Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0025202 (melanoma)
 69,561 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The Bcl-2 proto-oncogene regulates cell survival by antagonizing events that lead to apoptotic cell death and has been reported to be expressed in situ in lymphoid tissues, glandular epithelium, neurons, and basal epidermal cells. When we performed immunostaining on cryostat sections of normal skin, anti-Bcl-2 reactivity was confined to scattered dendritic cells in the basal epidermal layer. Double-staining experiments showed that the Bcl-2+ cells were positive for vimentin but negative for cytokeratins, CD1a, and CD45 antigens, excluding keratinocytes and Langerhans cells as possible candidates for constitutive Bcl-2 expression. Bcl-2+ epidermal cells also reacted with the monoclonal anti-melanocyte antibody NKI/beteb, and were absent from lesional skin in vitiligo, confirming that they represented epidermal melanocytes. Western blot analysis of cultured melanocytes and melanoma cell lines revealed a 26-kd protein specifically reacting with the anti-Bcl-2 monoclonal antibody. Immunostaining of pigmented lesions revealed strong expression of Bcl-2 by five of five nevocellular nevi and seven of seven melanomas. Our observations demonstrate that, within normal human epidermis, melanocytes are the only cells that express Bcl-2 constitutively and that Bcl-2 is expressed in benign and malignant pigmented tumors of the skin in situ.
 ...
PMID:Human melanocytes and melanoma cells constitutively express the Bcl-2 proto-oncogene in situ and in cell culture. 788 47

Vitiligo is a common depigmenting skin disease, associated with certain autoimmune endocrinopathies, and autoantibodies to several antigens can be found in melanoma cells. We set out to identify the antigens. We examined 26 patients with vitiligo and associated endocrine disease. Of these, 18 patients (77%) and 8 immediate family members had autoantibodies specific for a 69 kDa protein in HTB-70 human melanoma cells that was not seen in control cells. The autoantibody-positive patient sera reacted with recombinant human tyrosinase expressed in Escherichia coli seen by western blots, as did antibodies raised in rabbits against hamster tyrosinase, but not to recombinant tyrosinase-related protein. Not one of 31 normal controls or 8 patients with alopecia or systemic lupus erythematosus had tyrosinase autoantibodies but a small proportion (12%) of 42 patients with autoimmune endocrine disease without a history of vitiligo had them. The results show that tyrosinase, an enzyme important in melanin formation, is a principal autoantigen of autoimmune vitiligo.
 ...
PMID:The role of tyrosinase in autoimmune vitiligo. 793 46

Antigens, antibodies and immune complexes seem to play a major role in the course of malignant melanoma, in detection of the disease progression, in treatment planning and monitoring. Of particular interest are cell and matrix adhesion molecules, growth factors and cytokines, proteases, gangliosides and major histocompatibility complex class I and II molecules. Antigens expressed on melanoma cells, but not on mature melanocytes, may be used as markers for the degree of the differentiation of the melanoma cells. The more the melanoma cells are dedifferentiated, the smaller is the antigenic similarity to normal melanocytes. Also, different antigens may be identified in various stages of the disease and may be used as tumor markers for disease recurrence or progression. Certain melanoma-associated antigens (MAA) such as epidermal growth factor receptor and adhesium molecules can be modulated by cytokines. Early melanoma evokes an antigen-derived T cell response, which becomes attenuated with the progression of the disease. A variety of cell adhesion molecules present on melanoma cell surfaces may play a role in regulation of cellular cytotoxicity. Free antimelanoma antibodies are usually not detectable in the sera of patients with melanoma, possibly due to their binding to shed antigens and formation of immune complexes or to tissue antigens. When bound to normal melanocytes, they cause the appearance of associated hypopigmentation. The identification of melanoma surface antigens led to generation of monoclonal antimelanoma antibodies (MAb) by laboratories. Strategies utilizing MAb based on immunologic approaches have been developed. MAb to tumor-associated antigens of melanoma cells may be used for therapeutic purposes in man. Sera of patients with vitiligo were capable of causing regression of melanoma metastases in mice due to the presence of a high titer of naturally occurring antimelanoma antibodies. Immunization of melanoma patients with vaccines containing treated melanoma cells or specific melanoma antigens or anti-idiotypic antibodies resulted in an increasing titer of antimelanoma antibodies and regression of the tumor to some extent. The appearance of hypopigmentation in patients with melanoma serves as proof for the activity of antimelanoma antibodies, although its association with the prognosis is still not clear. The thorough investigation in the field of MAA and related antibodies is aimed at improving specific antimelanoma immunotherapy, such as antigenic targeting or enhancement of production of autoantibodies, as well as better understanding of the process of metastasis and the melanoma-immune system interaction.
 ...
PMID:Antigens and antibodies in malignant melanoma. 793 69

