Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0034067 (emphysema)
 11,506 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Decreased deformability of neutrophils exposed to cigarette smoke is considered a determinant of neutrophil sequestration within the pulmonary microvasculature, which may be a risk for the development of pulmonary emphysema. In this study we examined the effect of nicotine, a major cigarette component, on the reduction in neutrophil deformability, measured as cell filterability, after exposed to cigarette smoke. Neutrophils were exposed to smoke by incubating them in an aqueous solution of smoke extracts. Filterability of neutrophils was studied by a vertical filtration technique by measuring their ability to pass through a micropore membrane and expressed as membrane resistance. There was a negative relationship between membrane resistance after exposure to whole smoke and the nicotine content of the cigarettes tested. Whole smoke increased the membrane resistance less than gas-phase smoke, from which almost all nicotine had been excluded. Addition of nicotine, glutathione, alpha-tocopherol, thymol, and erythrocytes prevented the increase in membrane resistance following gas-phase smoke exposure. Nicotine also protected against an increase in membrane resistance against the effect of chloramine-T and hydrogen peroxide, but it provided no protection from superoxide radical generated from a xanthine-xanthine oxidase mixture of N-formylmethionylleucylphenylalanine. These results suggest that nicotine prevents the reduction in neutrophil filterability, probably by scavenging oxidants present in the cigarette smoke.
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PMID:Nicotine prevents a reduction in neutrophil filterability induced by cigarette smoke exposure. 792 43

Elastase is a protease or proteolytic enzyme, responsible for the breakdown of protein. There are eight human genes encoding for elastase, of which Elastase-1 (CELA-1) and Elastase-2 (ELANE) has significant implications on human diseases. Elastase-1 is primarily expressed in skin keratinocytes and is regarded as the major cause for the blistering in bullous pemphigoid, which affects the skin. On the other hand, Elastase-2 (ELANE), is expressed in the azurophil granules of neutrophils, is responsible for pulmonary emphysema and cyclic hematopoiesis a rare genetic disorder. Elastase is also produced by bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and forms the virulent factor in human. The ingredients from essential natural oils were found to have wound healing effects on non-healing wounds that is interfered by elastase due to microbial infection. Essential oils such as citral, citronellal, geranial, geraniol, and thymol were screened for their inhibitory activity on elastase produced by neutrophil, skin, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa by docking and were analyzed for their subcutaneous ADMET properties by ADME - TOX - Web server.
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PMID:Comparative molecular docking analysis of essential oil constituents as elastase inhibitors. 2271 99