Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UNIPROT:P01189 (beta-endorphin)
 21,003 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Cluster headache is a disorder of unknown origin. Some studies have focused their attention on neuroendocrine derangement, others on immunity. To probe central alterations in cluster headache (CH), immune parameters were investigated in cluster headache patients in comparison to low back pain patients and healthy controls. Increases in peripheral blood monocytes found in remission cluster headache patients may be attributable to chronic central nervous system (hypothalamic?) noradrenergic dysfunction or altered beta-endorphin. Alterations in NK+, CD3+ and CD4+ levels found in cluster period cluster headache and low back pain patients are probably pain or stress-related.
 ...
PMID:Immunological alterations in cluster headache during remission and cluster period. Comparison with low back pain patients. 138 94

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) beta-endorphin concentrations were determined before and after treatment in 28 patients suffering chronic neuralgic low back pain/sciatica. Nine patients carried the additional diagnosis of major depressive disorder. Pain treatment was multimodal and resulted in variable pain reduction. CSF beta-endorphin concentrations spanned a wide range with no association to age, gender, pain ratings, depressive symptomatology, and drug intake. CSF beta-endorphin concentrations were not influenced by the presence of major depressive disorder and did not change with successful treatment of pain and resolution of depression.
 ...
PMID:Cerebrospinal fluid concentrations of beta-endorphin in chronic low back pain patients. Influence of depression and treatment. 182 85

Beta-endorphin/beta-lipotropin immunoreactivity (BE/BLPH-IR) content was evaluated in the CSF of patients suffering by deafferentation pain syndromes. BE/BLPH-IR CSF concentrations of these patients were compared with those obtained in a group of patients affected by low back pain and in a control group without pain problems. No statistically significant variation in BE/BLPH-IR levels were found between controls and subjects with different types of chronic pain.
 ...
PMID:Evaluation of beta-endorphin/beta-lipotropin immunoreactivity content in the CSF of patients affected by deafferentation pain syndromes. 182 20

A 58-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital with complaints of general fatigue, thirst and lumbago. A diagnosis of Cushing's syndrome was made on the basis of elevated serum levels of cortisol and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). Although Cushing's disease was most suspected, no evident image of pituitary adenoma could be found on brain CT scan and MRI. Therefore, treatment with oral Trilostane was started. Three months after admission, left hemiplegia was noticed and cerebral abscess in the right frontal lobe was demonstrated by brain CT scan. In spite of surgical removal of the abscess by total resection, she had a relapse in the same site and also developed a new lesion in the left lateral lobe. Surgical drainage was performed and Nocardia asteroides was isolated from the drained pus. An intensive chemotherapy with aminobenzylpenicillin (ABPC) and latamoxef (LMOX) in combination resulted in marked decrease in size of the lesion in the brain and subsequent improvement of left hemiplegia was achieved. Since approximately one month before when a diagnosis of cerebral abscess was made, there had been demonstrated a coin lesion in the right middle field on chest X-ray films. This lesion in the right lung disappeared concomitantly with the improvement of the lesions in the brain. This fact strongly suggests that the lesion in both brain and lung were of the same nature. Nocardia is known to make a primary lesion in the lung after being inhaled and then through hematogenous dissemination to make distant lesions in various sites, especially in the brain.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
 ...
PMID:[A case of Cushing's syndrome associated with Nocardia cerebral abscess]. 206 9

This article evaluates the role of aerobic exercise in the treatment of low back pain and related disability. A regular exercise program can improve strength and endurance, prevent fatigue from causing improper body mechanics, increase beta-endorphin levels, reduce depression and give patients an overall feeling of well-being.
 ...
PMID:Aerobic exercise in the treatment and prevention of low back pain. 296 86

Epidural steroids (ESI) are often used for the treatment of low back pain but their effects on the endocrine system have not been determined. We studied the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis in 14 patients by measuring plasma adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) by sensitive two-site immunoradiometric assay and by evaluating the acute cortisol response to cosyntropin. We also evaluated the additional impact of sedation with midazolam before ESI on the degree of suppression of the HPA axis. Plasma ACTH and cortisol were significantly suppressed 7 days after the first ESI; the group receiving midazolam was more suppressed. By 14 days after the first ESI (7 days after the second ESI), plasma ACTH was more suppressed in the group receiving midazolam and plasma cortisol was markedly suppressed in both groups. At 48 days after the first ESI (34 days after the third ESI), plasma ACTH and cortisol were significantly suppressed only in the group that had received midazolam before each ESI. At 48 days, the plasma cortisol response to cosyntropin was blunted (< 500 nmol/L) in 5 of 14 patients. All patients had a normal cortisol response to cosyntropin by 3 mo after the last ESI. Weekly ESI over 3 wk caused a dramatic acute and chronic suppression of the HPA axis. Median suppression was less than 1 mo, and all patients had recovered by 3 mo. Sedation with midazolam accentuated the suppression of the HPA axis. Exogenous steroid coverage during this potentially vulnerable period should be considered in patients undergoing major stress especially if the adrenocortical response to ACTH is subnormal.
 ...
PMID:Epidural triamcinolone suppresses the pituitary-adrenal axis in human subjects. 806 55