The significance of the association between the appearance of hypopigmentation in patients with melanoma and the prognosis is still not clear. It was postulated that, in melanoma, an immune response is responsible for the destruction of the malignant as well as the normal pigmented cells, and that the eventual development of vitiligo-like patches in melanoma patients improves their prognosis. We studied the level of anti-melanoma antibodies in the sera of patients with melanoma with hypopigmentation and compared it to the titer in patients with melanoma only, to the titer of patients with vitiligo, and to that of healthy subjects. Only IgG-type antibodies were found in the sera of patients with vitiligo, with melanoma, or with melanoma with hypopigmentation. No significant differences in the titer of anti-melanoma antibodies could be found between the patients with melanoma when subgrouped according to the initial stage and the status of the disease at the time when the test was carried out. Statistically significantly (P < 0.001) higher titers of antibodies were detected in the sera of patients with vitiligo in comparison to the lower titers in the other groups. Our results point to a similar immunobiological status, which probably does not give any advantage to patients with melanoma with hypopigmentation compared to patients without it. The appearance of hypopigmentary plaques in melanoma patients should be regarded, in our opinion, as a concomitant immunological phenomenon of the disease.
 ...
PMID:Vitiligo- and melanoma-associated hypopigmentation: a similar appearance but a different mechanism. 820 63

Fifteen patients with disseminated malignant melanoma were treated with recombinant alpha 2b-interferon (20 mU/m2 intravenously 5 days per week for 4 weeks and then 10 mU/m2 subcutaneously tiw) and piroxicam (10 mg a day orally for 10 days prior to beginning interferon and daily thereafter). Two complete responses of soft tissue disease and stabilization of disease in two other patients were obtained. One complete response was associated with the development of vitiligo. One patient who had entered complete remission was removed from the study because of diffuse pulmonary interstitial fibrosis, believed due to therapy. The combination of alpha 2b-interferon and piroxicam offers no clinical advantage over the use of alpha 2b-interferon alone.
 ...
PMID:Therapy of disseminated malignant melanoma with recombinant alpha 2b-interferon and piroxicam: clinical results with a report of an unusual response-associated feature (vitiligo) and unusual toxicity (diffuse pulmonary interstitial fibrosis). 825 94

Vitiligo is a disease in which melanocytes are selectively destroyed. The disease is thought to be an autoimmune process being there are antibodies to pigment cells in the sera of patients and animals with vitiligo. In the present study, sera from vitiligo patients were examined for reactivity with the human melanoma cell line, SK-Mel-28, by Western blot analysis of solubilized membrane antigens of these cells to identify the pigment cell antigens defined by antibodies in the patients with vitiligo. Antibody reactivity to human melanoma cells (SK-Mel-28) was investigated in 14 patients with vitiligo, and 16 with normal control individuals. Antibodies to the 116-113, 60, 40 KD antigens were associated with vitiligo being present in 79%, 86%, and 43% respectively of the patients with vitiligo, but in only 6%, 38% and 6% of the normal controls. In contrast, antibodies to the 160-155, 78 and 64 KD antigens were equally common in vitiligo and in normal individuals. The results suggest that autoreactivity to pigment cells occurs more commonly in patients with vitiligo than in the normal control and high autoreactivity to pigment cells in the vitiligo sera might be an impertinent epiphemenon to destroyed pigment cell.
 ...
PMID:Detection of antibodies to human melanoma cell in vitiligo by western blot analysis. 854 4

