high rate of hospitalization. Cell death is the most important pathophysiology in CVDs. As one of the cell death mechanisms, ferroptosis is a new form of regulated cell death (RCD) that broadly participates in CVDs (such as myocardial infarction, heart transplantation, atherosclerosis, heart failure, ischaemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury, atrial fibrillation, cardiomyopathy (radiation-induced cardiomyopathy, diabetes cardiomyopathy, sepsis-induced cardiac injury, doxorubicin-induced cardiac injury, iron overload cardiomyopathy, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy), and pulmonary arterial hypertension), involving in iron regulation, metabolic mechanism and lipid peroxidation. This article reviews recent research on the mechanism and regulation of ferroptosis and its relationship with the occurrence and treatment of CVDs, aiming to provide new ideas and treatment targets for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of CVDs by clarifying the latest progress in CVDs research.

Doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity and risk factors

Doxorubicin (DOX) is an anthracycline antibiotic widely used as a chemotherapeutic agent to treat solid tumours and hematologic malignancies. Although useful in the treatment of cancers, the benefit of DOX is limited due to its cardiotoxic effect that is observed in a large number of patients. In the literature, there is evidence that the presence of various factors may increase the risk of developing DOX-induced cardiotoxicity. A better understanding of the role of these different factors in DOX-induced cardiotoxicity may facilitate the choice of the therapeutic approach in cancer patients suffering from various cardiovascular risk factors. In this review, we therefore discuss the latest findings in both preclinical and clinical research suggesting a link between DOX-induced cardiotoxicity and various risk factors including sex, age, ethnicity, diabetes, dyslipidaemia, obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and co-medications.

Is losartan a promising agent for the treatment of type 1 diabetes-induced testicular germ cell apoptosis in rats?

BACKGROUND

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is common metabolic disease that poses a major risk to public health and fertility. Previous studies indicate that DM may cause male infertility by triggering oxidative stress and germ cell apoptosis in the testis. Due to the undesirable effects of known antidiabetic drugs, scientists have begun to investigate the use of alternative drugs to control infertility complications observed in men. In this context, present study aimed to investigate the possible antiapoptotic effect of losartan against DM-induced testicular germ cell apoptosis.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Expreimental DM model was induced by intraperitoneal injection of streptozocin (STZ, 55 mg/kg) to 28 rats, which were then randomly assigned to 4 groups; 1 mL saline solution was given to DM + saline group by oral gavage, 5 mg/kg/day oral losartan was given to DM + low-dose losartan, 20 mg/kg/day oral losartan was given to DM + mid-dose losartan and, 80 mg/kg/day oral losartan was given to DM + high-dose losartan group for 4 weeks. Bax, Bcl-2 and cleaved-Caspase 3 immunoexpression, terminal-deoxynucleotidyl transferase dutp nick end labeling (TUNEL), Annexin-V and Real Time PCR analyses performed to evaluate antiapoptotic effects of losartan on diabetic rats' testis. In addition, biochemical analyzes carried out to evaluate change in oxidative stress.

CONCLUSION

The results showed that losartan may have dose-related antiapoptotic effects on rats' testis via decreasing oxidative stress.