Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0027947 (neutropenia)
 17,527 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Fanconi anaemia (FA) is a recessively inherited disorder associated with a typical physical appearance and a spectrum of clinical and laboratory characteristics. Parental heterozygotes of FA patients are superficially normal in appearance and lack overt laboratory abnormalities. Furthermore, they are indistinguishable from normal subjects on chromosome analysis. In order to determine if any of the clinical or laboratory abnormalities seen in FA patients were detectable to a lesser degree in heterozygotes, we carried out detailed skeletal measurement and laboratory investigation on 16 obligate FA heterozygotes and compared the results with 40 normal control subjects. Skeletal proportions in FA heterozygotes showed significant differences from normal subjects in the ratio of the height to the inter-acromial distance (p less than 0.001), and in having significantly shorter forearms (p less than 0.05). Apart from two patients with presumed iron deficiency, haemoglobin levels were normal, but three patients showed neutropenia (less than 1.5 X 10(9)/l). Foetal haemoglobin measurements were significantly higher (p less than 0.01) and natural killer cell subsets lower (p less than 0.05) in heterozygotes. Significantly reduced mitogenetic responses to phytohaemagglutinin and interleukin-2 of peripheral blood lymphocytes in heterozygotes was also demonstrated. These results suggest that heterozygotes show minor physical and haematological abnormalities consistent with partial expression of the Fanconi gene in the heterozygote.
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PMID:Physical and laboratory characteristics of heterozygote carriers of the Fanconi aplasia gene. 226 25

Blocking cell division through the inhibition of mitosis is one of the most successful clinical strategies for the treatment of cancer. Taxanes and vinca alkaloids are in widespread use and have demonstrated substantive therapeutic efficacy. Both classes of compounds bind directly to tubulin, a structural component of the mitotic spindle. The ubiquitous utilization of tubulin in cell division in both cancerous and normal cells, however, tempers the broad spectrum of activity of currently used antimitotics by significant toxicities in normal dividing tissue. Moreover, peripheral nerve cells that rely on microtubules to shuttle cargo along axonal processes are also damaged by tubulin-binding drugs. Thus, neutropenia and peripheral neuropathy are the most frequently cited dose-limiting toxicities of this class of chemotherapeutics. Here we report the preclinical assessment of AB-5, a structural and functional analog of the natural product diazonamide A. AB-5, like taxanes and vinca alkaloids, blocks cell division during mitosis. However, AB-5 works not by binding tubulin but rather through inhibition of a newly discovered role for ornithine-delta-aminotransferase in mitosis. We hereby report that, unlike other antimitotics, AB-5 is extremely well tolerated by mice when administered under conditions where the drug cures xenografted tumors as effectively as taxanes and vinca alkaloids. AB-5-treated mice show no weight loss, no change in overall physical appearance, and no evidence of neutropenia. These observations raise the possibility that AB-5 may have clinical utility for cancer therapy under conditions largely devoid of chemotherapeutic toxicity and suggest that further preclinical evaluation of AB-5 is warranted.
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PMID:Therapeutic anticancer efficacy of a synthetic diazonamide analog in the absence of overt toxicity. 1728 37