Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0017636 (glioblastoma)
 18,345 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Soluble form of intercellular adhesion molecules (sICAM) are increased in serum of many inflammatory diseases and tumours: the expression of such molecules is regulated by cytokines. In the present paper serum levels of interleukin-2 (IL-2), soluble interleukin-2 receptor (sIL-2R) and sICAM-1 were evaluated in patients with glioma compared with different tumours (lung and kidney carcinoma) in order to investigate the compromise of the immune system in these malignancies and to understand the host defence mechanisms. 14 cases of astrocytomas (WHO grade II, III), 20 cases of glioblastomas (GBL, WHO grade IV), 5 cases of lung carcinoma and 6 cases of kidney carcinoma were studied; the results were compared with 15 healthy controls. IL-2, sIL-2R, sICAM-1 concentrations were assessed by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique. The results were analyzed by Student's t test. Our findings showed that serum levels of IL-2 and sIL-2R were increased in all cancer patients; on the contrary, sICAM-1 serum levels were not significantly increased in GBL and astrocytoma patients. The increased values of IL-2 and sIL-2R are in agreement with a depression of the immune reactivity in patients with glioblastoma and astrocytoma, as reported in literature. On the contrary the levels of sICAM-1 are unchanged in astrocytic tumours while patients with kidney carcinoma presented the higher levels and an unfavourable prognosis.
 ...
PMID:Evaluation of serum levels of cytokines and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) in astrocytic tumours. 1289 44

We compiled the current state of knowledge about the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in glioblastoma. Glioblastoma is one of the most common primary brain tumours and has an unfavourable prognosis despite aggressive treatment. These factors stimulate new research trials and a recent area of interest of neuro-oncologists is EGFR. This molecule is frequently altered in glioblastoma and constitutes the potential target for therapy. We decided to review the literature on biological structure of that molecule, its biological activity and the role in GBL with potential targeting it in the future neuro-oncological practice.
 ...
PMID:Epidermal growth factor receptor in glioblastoma. 1624 5

Glioblastoma multiform (GBM) is the most frequent and aggressive form of brain tumors in adults. However, the development of more efficient and safe nonviral vector gene therapy represents a promising therapeutic approach, using a tumor-specific killer gene, named apoptin. In this study, we describe the efficacy of non-viral gene delivery vectors, the amino acid-conjugated PAMAM derivatives (PAMAM-H-R and PAMAM-H-K) in delivering a therapeutic gene, displaying affinity toward human primary glioma cells (GBL-14 cells) and dermal fibroblasts. We analyzed transfection efficiency, using luciferase (Luci) and a pDNA encoding for enhanced fluorescent protein (EGFP), and cytotoxicity in both cells. The results show that transfection efficiency of PAMAM-H-R improved compared to native PAMAM dendrimer, but cytotoxicity of PAMAM-H-R and PAMAM-H-K were very low. We treated both cells with a polyplex formation of PAMAM-H-R or PAMAM-H-K/apoptin, and analyzed their cellular uptake and localization by flow cytometry and confocal microscopy. Furthermore, we analyzed the endosomal escape effect using TEM images, and found that PAMAM-H-R showed very fast escape from endosome to the cytosol. Caspase 3 activity assay, cell cycle distribution, and JC-1 analysis showed apoptosis induced by apoptin in GBL-14 cells. This indicates that PAMAM-H-R can be a potential nonviral vector gene delivery carrier for brain tumor therapy. The present study demonstrates that PAMAM-H-R/apoptin gene polyplex can be used as an effective therapeutic candidate for GBM due to its selective induction of apoptosis in primary glioma cells as a potential nonviral gene delivery carrier for brain tumor therapy.
 ...
PMID:Dipeptide-functionalized polyamidoamine dendrimer-mediated apoptin gene delivery facilitates apoptosis of human primary glioma cells. 2773 96