Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0020672 (hypothermia)
 17,327 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB) is a simple four carbon molecule which is a natural constituent of many mammalian tissues in the central nervous system (CNS) and in several tissues of the body. The synthesis of GHB is not the same in the central nervous system and in peripheral tissues. GHB modifies the rates and/or the levels of the synthesis of several neurotransmitters. Its natural presence in the CNS, its pharmacological effects and its action on various behaviours have raised the problem of GHB as a neurotransmitter. GHB can reduce energy substrate consumption in both brain and peripheral tissues and it can protect these tissues from the damaging effects of anoxia. In conditions of anoxia or excessive metabolic demand endogenous GHB levels rise. GHB seems to act through the endogenous opioid system. GHB natural function would be to induce the state of hibernation in which one can evidence a trance-like state and hypothermia with high rates of GHB. The synthesis of GHB through a reductive process and breakdown through oxidation suggest that it accumulates under hypoxic conditions. On top of its present clinical use as hypnotic, general anesthetic and in neurotraumatology, GHB would have therapeutic applications in states of anoxia that generates amino-acid excitators and free radicals.
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PMID:[Sodium gamma-hydroxybutyrate. Certainties and therapeutic potentialities]. 184 7

Gammahydroxybutyrate is a naturally occurring metabolite of many mammalian tissues. Although its administration produces a wide range of pharmacological effects, its normal function has never been clearly defined. GHB can induce NREM and REM sleep, anaesthesia, hypothermia, and a trance-like state which has been considered a model for petit mal epilepsy. It markedly increases brain dopamine levels. It has been touted as a central neurotransmitter or neuromodulator, and high affinity brain receptors, as well as central mechanisms for its synthesis, uptake and release have been demonstrated in support of this. But GHB is also found in many peripheral tissues and in some of these in higher concentrations than in the brain. No explanation has been offered for its presence in these tissues. A number of studies indicate that GHB can reduce energy substrate consumption in both brain and peripheral tissues, and that it can protect these tissues from the damaging effects of anoxia or excessive metabolic demand. Indeed there is some evidence to suggest that endogenous GHB levels rise under these circumstances. GHB appears to act through the endogenous opioid system, since in the brain, at least, GHB raises dynorphin levels and its metabolic and pharmacological effects can be blocked by naloxone. These, and other observations detailed in this review, suggest that GHB may function naturally in the induction and maintenance of physiological states, like sleep and hibernation, in which energy utilization is depressed. GHB may also function naturally as an endogenous protective agent when tissue energy supplies are limited.
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PMID:Gammahydroxybutyrate: an endogenous regulator of energy metabolism. 269 26