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)

In idiopathic or generalized epilepsy, serum glucose and cholesterol concentrations tend to be low, especially just before the seizure. Glucose tolerance curves are abnormal and variable. The electrolyte balance is disturbed, and epileptics tend to go readily into alkalosis. Serum [Na+] is usually unaffected, but [K+] is normal to low between attacks and increases during and after the seizure. Serum [Cl-] is usually high just before the seizure. Epileptics are generally mildly hypocalcemic, especially in the period before the seizure. Serum urea and nonprotein nitrogen values are low between paroxysms but increase after the seizure. Serum protein concentration is usually normal. Stress, which releases epinephrine and corticotropin, results in high serum citrate concentration, which probably contributes to decreased serum [Ca2+] just before a seizure. In the healthy individual, any increase in serum citrate is accompanied by increasing [Ca2+]. In the rabbit, convulsions can be induced with corticotropin, a result of increased serum citrate concentration coupled with a decrease in [Ca2+]. The net result is severe hypo-ionic-calcemia. A similar phenomenon has been reported in a few humans. Administration of insulin causes serum citrate concentrations to decrease. Apparently, the dynamic system that controls glucose and lipid metabolism, and thus electrolyte balance, through the hormones epinephrine, corticotropin, insulin, glucagon, calcitonin, and parathormone, is abnormal in the epileptic.
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PMID:Clinical biochemistry of epilepsy. I. Nature of the disease and a review of the chemical findings in epilepsy. 22 Nov 36

We propose than an alarm mechanism is operative in animals, designed to regulate neuromuscular irritability by regulating [Ca2+]. Epinephrine or corticotropin (ACTH), injected intramuscularly into animals, causes a hypercitricemia, resulting in decreased [Ca2+]. This increases muscular excitability to facilitate escape. To avoid over reaction, [Cl-] is shifted into the plasma without a concomitant shift of Na+, thus generating an acidosis and an increase in ionization of Ca. Plasma pH, pCO2, total CO2, and [K+] decrease, and [Mg2+] increases. The acidosis, decrease in K+, and increase in [Mg2+] serve to counteract the effect of the decrease in [Ca2+], to protect against tetany. In the rabbit the hypercitricemia observed upon ACTH administration is accompained by a severe hypocalcemia and drop in blood pressure, resluting in tetanic convulsions. This seems to indicate calcitonin release, independent of the hypercitricemia. Thyroidectomized rabbits show only mild hypocalcemia when given ACTH, but develop a severe acidosis and typical grand mal epileptiform seizures. Administration of ACTH and then calcitonin to the goat, an animal resistant to the effects of ACTH alone, simulates the effect observed in the rabbit with respect to changes in blood components and blood pressure. Changes in the blood in the goat and rabbit resemble those in humans before an epileptic seizure. alpha-Melanotropin, containing a portion of the ACTH sequence, reacts in a manner similar to ACTH but more rapidly.
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PMID:Clinical biochemistry of epilepsy. II. Observations on two types of epileptiform convulsions induced in rabbits with corticotropin. 22 Nov 37

Massive infantile spasms (MIS), a seizure disorder unique to infants, is considered an age-dependent response of the immature brain to various insults and stressors. The seizures improve with ACTH and glucocorticoids, both major components of the brain-adrenal axis. We hypothesized that CNS levels of these hormones are abnormal in infants with MIS and studied CSF from 14 infants with MIS and 13 age-matched controls by analysis for corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), ACTH, cortisol, and interleukin-1-beta. ACTH levels in CSF of patients were significantly lower than those of controls, but differences in cortisol levels between patients and controls were not statistically significant. CRH levels in both groups were similar and fluctuated diurnally. These results indicate an alteration of specific CNS components of the brain-adrenal axis in MIS.
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PMID:Brain-adrenal axis hormones are altered in the CSF of infants with massive infantile spasms. 131 21

The level of opioid peptides in several brain areas and in the pituitary was estimated in WAG/Rij rats, which are considered to be a genetic animal model for human absence epilepsy. In comparison with three groups of non-epileptic controls, these epileptic rats had an elevated level of the proenkephalin-derived peptide Met-enkephalin-Arg6-Gly7-Leu8 in the mesencephalon and striatum, while the level of the prodynorphin-derived peptide alpha-neoendorphin was increased in the striatum and hippocampus. In addition various age- and/or strain-related changes in these peptide levels were found in the hippocampus, thalamus, striatum, frontal cortex and neurointermediate lobe of the pituitary. No difference in the hypothalamic beta-endorphin level were found between epileptic and non-epileptic rats, though strain- and/or age-related changes in the peptide content were detected in both lobes of the pituitary. The increased level of proenkephalin and prodynorphin opioid peptides in brain structures, essential for the appearance of spike-wave discharges, suggests that these opioid systems, but not proopiomelanocortin one, may play a role in absence epilepsy.
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PMID:Endogenous opioid peptides in brain and pituitary of rats with absence epilepsy. 163 Jun

