  Using some supernovae and CMB data, we constrain the Cardassian,
Randall-Sundrum, and Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati brane-inspired cosmological
models. We show that a transient acceleration and an early loitering period are
usually excluded by the data. Moreover, the three models are equivalent to some
usual quintessence/ghost dark energy models defined by a barotropic index
$\gamma_\phi$ depending on the redshift. We calculate this index for each model
and show that they mimic a universe close to a $\Lambda CDM$ model today.
