Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0000737 (abdominal pain)
 31,184 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Sulfites are usually added to food, beverages and pharmaceuticals as preservative antioxidants, bleaching agents, and dough conditioning agents. Ingestion of foods containing sulfites can cause abdominal pain, diarrhoea, seizures and death. Sulfite can react with cellular components and can cause toxicity. Changes in mucosal disaccharidases and phosphatase alkaline after sodium metabisulfite administration were investigated in the small intestine of rats. Female Wistar rats were given a diet supplemented with 0.25 or 2.5% sodium metabisulfite for 5 weeks. Sucrase, maltase, lactase and alkaline phosphatase were assayed in intestinal homogenates and in brush border membrane fractions. The intake of only 2.5% sulfite induced an increase in the specific activities of sucrase, maltase, and alkaline phosphatase compared to control levels (P < 0.05). Lactase levels were affected in a variable manner. The origin of such altered enzyme activities is still unknown.
 ...
PMID:Effect of sulfite intake on intestinal enzyme activity in rats. 795 44

Cyclic vomiting syndrome is characterized by sudden episodes of vomiting and abdominal pain. It occurs primarily in children, is exacerbated by stress, and is often considered a migraine equivalent. Migraines have been linked to mast cells, which are often found close to neurons where they are activated by neuropeptides. We investigated the ultrastructural appearance of rat ileal brush border and mast cells following acute stress by immobilization. The effect of sulfated proteoglycans heparin and chondroitin sulfate was also tested on mast cell histamine secretion. Ileal brush border appeared intact in control animals, but was shorter and exhibited intercellular gaps after 30 min of acute immobilization stress. Mast cell activation in control rats was minimal, while stress induced obvious signs of activation as judged from disappearance of secretory granule electron dense contents. However, these intragranular changes were not accompanied by typical degranulation through exocytosis. Treatment of purified homogeneic rat peritoneal mast cells with 10(-4) M heparin or chondroitin sulfate 30 min prior to stimulation with 0.5 microg/ml compound 48/80 decreased histamine release by over 70% and 50% (P < 0.05), respectively. These results suggest the possible usefulness of chondroitin sulfate in conditions such as cyclic vomiting syndrome.
 ...
PMID:Stress-induced rat intestinal mast cell intragranular activation and inhibitory effect of sulfated proteoglycans. 1049 45

Carbohydrates are hydrolyzed in the intestinal lumen by specific enzymes to monosaccharides before transport across the brush border membrane of epithelial cells into the cell interior. The enzymes implicated in the digestion of carbohydrates in the intestinal lumen are membrane-bound glycoproteins that are expressed at the apical domain of the enterocytes. Absent or reduced activity of one of these enzymes is the cause of disaccharide intolerance and malabsorption, the symptoms of which are abdominal pain, cramps or distention, flatulence, nausea and osmotic diarrhea. Lactose intolerance is the most common intestinal disorder that is associated with an absence or drastically reduced levels of an intestinal enzyme, in this case lactase-phlorizin hydrolase (LPH). The pattern of reduction of activity has been termed late onset of lactase deficiency or adult type hypolactasia. It was thought that the regulation of LPH was post-translational and was associated with altered structural features of the enzyme. Recent studies, however, suggest that the major mechanism of regulation of LPH is transcriptional. Other forms of lactose intolerance include the rare congenital lactase deficiency and secondary forms, such as those caused by mucosal injury, due to infectious gastroenteritis, celiac disease, parasitic infection, drug-induced enteritis and Crohn's disease. This review will shed light on important strucural and biosynthetic aspects of LPH, the role played by particular regions of the LPH protein in its transport, polarized sorting, and function, as well as on the gene expession and regulation of the activity of the enzyme.
 ...
PMID:Molecular and cellular aspects and regulation of intestinal lactase-phlorizin hydrolase. 1133 11

