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)

Tourette's syndrome (TS) is a complex inherited neuropsychiatric disorder that is characterized by multiple motor and phonic tics. Stress-related fluctuations in symptom severity and medication responsiveness are common, and patients often report that tics are worsened by fatigue, emotional trauma, and anxiety. We examined the effects of lumbar puncture (LP) stress on plasma adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) and cortisol, urinary catecholamines, and self- and clinician ratings of anxiety in 13 medication-free TS patients and 10 normal controls, ages 17 to 41 years. The TS patients secreted significantly more ACTH than the normal controls in response to the stress of the lumbar puncture. Compared to the controls the TS patients had significantly greater postLP mean and postLP peak ACTH levels. The TS patients also excreted significantly more norepinephrine in the 20 hr preceding the lumbar puncture and reported higher levels of anxiety before and during the procedure than the controls. In addition, urinary norepinephrine excretion of the TS patients was significantly correlated with clinician ratings of tic severity. The results were not related to current levels of depression and anxiety. Taken together, these findings suggest that a subset of TS patients may be characterized by heightened reactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and related noradrenergic sympathetic systems.
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PMID:Enhanced stress responsivity of Tourette syndrome patients undergoing lumbar puncture. 808 Sep 1

Learning and motivation are critical in the development of children, and to their acquisition of knowledge and skills. A case in point is autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by impaired social interactions and communication, as well as by stereotypic movements. Maternal stress has been strongly associated with increased risk of developing ASD. Children experience multiple stressors such as separation anxiety, fear of the unknown, physical and/or emotional trauma, bullying, as well as environmental exposures. Stress is well known to affect learning and motivation. However, patients with ASD have aggrevated tresponses to stress, especially fear response. There is extensive literature connecting the amygdala to social behavior and to pathophysiologic responses to stress. The amygdala regulate the responses to stress, and anatomical changes in amygdala have been reported in ASD. In particular, corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), which is secreted under stress, is high in children with ASD and stimulates both mast cells and microglia, thus providing possible targets for therapy. Factors and/or circumstances that could interfere with the neurodevelopmental pathways involved in learning and motivation are clearly important and should be recognized early.
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PMID:Effect of stress on learning and motivation-relevance to autism spectrum disorder. 3122 Sep 52