Carnosine pretreatment protects against hypoxia–ischemia brain damage in the neonatal rat model

Carnosine analogues containing NO-donor substructures: Synthesis, physico-chemical characterization and preliminary pharmacological profile

“…As shown in Figure 2, compound 1 administration (1 g/kg) almost halved the I/R-induced infarct volume. Our results are consistent with previous studies showing that exogenously administered carnosine evoked a marked reduction in infarct size when administered before the ischemic injury either in adult and neonatal rat models [49][50][51]. Carnosine has been reported to exert protective effects on neurological symptoms and animal mortality even when injected into the blood stream after the ischemic event [52].…”

“…This observation is in keeping with previous in vivo and in vitro studies reporting that carnosine neuroprotective effects were almost entirely attributable to its ability to inhibit and/or prevent oxidative and nitrosative stress [13]. However, recently, carnosine has also been demonstrated to reduce glutamate excitotoxicity through the regulation of the glutamate transporter-1 [50], to protect the bioelectric activity of nervous cells by restoring the activity of the glutamatergic and GABAergic receptors [53] and to affect the apoptotic cascade in the ischemic brain by inhibiting mRNA expression of apoptosis-inducing factor and caspase-3 [51]. Here we show that the NOdonor carnosine derivative 7e may modulate cytokine production in the ischemic brain.…”

Neuroprotective features of carnosine in oxidative driven diseases

“…The effect against the hypoxic-ischemic brain damage could be exerted by several pathways: reducing glutamate excytotoxicity through the regulation of the glutamate transporter (Shen et al, 2010); regulating MMP activity in permanent focal cerebral ischemia (Rajanikant et al, 2007); protecting from MDA-induced neuronal injury, subsequent to the oxidative stress-induced lipid peroxidation . The beneficial role of the dipeptide has been proved both in the case of the treatment before (Zhang et al, 2011) and after (Dobrota et al, 2005) the hypoxic-ischemic injury. Similar to that reported for neurodegeneration, carnosine has the potential to inhibit and/or prevent multiple mechanism of injury after hypoxia-ischemia, so it may be more effective than candidate drugs that block only a single pathway.…”

Carnosine and cancer: a perspective

“…In general, the positive effects of carnosine are manifold; there is a substantial literature on its protective effects (Quinn et al 1992;Hipkiss 2009b), including astroglial cell protection by NO-trapping (Nicoletti et al 2007) and protection against hypoxia-ischaemia brain damage (Zhang et al 2011). It has been reported that carnosine reduces the development of inflammation and tissue injury associated with spinal cord trauma (Di Paola et al 2011); it also protects lung tissue against bleomycin-induced injury (Cuzzocrea et al 2007) and prevents vascular damage in experimental diabetic retinopathy (Pfister et al 2011).…”