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Query: UNIPROT:P01189 (beta-endorphin)
 21,003 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We measured plasma corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), ACTH, beta-endorphin (beta-EP), and cortisol levels as possible tumor markers in a sequence of 103, randomly selected, patients with lung cancer but without the ectopic Cushing's syndrome and in 72 age- and sex-matched controls. Plasma CRH levels of cancer patients were similar to those of controls both in patients sampled in the morning or in the afternoon. On the other hand, plasma ACTH levels of cancer patients were significantly higher than control patients both in the morning and in the afternoon and showed a preserved circadian rhythm. However, about 35% of cancer patients sampled in the morning and about 60% of those sampled in the afternoon had ACTH levels within the 95% confidence interval (CI) of controls. Also plasma beta-EP levels were more elevated in cancer patients than controls in the morning but about 33% of them and about 80% of those sampled in the afternoon had beta-EP levels within the 95% CI of controls. Despite the higher plasma ACTH levels, cancer patients had cortisol plasma levels similar to controls with preserved circadian rhythm. In conclusion, although mean plasma ACTH and beta-EP were higher in patients affected by lung cancer, their measurements, as well as those of CRH, have practically no diagnostic value. Perhaps measurement of ACTH levels in the bronchial lavage may be more helpful.
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PMID:Limited clinical usefulness of plasma corticotropin-releasing hormone, adrenocorticotropin and beta-endorphin measurements as markers of lung cancer. 133 Dec 23

Thirty cancer patients, clinical group IV, have been examined. It has been established that a persistent pain syndrome leads to lowering in beta-endorphin liquor level. Morphine analgesia is followed by beta-endorphin level elevation which directly depends on pain intensity and analgesia efficacy. Determination of changes in beta-endorphin liquor level may serve as a criterion of analgesia efficacy.
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PMID:[Changes in the concentration of beta-endorphin in the cerebrospinal fluid due to morphine analgesia in incurable oncologic patients]. 141 98

The present study was designed to explore the effects of opioid peptides on the immune systems of intact nude mice and nude mice bearing human ovarian cancer cells (KF). When spleen cells from intact nude mice were incubated with medium alone, a significant ability of spleen cells to lyse the KF cells was not observed. However, incubation of the spleen cells with 1 microM beta-endorphin or 1 microM alpha-endorphin induced a significant lytic activity on the KF cells. The control-level lytic activity was increased significantly to about 4.5-fold by 1 microM beta-endorphin and about 3.7-fold by 10 microM met-enkephalin. These results suggest that opioid peptides play a crucial role in cellular immunity. Thus, we examined plasma levels of beta-endorphin in patients with ovarian or uterine carcinoma. The plasma beta-endorphin levels in patients with ovarian or uterine carcinoma were significantly higher (more than twofold) than those of age-matched healthy women.
Cancer Detect Prev 1992
PMID:Effects of opioid peptides on the tumoricidal activity of spleen cells from nude mice with or without tumors. 145 11

Mood states of cancer patients were assessed pre- and post-41.8 degrees C whole-body hyperthermia using the Profile of Mood States questionnaire. Results demonstrated a statistically significant increase in fatigue associated with decreased vigour which returned to baseline values by 72 h. In contrast, a significant improvement in depression was evident through 72 h following treatment. The relationship of this result to earlier studies of WBH-induced beta-endorphin is discussed.
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PMID:Changes in mood state following whole-body hyperthermia. 160 35

The present data report on five bereaved cancer patients with initial progression-free disease in respect to natural killer cell activity, beta-endorphin binding capacity of their peripheral blood lymphocytes, and the psychometrically objective parameter depression during widowhood. In bereaved and severely depressed cancer patients, there is a tendency of an earlier onset of decreased natural killer cell activity and a reduced binding affinity of beta-endorphin to peripheral blood lymphocytes. A second set of data obtained from a cancer patient cohort study shows a correlation between the two variables depression and beta-endorphin, profiles are inversely correlated and cancer patients, doing clinically well, state that physical activities counteract possible day-to-day depressive disorders. Taking together the two sets of data, one might speculate that for a definable subgroup of cancer patients physical activities raise endorphin levels and psychological well-being, both of which might modulate the activity of immune competent cells, which leads to an extended period of progression-free disease.
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PMID:Looking along the track of the psychoneuroimmunologic axis for missing links in cancer progression. 165 3

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.
Eur J Cancer 1991
PMID:Low-dose aminoglutethimide in postmenopausal breast cancer: effects on adrenal and thyroid hormone secretion. 165 77

