Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P01189 (beta-endorphin)
 21,003 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Aminoglutethimide is effective in the treatment of breast cancer in postmenopausal patients as a result of its inhibition of aromatase. Its use is complicated by a number of endocrine side-effects which include the inhibition of thyroxine synthesis and inhibition of 11-steroid and 21-steroid hydroxylases. When aminoglutethimide is used at the conventional daily dose of 1000 mg in combination with 40 mg of hydrocortisone these effects can result in clinically significant hypothyroidism and increases in the serum levels of oestrone in response to stimulation of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). In the current study it was found that with twice daily treatment at the low dose of 125 mg aminoglutethimide plus 20 mg hydrocortisone there was no significant increase in oestrone levels after ACTH stimulation. In addition there was little effect on thyroid function: serum levels of triiodothyronine and thyroxine were unaffected whilst there was a marginally significant (P less than 0.05) increase in thyroid-levels were confined to those patients with pretreatment values greater than 2.5 mU/L, the most marked effect being in 1 patient whose pretreatment level was already outside the normal range.
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PMID:Low-dose aminoglutethimide in postmenopausal breast cancer: effects on adrenal and thyroid hormone secretion. 165 77

A study of the blood levels of gonadotropic and steroid hormones in 321 breast cancer patients has shown that the basal levels of gonadotropin concentration in them exceed the control values (p less than 0.05); those of the follicle-stimulating hormone--in 54.1% of patients at reproductive age and in menopause less than 5 years and in 33.8% of patients in menopause over 5 years; those of luteotropin--in 50 and 93.5% of patients, respectively. Low basal levels of estradiol and progesterone were found more than 70% of breast cancer patients. A significant decrease in the level of the above hormones (p less than 0.05) was noted after polychemotherapy. An increase in the levels of corticotropin (in 54.5-65.2% of patients) and cortisol (in 81.6-84.3% of patients) was noted with progression of breast cancer. Data on the above hormones can be used as a diagnostic and prognostic test.
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PMID:[Radioimmunological analysis of gonadotropic and steroid hormones in breast cancer]. 165 32

The presence of immunoreactive adrenocorticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH), growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH), and somatostatin has been investigated by immunohistochemistry in forty biopsies from breast cancer patients. All of these hypothalamic hormones were found in about 30% of the samples, seen in the cytoplasm or in the nuclei of the tumor cells. Positive immunostaining for the hypothalamic hormones was present in colloid, lobular, and infiltrating ductal carcinomas. There was not a clear relationship between occurrence of staining for the hypothalamic hormones and the histologic grade of tumors or the clinical stage of the disease. Immunoreactive LHRH was more frequently found in breast tumors with estrogen and progesterone receptors. On the other hand, preneoplastic breast lesions expressed mainly somatostatin, while immunoreactivity was absent in normal mammary tissue.
Breast Cancer Res Treat 1990 May
PMID:Corticotropin-releasing hormone, luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone, growth hormone-releasing hormone, and somatostatin-like immunoreactivities in biopsies from breast cancer patients. 197 21

The endocrine action of medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) has been claimed to be of a glucocorticoid-like nature. Upon clinical observation, MPA has been shown to improve life quality and overall well-being in patients with advanced breast cancer, renal carcinoma, prostatic carcinoma, and uterine adenocarcinoma. The authors have evaluated MPA endocrine action by the administration of human corticotropin releasing factor (hCRF) in a 90-minute assay in 15 patients with advanced breast cancer or renal cell carcinoma both, before the initiation of oral high-dose MPA treatment (1000 mg MPA) as well as after at least 10 days of therapy. The curves for corticotropin, beta-endorphin, and cortisol responses to hCRF of tumor patients who were tested before the initiation of MPA treatment were parallel to the curves of a healthy control group of probands tested under equal conditions, although at significantly higher respective hormone levels. In patients with malignant disorders assayed after MPA administration, both basal and peak hormone levels were found to be comparable with values obtained in healthy controls. In conclusion, MPA appeared to act at a suprapituitary level since pituitary responsiveness to hCRF was preserved under MPA treatment. Moreover, it appeared that MPA brought the hormonal stress state found in patients with malignant tumors back to normal.
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PMID:Medroxyprogesterone acetate lowers plasma corticotropin and cortisol but does not suppress anterior pituitary responsiveness to human corticotropin releasing factor. 214 10

Opioid peptides have a variety of actions on inter alia pituitary hormone secretion and the immune system. Release of endogenous opioids has been found to stimulate growth of experimental breast cancers and opiate receptor blockers have reduced the growth of chemically induced rat breast tumors. Opioid peptides may therefore play a role in human breast cancer. Invasive ductal carcinomas from 61 premenopausal women were immunocytochemically analyzed for the presence of opioid peptide immunoreactivity. Positive staining was unambiguously identified in 34 of the tumors (56%). In addition, a medullary carcinoma was positive. In a smaller series of tumors, opioid peptide immunoreactive cells were detected in both primary tumors and metastases. Positive tumor cells were usually few and scattered. Therefore, underestimates of their true frequency of occurrence are likely to have occurred, making accurate correlations with clinical behavior and estrogen receptor status difficult. No correlations with estrogen receptors were established for the unambiguously opioid peptide-positive tumors. Many of the positive tumors also stained with antibodies to gamma-endorphin and alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone, suggesting the presence of proopiomelanocortin-derived peptides in them. However, peptides derived from other opioid precursors also may be present in breast cancer.
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PMID:Immunoreactive opioid peptides in human breast cancer. 246 45

