Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0034063 (pulmonary edema)
 10,665 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Fusarium moniliforme (FM) is a major fungal pathogen of corn and is involved with stalk rot disease. FM is widely spread throughout the world, including the United States. Most strains of FM produce several mycotoxins, the most prominent of which is called fumonisin. Recent epidemiological studies indicated that ingestion of fumonisin correlates with a higher incidence of esophageal cancer in Southern and Northern Africa and China. Furthermore, fumonisin causes a neurodegenerative disease in horses, induces hepatic cancer in rats, and induces pulmonary edema in swine. Considering that high levels of fumonisin have been detected in healthy and diseased corn grown in the United States, fumonisin may pose a health threat to humans and livestock animals. Structurally, fumonisin resembles sphingolipids which are present in the membranes of animal and plant cells. At the present time, very little is known concerning the mechanism by which fumonisin elicits its carcinogenic effect. Our studies indicate that fumonisin represses expression of protein kinase C and AP-1-dependent transcription. In contrast, fumonisin stimulated a simple promoter containing a single cyclic AMP response element. Since fumonisin did not alter protein kinase A activity, it appears that cyclic AMP response element activation was independent of protein kinase A. It is hypothesized that the ability of fumonisin to alter signal transduction pathways plays a role in carcinogenesis.
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PMID:Repression of protein kinase C and stimulation of cyclic AMP response elements by fumonisin, a fungal encoded toxin which is a carcinogen. 771 70

Glucocorticoids (GCs) are the mainstay of asthma therapy; however, major side effects limit their therapeutic use. GCs influence the expression of genes either by transactivation or transrepression. The antiinflammatory effects of steroids are thought to be due to transrepression and the side effects, transactivation. Recently, a compound, RU 24858, has been identified that demonstrated dissociation between transactivation and transrepression in vitro. RU 24858 exerts strong AP-1 inhibition (transrepression), but little or no transactivation. We investigated whether this improved in vitro profile results in the maintenance of antiinflammatory activity (evaluated in the Sephadex model of lung edema) with reduced systemic toxicity (evaluated by loss in body weight, thymus involution, and bone turnover) compared with standard GCs. RU 24858 exhibits comparable antiinflammatory activity to the standard steroid, budesonide. However, the systemic changes observed indicate that transactivation events do occur with this GC with similar potency to the standard steroids. In addition, the GCs profiled showed no differentiation on quantitative osteopenia of the femur. These results suggest that in vitro separation of transrepression from transactivation activity does not translate to an increased therapeutic ratio for GCs in vivo or that adverse effects are a consequence of transrepression.
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PMID:Therapeutic benefit of a dissociated glucocorticoid and the relevance of in vitro separation of transrepression from transactivation activity. 1116 Feb 46

To investigate the effects of Gingyo-san (GGS), the traditional Chinese medicinal formula, on the acute lung inflammation induced by LPS in vivo, mice were challenged with intratracheal LPS before treatment with GGS or vehicle. In lung morphology, GGS reduced the infiltration of activated polymorphonuclear neutrophils in the airways, decreased pulmonary edema, reduced nitrosative stress, and improved lung morphology. ELISA or RT-PCR detected the expression of cytokines in BALF and lung tissue. The mechanism of these benefits by treatment with GGS including attenuating expression TNFalpha, IL-1 beta, IL-6, KC, MCP-1, MIP-2, iNOS, and activation of nuclear factor (NF-kappaB and AP-1) in BALF and lung tissue. Particularly, GGS also enhanced the anti-inflammatory cytokine (IL-10) and limited the acute lung inflammation. Therefore, its protection activity against LPS-induced lung inflammatory mediators release might be beneficial in the treatment of endotoxin-associated inflammation.
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PMID:Protective and immunomodulatory effect of Gingyo-san in a murine model of acute lung inflammation. 1727 22