Fructose is a hexose sugar that is being increasingly consumed in its monosaccharide form. Patients who exhibit fructose malabsorption can present with gastrointestinal symptoms that include chronic diarrhea and abdominal pain. However, with no clearly established gastrointestinal mechanism for fructose malabsorption, patient analysis by the proxy of a breath hydrogen test (BHT) is controversial. The major transporter for fructose in intestinal epithelial cells is thought to be the facilitative transporter GLUT5. Consistent with a facilitative transport system, we show here by analysis of past studies on healthy adults that there is a significant relationship between fructose malabsorption and fructose dose (r = 0.86, P < 0.001). Thus there is a dose-dependent and limited absorption capacity even in healthy individuals. Changes in fructose malabsorption with age have been observed in human infants, and this may parallel the developmental regulation of GLUT5 expression. Moreover, a GLUT5 knockout mouse has displayed the hallmarks associated with profound fructose malabsorption. Fructose malabsorption appears to be partially modulated by the amount of glucose ingested. Although solvent drag and passive diffusion have been proposed to explain the effect of glucose on fructose malabsorption, this could possibly be a result of the facilitative transporter GLUT2. GLUT5 and GLUT2 mRNA have been shown to be rapidly upregulated by the presence of fructose and GLUT2 mRNA is also upregulated by glucose, but in humans the distribution and role of GLUT2 in the brush border membrane are yet to be definitively decided. Understanding the relative roles of these transporters in humans will be crucial for establishing a mechanistic basis for fructose malabsorption in gastrointestinal patients.
 ...
PMID:Intestinal fructose transport and malabsorption in humans. 2114 1

Giardia intestinalis infection causes enterocytes damage and loss of brush border of the epithelial cells of the intestine that leads to shortening of microvilli and altered epithelial barrier function. This pathology results in aqueous diarrhoea, steatorrhea, nausea, abdominal pain, vomiting and weight loss. However, most infections are asymptomatic. The main consequence of Giardia colonization is nutrients malabsorption. Several families of drugs with good efficacy are used for Giardia treatment, but sometime dosing regimens are suboptimal and emerging resistance begins to question their clinical value. Moreover, some of these drugs can cause side effects that result in patient discomfort and low adherence to the treatment. This paper reviews the drugs currently used for the treatment against Giardia: the mechanism of action, the efficacy, the normal dosing, side effects and in vitro and clinical studies. In addition, new therapies against Giardia such as those based on phytochemicals, Lactobacillus and nanotechnology are collected in this paper, trying to find the ideal treatment for this disease with maximum efficacy and minimum adverse effects.
 ...
PMID:Giardiasis: Characteristics, Pathogenesis and New Insights About Treatment. 3027 55

Lactose intolerance primarily refers to a syndrome having different symptoms upon the consumption of foods containing lactose. It is one of the most common form of food intolerance and occurs when lactase activity is reduced in the brush border of the small bowel mucosa. Individuals may be lactose intolerant to varying degrees, depending on the severity of these symptoms. When lactose is not digested, it can be fermented by gut microbiota leading to symptoms of lactose intolerance that include abdominal pain, bloating, flatulence, and diarrhea with a considerable intraindividual and interindividual variability in the severity of clinical manifestations. These gastrointestinal symptoms could be similar to cow's milk allergy and could be wrongly labeled as symptoms of "milk allergy." There are important differences between lactose intolerance and cow's milk allergy; therefore, a better knowledge of these differences could limit misunderstandings in the diagnostic approach and in the management of these conditions.
 ...
PMID:Lactose Intolerance: Common Misunderstandings. 3078 42

Disaccharidases are a group of enzymes of the small intestinal brush border, that are essential for degradation of disaccharides (sucrose, lactose, maltose, isomaltose, trehalose) into monosaccharides, which are then absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. Their deficiency may occur at any stage of human life and have a genetic basis or be a secondary to ongoing gastrointestinal disease. Disaccharidase deficiencies cause disorders of digestion and absorption leading to occurrence of clinical symptoms such as abdominal pain, flatulence, diarrhea. For more than fifty years disaccharidase activity (DA) measurements in the small intestine biopsy samples are still considered the "gold standard" in the diagnostics for disaccharide deficiency. The aim of this review was to emphasize the role of disaccharidases in the digestion. Moreover, the significance of their deficiency in children and adults based on the current knowledge was described. It was showed that deficiency or inactivity of disaccharidases may lead to gastrointestinal intolerance symptoms. Early diagnostics allows the initiation of appropriate treatment, which contribute to reduction or complete resolution of clinical symptoms.
 ...
PMID:The role of disaccharidases in the digestion - diagnosis and significance of their deficiency in children and adults. 3282 25