Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:4.6.1.2 (guanylate cyclase)
 8,497 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The vascular endothelium synthesizes and releases a spectrum of vasoactive substances and therefore plays a fundamental role in the basal and dynamic regulation of the circulation. Nitric oxide (NO)-originally described as endothelium-derived relaxing factor-is released from endothelial cells in response to shear stress produced by blood flow, and in response to activation of a variety of receptors. After diffusion from endothelial to vascular smooth muscle cells, NO increases intracellular cyclic guanosine-monophosphate concentrations by activation of the enzyme guanylate cyclase leading to relaxation of the smooth muscle cells. NO has also antithrombogenic, antiproliferative, leukocyte-adhesion inhibiting effects, and influences myocardial contractility. Endothelium-derived NO-mediated vascular relaxation is impaired in spontaneously hypertensive animals. NO decomposition by free oxygen radicals is a major mechanism of impaired NO bioavailability. The resulting imbalance of endothelium-derived relaxing and contracting substances disturbs the normal function of the vascular endothelium. Endothelin acts as the natural counterpart to endothelium-derived NO. Besides its arterial blood pressure rising effect in humans, endothelin-1 induces vascular and myocardial hypertrophy, which are independent risk factors for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Current therapeutic strategies concentrate mainly on lowering low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and an impressive reduction in the risk for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality has been achieved. Inflammatory mechanisms play an important role in vascular disease and inflammatory plasma markers correlate with prognosis. The production of reactive oxygen species under pathological conditions may represent an important inflammatory trigger. Novel therapeutic strategies specifically targeting inflammation thus bear great potential for the prevention and treatment of atherosclerotic vascular disease. In this context, the vascular actions of flavanol-rich cocoa, particularly with regard to enhanced NO synthesis and endothelial function observed in humans following consumption, warrants further attention. This review discusses pharmacological and dietary intervention.
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PMID:Protection of endothelial function: targets for nutritional and pharmacological interventions. 1679 51

Many animals have the ability to acquire food preferences from conspecifics via social signals. For example, the coincident detection of a food odor by canonical olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) and agonists of the specialized OSNs expressing the receptor guanylyl cyclase GC-D (GC-D+ OSNs) will promote a preference in recipient rodents for similarly odored foods. It has been hypothesized that these preferences are acquired and maintained regardless of the palatability or quality of the food. We assessed whether mice could acquire and maintain preferences for food that had been adulterated with the anticoagulant rodenticide warfarin. After olfactory investigation of a saline droplet containing either cocoa (2%, w/w) or cinnamon (1%, w/w) along with a GC-D+ OSN-specific chemostimulus (either of the guanylin-family peptides uroguanylin and guanylin; 1-50 nM), C57BL/6J mice exhibited robust preferences for unadulterated food containing the demonstrated odor. The peptide-dependent preference was observed even when the food contained warfarin (0.025% w/w). Repeated ingestion of warfarin-containing food over four days did not disrupt the preference, even though mice were not re-exposed to the peptide stimulus. Surprisingly, mice continued to prefer warfarin-adulterated food containing the demonstrated odor when presented with a choice of warfarin-free food containing a novel odor. Our results indicate that olfactory-mediated food preferences can be acquired and maintained for warfarin-containing foods and suggest that guanylin peptides may be effective stimuli for promoting the ingestion of foods or other edibles with low palatability or potential toxicity.
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PMID:Chemostimuli for guanylyl cyclase-D-expressing olfactory sensory neurons promote the acquisition of preferences for foods adulterated with the rodenticide warfarin. 2628 2

Foods rich in polyphenols such as procyanidins (PC) have been proposed to have anti-inflammatory properties, and we have previously reported inhibition of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammatory cytokine secretion in human dendritic cells (DCs) by PC derived from cocoa. To explore the mechanistic basis of this inhibition, here we conducted transcriptomic analysis on DCs cultured with either LPS or LPS combined with oligomeric cocoa PC. Procyanidins suppressed a number of genes encoding cytokines and chemokines such as CXCL1, but also genes involved in the cGMP pathway such as GUCY1A3 (encoding guanylate cyclase soluble subunit alpha-3). Upregulated genes were involved in diverse metabolic pathways, but notably two of the four most upregulated genes (NMB, encoding neuromedin B and ADCY3, encoding adenyl cyclase type 3) were involved in the cAMP signalling pathway. Gene-set enrichment analysis demonstrated that upregulated gene pathways were primarily involved in nutrient transport, carbohydrate metabolism and lysosome function, whereas down-regulated gene pathways involved cell cycle, signal transduction and gene transcription, as well as immune function. qPCR analysis verified differential expression of GUCY1A3, ADCY3, NMB as well as a number of other genes, and marked suppression of LPS-induced CXCL1 and IL-23 protein secretion was also observed. Thus, our results confirm a marked anti-inflammatory effect of PC in human DCs, which may be related mechanistically to second-messenger function and metabolic activity. Our results provide a foundation to further investigate metabolic pathways altered by PC during intestinal inflammation, and further encourage investigation of the health-promoting potential of PC-rich functional foods.
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PMID:Cocoa procyanidins modulate transcriptional pathways linked to inflammation and metabolism in human dendritic cells. 2971 95