Anti-inflammatory effects of trans-1,3-diphenyl-2,3-epoxypropane-1-one in zebrafish embryos in vivo model

• DPEP acts as an effective agent against intracellular ROS formation induced by LPS.
• DPEP effectively inhibited the LPS-induced NO production in zebrafish embryos without toxicity.
• DPEP markedly suppressed the expression of the iNOS and COX-2 enzymes, which generate NO as key mediator of inflammation.
• This is the first report of an anti-inflammatory activity of DPEP in LPS-stimulated zebrafish model.

In this study, trans-1,3-diphenyl-2,3-epoxypropane-1-one (DPEP) was evaluated for its anti-inflammatory activity in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated zebrafish embryos. In the present study, DPEP exhibited potential protective effect in the zebrafish embryos as confirmed by survival rate. DPEP acts as an effective agent against reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation induced by LPS. Moreover, DPEP effectively inhibited LPS-induced nitric oxide (NO) production in zebrafish embryos. In addition, DPEP significantly reduced the expression of inducible NOS (iNOS) and cycloxygenase 2 (COX-2), which generate NO as a key mediator of inflammation in a concentration-dependent manner. According to these results, DPEP could be considered an effective anti-inflammatory agent, which might be further developed as a functional ingredient. This is the first report of the anti-inflammatory activity of DPEP in the LPS-stimulated zebrafish model.