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)

Acute hypercytokinaemia represents an imbalance of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines, and is believed to be responsible for the development of acute respiratory distress syndrome and multiple organ failure in severe cases of avian (H5N1) influenza. Although neuraminidase inhibitors are effective in treating avian influenza, especially if given within 48 h of infection, it is harder to prevent the resultant hypercytokinaemia from developing if the patient does not seek timely medical assistance. Steroids have been used for many decades in a wide variety of inflammatory conditions in which hypercytokinaemia plays a role, such as sepsis and viral infections, including severe acquired respiratory syndromes and avian influenza. However, to date, the results have been mixed. Part of the reason for the discrepancies might be the lack of understanding that low doses are required to prevent mortality in cases of adrenal insufficiency. Adrenal insufficiency, as defined in the sepsis/shock literature, is a plasma cortisol rise of at least 9 microg dl(-1) following a 250 microg dose of adrenocorticotropin hormone (ACTH), or reaching a plasma cortisol concentration of >25 microg dl(-1) following a 1-2 microg dose of ACTH. In addition, in the case of hypercytokinaemia induced by potent viruses, such as H5N1, systemic inflammation-induced, acquired glucocorticoid resistance is likely to be present. Adrenal insufficiency can be overcome, however, with prolonged (7-10 or more days) supraphysiological steroid treatment at a sufficiently high dose to address the excess activation of NF-kappaB, but low enough to avoid immune suppression. This is a much lower dose than has been typically used to treat avian influenza patients. Although steroids cannot be used as a monotherapy in the treatment of avian influenza, there might be a potential role for their use as an adjunct treatment to antiviral therapy if appropriate dosages can be determined. In this paper, likely mechanisms of adrenal insufficiency are discussed, drawing from a broad background of literature sources.
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PMID:A rationale for using steroids in the treatment of severe cases of H5N1 avian influenza. 1757 50

S-layer protein CTC surface display system of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) was used to test the possibility of displaying avian influenza virus nucleoprotein (NP) on Bt cell surface. Four recombinant plasmids were constructed by replacing 3'-terminal or central part below the surface anchor sequence slh of S-layer protein gene ctc with full length of np gene or part np gene (npp). The four resulting plasmids were pSNP (harboring fusion gene ctc-np), pCSA-SNP (harboring fusion gene csa-ctc-up, csa represents csaAB operon which is very important to the anchoring of S-layer protein on the bacterial cell surface), pCTC-NPP (harboring fusion gene ctc-npp) and pCSNPP (harboring fusion gene csa-ctc-npp). Five recombinant Bt strains were constructed by electro-transferring recombinant plasmids to Bt plasmid-free derivative strain BMB171. The resulting strains were BN (harboring pSNP), BCN (harboring pSNP as well as the plasmid pMIL-CSA which carried csaAB operon), C-S (harboring pCSA-SNP), BCCN (harboring pCTC-NPP and pMIL-CSA) and CN (harboring pCSNPP). The vegetative cells of five recombinant strains were used as agglutinogens of slide agglutination assay. Slide agglutination assay showed recombinant NP proteins were successfully displayed on the surface of five recombinant strains, respectively. After immunizing mice with vegetative cells of five recombinant strains respectively, five recombinant strains all elicited humoral respones to NP and exhibited immunogenicity as assayed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Meanwhile these assays showed recombinant strain CN (harboring fusion gene csa-ctc-npp) exhibited the highest immunogenicity among five recombinant strains. That means the best way of constructing S-layer fusion gene is csa-ctc-* (* denotes heterologous antigen gene) which means the central part of S-layer protein gene ctc replaced by the heterologous antigen gene and csaAB operon located on the upstream of fusion gene. The strategy developed in this study gives a possibility to generate heat stable,oral, veterinary vaccine with Bt S-layer protein CTC surface display system.
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PMID:[Display of avian influenza virus nucleoprotein on Bacillus thuringiensis cell surface]. 1767 11