Recent studies showed that both the pineal gland and the endogenous opioid system are involved in the modulation of the immune system and in the regulation of tumor growth. Moreover, a relationship between pineal and opioid system has been demonstrated. In order get an overall view of the psychoneuroendocrine interactions in cancer patients, the levels of melatonin, the most important pineal hormone, and of beta-endorphin have been measured on blood samples collected during the morning. The study was carried out on 54 patients, 42 healthy subjects, and in 34 patients having illnesses other than cancer. Breast cancer, lung carcinoma, and colorectum cancer were the three neoplasms detected in the patients investigated. Growth hormone (GH), somatomedin-C and prolactin (PRL) levels were also determined. beta-endorphin levels were found to be substantially within the normal range in patients with cancer, whereas those of melatonin were raised in several cases. The beta-endorphin/melatonin ratio was higher than 2 in normal subjects, in non-neoplastic patients and in most cancer patients without metastases, whereas this ratio was lower than 2 in almost all patients in a metastatic stage of the disease. Neither melatonin levels nor those of beta-endorphin appeared to be significantly correlated with GH, somatomedin-C, and PRL concentrations. The low beta-endorphin/melatonin ratio observed in metastatic patients suggests the presence of an unbalanced relation between the pineal and the opioid system in those subjects. Therefore, an anomalous relationship between pineal function and opioid activity might play a role in the clinical course of neoplastic disease.
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PMID:A study on the relationship between the pineal gland and the opioid system in patients with cancer. Preliminary considerations. 296 35

The last few years have seen the isolation, characterization and synthesis of two new hypothalamic peptides, the growth-hormone releasing factor (GRF) and the corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF). GRF selectively stimulates pituitary growth hormone. It is interesting to note that GRF was isolated from two pancreatic tumors which were responsible for an acromegalic condition in the two patients. Hypothalamic GRF (1-44) has been found to be identical to this pancreatic GRF. CRF was isolated first from ovine hypothalamus and later characterized in several species and in the human. CRF specifically stimulates the secretion of ACTH and of beta-endorphins, and other fragments of the common precursor named pro-opiomelanocortin. Chemical synthesis of analogues of hypothalamic peptides, and in particular of GnRH (gonadotrophin-releasing hormone), has made available new molecules which form agonists as well as antagonists. After a short period of gonadotrophin stimulation GnRH agonists induce desensitization of the pituitary and a decrease in secretion of the gonadotrophins and the sex steroids by the gonads. Their usefulness is presently being tested in several conditions such as prostate cancer, endometriosis, breast cancer and idiopathic precocious puberty, and as a contraceptive method. On the other hand, pulsatile administration of GnRH restores deficient reproductive functions in certain conditions such as anovulation or azoospermia.
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PMID:[Hypothalamic factors: current findings]. 300 38

Development of the DMBA-induced breast cancer in rats resulted in an increase of the thyrotropin, somatotropin and prolactin concentrations in blood plasma. Thyroliberin (TRH) stimulation of the thyrotropin secretion was decreased. Basal levels of the corticotropin (ACTH) and lutropin (LH) as well as of the luliberin (LRH) stimulation of the LH secretion were not changed. Concentrations of estradiol, corticosterone and insulin enhanced, those of testosterone, progesterone and thyroxine lowered. Out of two calcitropic hormones, RTH and CT, the secretion of the latter increased.
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PMID:[Plasma hormone levels in rats with DMBA-induced mammary tumors]. 609 41

Two human breast cancer cell lines (MCF 7 and T 47D) possess calcitonin-responsive adenylate cyclase systems. Suspended cells of both lines specifically bound 125I-labelled salmon calcitonin with mean dissociation constants of 1.7 nM (MCF 7) and 1.4 nM (T 47D); mean receptor numbers were 5300 and 24400 per cell respectively. Measurement of specific binding to MCF 7 cells was obscured by rapid and substantial degradation of the labelled hormone. Degradation of 125I-labelled salmon calcitonin: (i) was of high capacity; (ii) lacked the specificity displayed by 125I-labelled salmon calcitonin binding to the same cells; and (iii) was not related to binding since cell incubation supernatants retained full degrading activity. The degrading activity was inhibited by corticotropin (1-24)-tetracosapeptide, insulin and bacitracin. Inclusion of bacitracin in the incubation resulted in apparently fewer numbers of lower affinity receptors on MCF 7 cells, whereas these parameters were identical to T 47D cells incubated in the presence or absence of bacitracin. Eel [2-aminosuberic acid 1,7]-calcitonin was resistant to proteolysis in the presence of either cell line. Analysis of hormone-receptor interactions with calcitonin-responsive cells should take account of potent calcitonin-degrading activities in some cell lines.
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PMID:Calcitonin binding and degradation by two cultured human breast cancer cell lines (MCF 7 and T 47D). 731 92

Opioid peptides have a variety of pathophysiologic actions, playing a novel important role in human breast cancer. The expression of beta-endorphin was studied in 84 human breast cyst fluids from gross cystic breast disease-affected patients. The concentration of beta-endorphin in pooled breast cyst fluids was over four-fold higher than in respective plasma with a significant increase in the mean value of the 'metabolically active' apocrine cysts when compared with flattened cysts (P < 0.001). The higher levels of Type I cyst suggest de novo mammary synthesis of endogenous opioid peptides and could represent an altered expression of biosynthetic activity of apocrine breast cells, providing a possible explanation on functional changes of gross cysts, on the mechanism of their formation and a perspective relationship to breast cancer risk.
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PMID:beta-Endorphin expression in gross cystic breast disease. 788 28


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