Recent experimental data indicate that endogenous brain ligands for the opioid receptors such as enkephalins, beta-endorphin (beta-End) and dynorphin (Dyn) may be involved in both generalized and partial seizures. The "tottering" (tg/tg) mouse provides an electrophysiological representation of generalized spontaneous human epilepsy. These mice exhibit behavioral absence seizures with accompanying spike-wave discharges. Methionine-enkephalin (M-Enk), beta-End and Dyn levels in various regions of brain were measured by radioimmunoassay (RIA) in 15-18-week-old tg/tg and control (+/+) mice to elucidate the relation between seizures and the opioid system. beta-End and Dyn levels were similar in tg/tg and +/+ mice. However, M-Enk levels were significantly increased in the striatum, cortex, pons and medulla of the tg/tg mice. Our data suggest that in the tottering mouse model of generalized epilepsy there is an alteration of enkephalinergic pathways and not of the endorphinergic or dynorphinergic pathways.
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PMID:Increased methionine-enkephalin levels in genetically epileptic (tg/tg) mice. 168 15

Infantile spasms is a type of seizure disorder usually occurring within the first 24 months of life. The standard treatment is intramuscular injections of repository corticotropin (HP ACTHAR gel). The child with infantile spasms is at risk for developmental delay, even if the seizures are controlled. The parents' grief reaction to this prognosis may affect their ability to learn and implement the treatment plan. Discharge planning for children and families is extensive and must begin at the time of the child's admission to the hospital.
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PMID:Discharge planning for the child with infantile spasms. 169 84

By means of RIA, the contents of Leu-enkephalin, Met-enkephalin, and Beta-endorphin in CSF of 32 epileptic patients and 24 controls were determined. It was found that the mean Leu-enkephalin content in CSF of the epileptic patient group was significantly higher than that of the control group (P less than 0.01), whereas the mean contents of Met-enkephalin and Beta-endorphin in CSF showed no significant change as compared with those of the control group. The increase of Leu-enkephalin was not related to such factors as type of seizure, age of onset, length of time after the last seizure, taking of antiepileptic drugs, and abnormality in cranial CT manifestation. This suggested that endogenous opioid peptides might take part in the neurochemical mechanism of human epilepsy, and leu-enkephalin could play an important role in the development of epileptic episodes.
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PMID:[Opioid peptides in cerebrospinal fluids of epileptic patients]. 190 3

The discovery of the existence of opiate receptors in 1973 and of the endogenous opioid peptides, leu and met-enkephalin in 1975, has elicited an extensive search for the physiological and pathophysiological role of opioid systems. The role of endogenous opioid peptides in pathophysiology and pharmacotherapy of epilepsies is one of the most exciting and stimulating new areas in the study of the endogenous opioid systems. The present understanding in this area is fragmentary and hence further attempts to elucidate the opioid function in epilepsies is of fundamental importance. The aim of this review is to summarize some of the recent findings on the link between the endogenous opioid peptides and epilepsy.
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PMID:Endogenous opioid peptides and epilepsy. 240 69

Neuropeptides have been proposed to play a role in regulation of the seizure threshold and interictal behavior in experimental models of epilepsy, but there are few studies concerning neuropeptides in human epilepsy. We compared the levels of two peptides, somatostatin (SLI) and beta-endorphin (BEP) in lumbar cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of unmedicated (N = 18) and medicated (n = 24) epileptic patients with the levels of these peptides in control (n = 20). Peptide levels in the CSF of patients with panic disorder (8) were also evaluated. Patients with chronic medicated epilepsy had a SLl level 80% (p = 0.003, Mann-Whitney U-test) that of the controls, 76% (p = 0.011) that of unmedicated patients, and 84% (p = 0.028) that of the panic group. BEP in the CSF did not differ in unmedicated, medicated and control patients. On the other hand, patients with panic disorder had higher levels of BEP in CSF than did the controls (117%, p = 0.041). In panic patients SLl was at control level. The present study indicates that the peptidergic systems are affected differentially in epilepsy and in panic disorder. Furthermore, there seems to be selectivity in the affect on peptidergic systems during the period when the epilepsy becomes chronic.
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PMID:Somatostatin and beta-endorphin levels in cerebrospinal fluid of nonmedicated and medicated patients with epileptic seizures. 256 69

The therapeutic action of vigabatrin (gamma vinyl GABA, GVG) has been reported to be mediated by GABAergic neurotransmission. In the present study, we evaluated different neurotransmitter systems in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with complex partial epilepsy, before and during GVG treatment. The markers of the GABAergic system (free GABA, total GABA, homocarnosine) showed a two- to threefold elevation. There was also an increase in glycine during the 6 months of GVG treatment. In contrast, we did not find any constant CSF changes in either excitatory amino acids or in markers of the cholinergic (acetylcholinesterase), dopaminergic (homovanillic acid), serotonergic (5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid), or peptidergic (somatostatin, prolactin, beta-endorphin) systems. This finding (except an elevation in glycine) was in agreement with previous studies which suggest a specific action of GVG on the GABAergic system. The role of glycine in antiepileptic efficacy of GVG needs further evaluation.
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PMID:Specificity of vigabatrin for the GABAergic system in human epilepsy. 276 15


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