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)

beta-endorphin, adrenocorticotrophin, and alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone were measured by radioimmunoassay in three areas of human brain at necropsy in seven subjects with Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome and in 52 controls. Thiamin concentration in six brain areas was also measured. Mamillary body beta-endorphin concentrations were significantly increased in those with the syndrome compared with controls, and those controls with high alcohol intake showed increased mamillary body beta-endorphin compared with controls with low alcohol intake. Brain thiamin concentration was similar in both groups, with the exception of the brainstem, where it was reduced in subjects with Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. Thalamic beta-endorphin in controls was inversely correlated with thiamin in frontal white matter, frontal cortex, parietal white matter and parietal cortex, while beta-endorphin in the hypothalamus of patients was inversely correlated with thiamin in frontal cortex, parietal white matter, thalamus and brainstem. These results suggest that there is a disturbance of the endorphinergic system in Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome which may be related to alcohol intake.
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PMID:Increased central immunoreactive beta-endorphin content in patients with Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome and in alcoholics. 165 Jul 97

The neuropeptides vasopressin, adrenocorticotropin (ACTH), and beta-endorphin seem to have important effects on memory and learning. Animal studies attempting to demonstrate these effects are difficult to interpret because of the complexity of behavior that is described as "learning" and the impossibility of assessing verbal learning in animals. This article therefore reviews some of the animal literature on neuropeptides and learning, but focuses primarily upon studies in humans, both in normal volunteers and in patients with neurological disorders. Vasopressin enhances learning under some conditions. Intranasal administration has been associated with improvement on psychometric tests in patients with mild Alzheimer's disease and Korsakoff's psychosis, although these findings are not uniform. It improves performance on memory tests in normal volunteers, but does not seem to improve the memory deficit after head trauma. Cerebrospinal fluid levels are low in patients with Alzheimer's disease. ACTH and melanocyte-stimulating hormone (MSH) are two peptides the primary behavioral effect of which seems to be on attention or goal-motivated behavior rather than on memory processes themselves. Visual discrimination and the ability to continue repetitive tasks are enhanced; in mentally retarded subjects, the administration of ACTH or MSH improves performance on a variety of neuropsychological tests. It does not, however, improve cognitive function in the elderly. Endogenous opioids including beta-endorphin and met-enkephalin seem to have primarily an amnesic effect in animal studies. Their role in human learning is still uncertain, although naloxone, which antagonizes their effects, has been associated with improved cognitive performance in patients with Alzheimer's disease. These data underscore the complexity of the processes associated with human memory and the rudimentary state of our present knowledge. Whatever the mechanisms, however, vasopressin, ACTH, and endogenous opioids seem to have important effects upon memory.
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PMID:Neuropeptides in human memory and learning processes. 299 44