Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0010200 (cough)
 23,843 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Interstitial pneumonitis includes more than a hundred diseases in which alveolitis is the main manifestation of the affected lung. Symptoms such as dry cough and exertional dyspnea, fine crackles on chest auscultation, interstitial infiltrates on chest X-ray films and CT scans, respiratory function tests, and Ga-67 scintigraphy have been used for the diagnosis and the evaluation of disease activity. However, the poor prognosis of some types of interstitial pneumonitis has not been improved. We discovered a high molecular weight mucin-like antigen, designated KL-6, which is also known as MUC1. The serum level of KL-6/MUC1 was elevated in 70-100% of patients with interstitial pneumonitis, such as pulmonary fibrosis (either idiopathic or related to collagen-vascular disorders), hypersensitivity pneumonitis, sarcoidosis, and radiation pneumonitis. The levels were significantly higher in patients with active disease than in those with inactive disease. In contrast, patients with noninterstitial lung disease did not show a significant elevation of KL-6/MUC1. Furthermore, the serum KL-6/MUC1 level was found to be an early predictive marker of the therapeutic effect of high-dose corticosteroids in patients with rapidly progressing idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. These results indicate that KL-6/MUC1 may be a useful serum marker for the diagnosis and monitoring of patients with interstitial pneumonitis.
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PMID:Serum marker KL-6/MUC1 for the diagnosis and management of interstitial pneumonitis. 1068 9

Many of the proteins associated with innate immunity in the upper respiratory tract are to be found localized into mucus gels and the mucin-rich surface layers of the epithelium and the cilia. Mucus is a relatively dilute suspension of such macromolecules being around 2-4% solids in normal induced sputum. These proteins scavenge, immobilise and/or kill pathogens and at the same time immobilize them into the mucus. Mucus is moved from the lung by the mucociliary clearance mechanisms or by cough. Some 190 proteins are readily detectable in sputum by proteomics methods and about 100 in bronchial air-liquid interface culture secretions. This cell culture system mimics the surface ciliated phenotype of the large airways very well and about 85 secreted proteins are common to both culture and sputum secretions. The major single protein by weight in cell culture secretions is MUC5B and in sputum a mixture of MUC5B and MUC5AC. The three epithelial mucins MUC1, 4 and 16 are also detectable in both secretions. In this paper the roles that these molecules play in protecting and stabilising the ciliated surface and building the gel will be discussed. The role of water and ion homeostasis is particularly crucial in mucus gel formation and evidence is gathering that it is perturbation of hydration mechanisms that may play into defective mucus leading subsequently to stasis and mechanical problems.
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PMID:Innate immunity and mucus structure and function. 1727 93