Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P01178 (oxytocin)
 15,767 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Small-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the lung is known to express products related to the vasopressin gene, although these products have been reported to sometimes differ from those generated by neurones of the hypothalamo-neurohypophyseal system. To further investigate vasopressin gene expression in neuroendocrine carcinomas, we performed immunohistochemistry on 24 histologically classified small-cell carcinomas using antibodies directed against different regions of the vasopressin precursor. All of the tumours examined contained at least two parts of the vasopressin precursor, suggesting that vasopressin might have a biological role in these tumours and indicating a role for these products in tumour diagnosis and treatment. Sixty-seven per cent of the tumours contained immunoreactivity for all major regions of the precursor: vasopressin, vasopressin-associated human neurophysin, the bridging region between the hormone and the neurophysin, and vasopressin-associated human glycopeptide. However, 33% of the tumours examined appeared to express only part of the vasopressin precursor, as evidenced by the absence of immunoreactivity for the neurophysin and/or the glycopeptide. These results support the proposition that both normal and abnormal vasopressin gene expression occurs in small-cell carcinoma of the lung.
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PMID:Products of vasopressin gene expression in small-cell carcinoma of the lung. 829 23

Neuroendocrine tumors of the lung are carcinomas characterized by different impact on the patients' prognosis, ranging from relatively indolent, low- to intermediate-grade neoplasms with longer life expectation (i.e., typical and atypical carcinoids) to very aggressive and poorly differentiated neoplasms with dismal prognosis (i.e., large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma and small cell lung cancer). The standard treatment of typical or atypical carcinoids is the complete surgical resection, whereas the role of radio-chemotherapy in a multimodality treatment or for palliation remains controversial. Conversely, high-grade neuroendocrine carcinomas are in primis treated by aggressive combination chemotherapy, deserving surgical resection for uncommon low-stage tumors. Since evidence has been accumulated that neuroendocrine tumors of the lung are supplied with a wide array of peptide receptors detectable on cell membranes by immunohistochemical methods, innovative strategies for diagnosis and radiometabolic therapy have been devised to target these molecules for the correct clinical management of the patients. In this paper, the structural and functional aspects and the clinical applications of the detection of several peptide receptors in pulmonary neuroendocrine tumors will be reviewed, including somatostatin receptors, vasoactive intestinal peptide/pituitary adenylate cyclase activating peptide family receptors, cholecystokinin /gastrin receptors, bombesin/gastrin releasing peptide receptors, neurotensin receptors, substance P receptors, neuroepeptide Y receptors, calcitonin/calcitonin gene-related peptide receptors, atrial natriuretic peptide receptors, glucagon-like-peptide-1 receptors, oxytocin receptors and endothelin receptors. Only a detailed knowledge of the peptide receptor distribution in these tumor types, especially in uncommon neoplasms such as atypical carcinoids and large cell neuroendocrine carcinomas, is pivotal for planning the most adequate interventions for the patients' diagnosis and therapy.
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PMID:Peptide receptors in neuroendocrine tumors of the lung as potential tools for radionuclide diagnosis and therapy. 1704 25