Interleukin-2 has been shown to stimulate cortisol secretion in man. Owing to its immunosuppressive properties, an increase in cortisol levels during interleukin-2 cancer immunotherapy could potentially counteract induced activation of the antitumor immune response. Few data are available about cortisol secretion secondary to prolonged interleukin-2 administration. To investigate the problem, we evaluated cortisol circadian rhythms in 7 consecutive metastatic small cell lung cancer patients who received interleukin-2 subcutaneously for 4 weeks (daily dose: 6 x 10(6) x IU/m2). Venous blood samples were drawn at 8.00 a.m., 4.00 p.m. and 12.00 p.m., before interleukin-2, and after each week until the end of the cycle. Beta-endorphin levels were also measured on the same samples. Four patients were evaluated during a second interleukin-2 cycle. Mean cortisol levels increased during interleukin-2 therapy, but were significantly higher than those seen in basal conditions after the first week of treatment. Moreover, cortisol peaks observed during the second cycle of therapy were not significantly different from those seen during the first cycle. Mean beta-endorphin levels increased in response to interleukin-2 administration, but the increase did not reach statistical significance. The early cortisol rise progressively decreased as treatment continued. This suggests that the interleukin-2-induced cortisol rise has no relevant clinical importance in antagonizing the activation of an effective antitumor immune response during cancer immunotherapy with interleukin-2.
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PMID:Effect of prolonged subcutaneous administration of interleukin-2 on the circadian rhythms of cortisol and beta-endorphin in advanced small cell lung cancer patients. 166 67

Evidence has accumulated that human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) may release adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and endorphin-like peptides into the culture medium when stimulated with different substances such as Newcastle disease virus and the lipopolysaccharide of Escherichia coli. However, to our knowledge, no quantitative assessment of ACTH-LIR (like-immunoreactivity) in human PBMC has been reported. We thus utilized a radioimmunoassay for ACTH to find a median of 30 pg of ACTH-LIR in 10(7) PBMC of 11 normal subjects. ACTH-LIR was also detected in 7 different cell lines derived from patients with lymphoid and myeloid malignancies, two of them, JM and U937, showed values of 135 and 108 pg/10(7) cells respectively. Stimulation with IL-1 beta at the concentration of 1000 U/mL induced, after 48 h, a significant increase of intralymphocytic ACTH levels when compared to basal and 24 h values. The chromatographic characterization of this ACTH-LIR showed, at least, three molecular forms of immunoreactive ACTH; molecular weights were 31 kD POMC, 22 kD ACTH and 4.5 kD ACTH. We used northern blotting with human genomic DNA probe for POMC gene to evidence specific mRNA in PBMC; mRNA was also observed in a T lymphocyte cell line derived from a patient with lymphoma. We conclude that PBMC produce ACTH-LIR which may act as a paracrine immunomodulator similar to lymphokine and/or may signal the adrenal gland to secrete glucocorticoids.
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PMID:[ACTH of lymphocytic origin under normal and pathological conditions]. 166 15

Primary paraganglioma arises infrequently in the urinary bladder. We present the clinicopathologic, immunohistochemical, ultrastructural, and DNA flow cytometric findings in three cases (one man and two women). Ages at diagnosis were 19, 35, and 45 years. One female presented with paroxysmal headaches and hypertension that followed urination; the remaining two patients presented with hematuria. Immunohistochemical studies revealed positive reactivity for chromogranin (three patients), met-enkephalin (three), leu-enkephalin (three), vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (two), serotonin (one), and S-100 protein (one; sustentacular cells only). Neurosecretory granules were identified in all cases; in the patient with hypertension, the granules were small with eccentric cores similar to those of adrenal pheochromocytomas. A nondiploid DNA flow cytometric pattern was present in all three patients, an aneuploid pattern was present in two, and a tetraploid pattern was present in one. After diagnosis, one patient was alive without progression at 7 years, one died of an uncertain cause at 5 years, and one suffered multiple recurrences over a 24-year period before developing metastatic disease. While the presence of aneuploidy has been shown to be a predictor of malignant behavior in adrenal pheochromocytomas, our study illustrates that DNA ploidy cannot be used as a diagnostic criterion for malignancy in urinary bladder paraganglioma.
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PMID:Paraganglioma of the urinary bladder: immunohistochemical, ultrastructural, and DNA flow cytometric studies. 174 2

Beta-endorphin-like immunoreactivity (beta-ELIR) blood levels in control subjects and in patients with different carcinoma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma tumor types, were found within the same range, with the exception of one carcinoma type. This pertained to a group of patients with small cell lung cancer who had a significantly higher median beta-ELIR level compared to controls. This finding, and the fact that proopiomelanocortin expression is enhanced in tissues of this cancer type, suggest that the latter might secrete elevated beta-ELIR amounts into the blood of the affected patients.
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PMID:Beta-endorphin-like immunoreactivity: assessment of blood levels in patients with tumors of different origin. 180 94


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