Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0032285 (pneumonia)
 54,520 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

To identify overlapping and non-overlapping functions for TSP-1 and alphavbeta6, we crossed TSP-1-null and beta6-null mice and compared the phenotype of the double-null mice with those of wild-type and single-null mice. The double-null mice exhibited focal acute and organizing pneumonia that was more severe than the wild-type and single-null mice as well as a significantly higher incidence of inflammation in tissues other than the lung. The TSP-1-null and beta6-null mice exhibited a five to eight-fold increase in granulocyte recruitment to the lung three days after exposure to lipopolysaccharide. They also had abnormalities that were infrequently observed in the wild-type and single-null mice, including heart degeneration (8.35% in wild-type and 28.1% in double-null mice), hyperplasia of the glandular of the stomach (2.8% in wild-type and 21.1% in double-null mice) and endometrial hyperplasia (0% in wild-type and 38.5% in double-null females). Furthermore, the beta6-null and double-null mice displayed a significant elevation in benign and malignant cancers. Stomach papillomas, squamous cell carcinomas of the ear and stomach, and adenocarcinomas of the lungs, vagina/cervix and colon were observed with the highest frequency. These data demonstrate that TSP-1 and alphavbeta6 are involved in regulation of the immune system and epithelial homeostasis. They also indicate that alphavbeta6 functions as a tumor suppressor gene and that activation of TGFbeta by TSP-1 and alphavbeta6 contributes to normal tissue architecture and function.
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PMID:Characterization of integrin beta6 and thrombospondin-1 double-null mice. 1596 61

Lower respiratory tract infection by the human pneumovirus respiratory syncytial virus is a frequent cause of acute lung injury in children. Severe pneumovirus disease in humans is associated with activation of the granzyme pathway by effector lymphocytes, which may promote pathology by exaggerating proapoptotic caspase activity and proinflammatory activity. The main goal of this study was to determine whether granzymes contribute to the development of acute lung injury in pneumovirus-infected mice. Granzyme-expressing mice and granzyme A- and B-cluster single- and double-knockout mice were inoculated with the rodent pneumovirus pneumonia virus of mice strain J3666, and were studied for markers of lung inflammation and injury. Expression of granzyme A and B is detected in effector lymphocytes in mouse lungs in response to pneumovirus infection. Mice deficient for granzyme A and the granzyme B cluster have unchanged virus titers in the lungs but show a significantly delayed clinical response to fatal pneumovirus infection, a feature that is associated with delayed neutrophil recruitment, diminished activation of caspase-3, and reduced lung permeability. We conclude that granzyme A- and B-cluster deficiency delays the acute progression of pneumovirus disease by reducing alveolar injury.
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PMID:Granzyme A- and B-cluster deficiency delays acute lung injury in pneumovirus-infected mice. 2001 16

The goal of this study was to identify a host gene signature that can distinguish tuberculosis (TB) from other pulmonary diseases (OPD). We conducted real-time PCR on whole blood samples from patients in Brazil. TB and OPD patients (asthma and non-TB pneumonia) differentially expressed granzyme A (GZMA), guanylate binding protein 5 (GBP5) and Fc gamma receptor 1A (CD64). Receiver operating characteristic, tree classification and random forest analyses were applied to evaluate the discriminatory power of the three genes and find the gene panel most predictive of patients' disease classification. Tree classification produced a model based on GBP5 and CD64 expression. In random forest analysis, the combination of the three genes provided a robust biosignature to distinguish TB from OPD with 95% specificity and 93% sensitivity. Our results suggest that GBP5 and CD64 in tandem may be the most predictive combination. However, GZMA contribution to the prediction model requires further investigation. Regardless, these three genes show promise as a rapid diagnostic marker separating TB from OPD.
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PMID:A real-time PCR signature to discriminate between tuberculosis and other pulmonary diseases. 2602 97

Streptococcus pneumoniae is the most common causative pathogen in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). Granzyme A (GzmA) is a serine protease produced by a variety of cell types involved in the immune response. We sought to determine the role of GzmA on the host response during pneumococcal pneumonia. GzmA was measured in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) harvested from CAP patients from the infected and contralateral uninfected side and in lung tissue slides from CAP patients and controls. In CAP patients, GzmA levels were increased in BALF obtained from the infected lung. Human lungs showed constitutive GzmA expression by both parenchymal and nonparenchymal cells. In an experimental setting, pneumonia was induced in wild-type (WT) and GzmA-deficient (GzmA(-/-)) mice by intranasal inoculation of S. pneumoniae In separate experiments, WT and GzmA(-/-) mice were treated with natural killer (NK) cell depleting antibodies. Upon infection with S. pneumoniae, GzmA(-/-) mice showed a better survival and lower bacterial counts in BALF and distant body sites compared with WT mice. Although NK cells showed strong GzmA expression, NK cell depletion did not influence bacterial loads in either WT or GzmA(-/-) mice. These results implicate that GzmA plays an unfavorable role in host defense during pneumococcal pneumonia by a mechanism that does not depend on NK cells.
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PMID:Granzyme A impairs host defense during Streptococcus pneumoniae pneumonia. 2734 90