We report three patients who developed chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) in association with malignant melanoma. In two cases, melanoma was discovered during the initial evaluation for neuropathy. Two patients also had vitiligo, an antibody-mediated disorder that may complicate melanoma. Melanoma cells and Schwann cells are both of neuroectodermal cell origin, with shared surface antigens. Shared immunoreactivity may account for the association between melanoma and CIDP, as with vitiligo.
 ...
PMID:Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy associated with malignant melanoma. 861 91

Precancerous conditions of vulva are diseases which can exceed into carcinomas and are called preblastomatoses. These are all sorts of various diseases: intraepithelial vulvar neoplasias, Paget's disease, precancerous circumscript melanosis, malignant melanoma of the first Clark level, verrucous type of leukoplakia, vulvar dystrophy with atypia, giant Buschke-Lowenstein's condyloma and chronic skin damages. Vulvar dystrophy belongs to medical terminology since 1966 and includes a group of diseases known as leukoplakia and kraurosis, primary vulvar atrophy and hyperplastic vulvitis. According to classification from 1987 vulvar dystrophies are divided into: squamocellular hyperplasia, lichen sclerosus and other dermatoses. The term vulvar leukoplakia is not a special disease, but is used for a whole group of different lesions of white color due to leukoderma, vitiligo, chronic infections, benign tumors, dystrophies and even invasive carcinomas.
 ...
PMID:[Modern approach to classification of precancerous conditions and vulvar dystrophy]. 864 54

Human melanoma antigens and their epitopes recognized by T cells have been identified using a variety of methods. These antigens are classified as 1) melanocyte specific melanosomal proteins (MART-1, gp100, tyrosinase and TRP-1), 2) proteins expressed in testis and a variety of cancers (MAGE-1, MAGE-3, BAGE and GAGE), 3) tumor specific mutated proteins (beta-catenin, MUM-1 and CDK4), and 4) others (p15). Some of the HLA-A2 binding non-mutated melanoma epitopes contained non-dominant anchor amino acids and have relatively low HLA-A2 binding affinity, suggesting that these epitopes were likely to be subdominant or cryptic self determinants. The significant correlation observed between vitiligo development and IL2 based immunotherapy suggested that autoreactive T cells specific for these self peptides were involved in melanoma regression in vivo. In addition, since adoptive transfer into patients of CTL recognizing these epitopes resulted in tumor regression, these epitopes may be tumor rejection antigens. Melanoma reactive CTL were efficiently induced from PBL of patients by in vitro stimulation with PBMC pulsed with these melanoma epitopes and may be useful in adoptive transfer protocols for the treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma. An immunization trial using the MART-1 and gp100 peptides in conjunction with incomplete Freund's adjuvant is in progress. These identified antigens may be useful for the development of new immunotherapies for the treatment of melanoma patients as well as for understanding the mechanisms of anti-tumor immune responses and autoimmune disorders against melanocytes.
 ...
PMID:Human melanoma antigens recognized by T lymphocytes. 868 99

Anti-tyrosinase antibodies were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in sera of patients with malignant melanoma with either metastatic disease or no evidence of disease, in patients with melanoma and associated hypopigmentation (MAH), in patients with vitiligo and in healthy volunteers. The mean relative absorbance (Arel) was calculated by dividing the absorbance of each sample by the mean value for the control group. Using this method, the Arel of the control group was 1.000(SE 0.083). Arel of patients with metastatic disease (1.516; SE 0.225) was significantly higher (P = 0.03) than the value for the controls, but insignificantly higher than that for patients with no evidence of disease (1.216; SE 0.148). Patients with no evidence of disease, in whom the primary lesion originated in the lower limb, had a significantly higher (P = 0.01) Arel than the healthy volunteers. Patients with metastatic disease showed higher Arel if their primary lesions were confined to the area of the head and neck or to the lower limb. Patients with vitiligo had higher Arel values for their anti-tyrosinase antibody than any of the other groups. However, those with melanoma and MAH (vitiligo-like) had the same Arel of anti-tyrosinase antibodies as the controls or the patients with metastatic melanoma. This observation reflected the possible absorption of anti-tyrosinase antibodies to melanoma antigens, and pointed to the participation of anti-tyrosinase antibodies in the destruction of normal melanocytes in patients with melanoma, as part of the immune reaction towards this disease.
 ...
PMID:Anti-tyrosinase antibodies in malignant melanoma. 870 52


<< Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next >>