Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0033774 (pruritus)
 14,546 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A 25-year-old white female returned from West Africa with a two-year history of epidosic swelling, pruritus, and pain in a wrist, associated with peripheral eosinophilia. Serologic and immediate skin tests with Dirofilaria immitis antigen were positive, and blood smears transiently showed microfilariae of Acanthocheilonema perstans after the patient had been treated with diethylcarbamazine. Before treatment, both the serum concentration of IgE and the eosinophil content of arylsulfatase, an enzyme that selectively inactivates slow-reacting substance of anaphylaxis, were elevated; the patient's peripheral leukocytes released histamine and eosinophil chemotactic factor of anaphylaxis when challenged with D. immitis antigen. After one course of diethylcarbamazine, the clinical manifestations and abnormal in vitro immunologic results resolved. Host response to A. perstans infection appears to involve both IgE-mediated hypersensitivity and alterations in an eosinophil enzyme.
 ...
PMID:Studies of immediate hypersensitivity in a patient with Acanthocheilonema perstans filarial infection. 107 19

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease characterized by T helper 2 cell (Th2)-shifted abnormal immunity, skin barrier impairment, and pruritus. The prevalence of AD in childhood is slightly higher in boys than in girls; after puberty, the sexual difference is reversed. The female preponderance in all generations exists in intrinsic AD with enhanced Th1 activity and nickel allergy, lacking increased serum IgE or filaggrin mutation. AD is often deteriorated before menstruation. We review the effects of sex hormones on immune responses and skin permeability barrier and propose possible hypotheses for the above phenomena. After puberty, the immune responses of patients are remarkably influenced by sex hormones. Estrogen and progesterone enhance the activities of Th2/regulatory T cell (Treg) but suppress Th1/Th17. Androgens suppress Th1/Th2/Th17 and induce Treg. The skin permeability barrier is fortified by estrogen but is impaired by progesterone and androgens. Dehydroepiandrosterone suppresses Th2 but enhances Th1. The amount of steroid sulfatase converting dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate to dehydroepiandrosterone is higher in women than in men, and thus, women might be more susceptible to the influence of dehydroepiandrosterone. The balance of modulatory effects of sex hormones on immune responses and skin barrier might regulate the course of AD.
 ...
PMID:The Roles of Sex Hormones in the Course of Atopic Dermatitis. 3154 21