We describe the clinical and pathological findings in two Japanese men with small cell carcinoma of the prostate; case 1 was 58 years old and case 2 was 24 years old. Case 1 was initially diagnosed as a poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma of the prostate, stage D2, with marked elevation of serum neuron-specific enolase (NSE), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), and CA 19-9 levels. The patient had undergone castration and systemic chemotherapy. After three courses of chemotherapy, tumour markers were normalized. However, 6 months later serum levels of tumour markers again rose, and biopsy of the prostate revealed a small cell carcinoma component in the adenocarcinoma of the prostate and benign prostate hypertrophy. The patient was again treated with systemic chemotherapy but died within 1 year after relapse. In case 2, the patient presented with initial symptoms of lumbago and dysuria, and an enlarged prostate was radiologically diagnosed. Shortly after admission he developed ileus, and an exploratory laparotomy revealed a large tumour arising from the prostate and invading the peritoneal cavity. This tumour was pathologically diagnosed as a small cell carcinoma. The patient died shortly thereafter without responding to chemotherapy. Immunohistological evaluation was done using a panel of antibodies against NSE, chromogranin A, CEA, CA 19-9, prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP), prostate-specific antigen (PSA), leukocyte common antigen (LCA), epithelial membrane antigen (EMA), adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), calcitonin, serotonin, gastrin, vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), and glucagon. CEA was intensely positive in the tumour lesions from case 1, and NSE and ACTH were focally positive, and calcitonin, serotonin, CA 19-9, and PSA were weakly positive only in several cells in the tumour lesions from case 1. In the tumour lesion from case 2, NSE was intensely positive, and chromogranin A was weakly positive. These findings support the neuroendocrine nature of this neoplasm.
 ...
PMID:Two cases of small cell carcinoma of the prostate. 900 36

A 43-year-old woman presented with obesity and lumbago. Endocrinological examinations revealed normal plasma cortisol levels and a suppressed serum adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) level. On venous sampling, markedly elevated plasma cortisol levels were observed for bilateral adrenal veins (243 and 62.3 micrograms/dl on the right and left sides, respectively). Although the computed tomogram revealed bilaterally enlarged adrenal glands, 131I-adosterol scintigram showed a strong uptake only on the right side. Right adrenalectomy successfully relieved Cushing's syndrome. Pathological diagnosis was adrenocortical adenoma, 3.5 cm in diameter. Cushing's syndrome recurred in 9 years. At that time, she underwent left subtotal adrenalectomy including a 3-cm adrenocortical adenoma. Postoperative convalescence has been uneventful with oral steroid supplementation. All 14 previously reported cases of bilateral adrenocortical adenoma (BAA) causing Cushing's syndrome as well as the present case were concurrent and dominant in females of reproductive age. This suggests that some cofactors other than ACTH, such as estrogen, contribute to the pathogenesis of BAA.
 ...
PMID:[A case of concurrent bilateral adrenocortical adenoma causing Cushing's syndrome]. 916 55

Recently, fibromyalgia (FMS) was shown to be a disorder associated with an altered functioning of the stress response system. FMS patients display a hyperreactive pituitary adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) release in response to corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and to insulin-induced hypoglycemia. We suggested that negative feedback of cortisol could be deranged. Therefore we investigated the properties and function of the glucocorticoid receptors (GR) in FMS patients and compared the results with those of healthy persons and patients with chronic low back pain (LBP a localized pain condition). Forty primary FMS patients (F:M = 36:4), 28 LBP patients (25:3) and 14 (12:2) healthy, sedentary control persons were recruited for the study. Urinary free cortisol excretion in FMS and LBP patients was lower compared to controls. Only FMS patients displayed lower CBG and basal serum cortisol concentrations when compared to controls. However, plasma free cortisol concentrations were similar in the three groups. There was no difference in the number of GR per cell among the three groups (FMS: 6498 +/- 252, LBP: 6625 +/- 284, controls: 6576 +/- 304), but the dissociation constant (Kd) of the FMS (14.5 +/- 0.9 nmol/l) and LBP (14.7 +/- 1.3 nmol/l) subjects was significantly higher than that of the controls (10.9 +/- 0.8 nmol/l) (p < .05). The maximal stimulation of the lymphocytes, as measured by the maximal thymidine incorporation (in the absence of cortisol) in the FMS group was approximately 1.5 times higher (p < .05) than in the control or LBP group. The ED50 (the cortisol concentration giving 50% inhibition of the thymidine incorporation), however, was identical in all three groups. We conclude that FMS patients have a mild hypocortisolemia, increased cortisol feedback resistance in combination probably with a reduced CRH synthesis or release in the hypothalamus. The role of the GR and mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) in the CRH regulation in the FMS patients remains to be solved.
 ...
PMID:Glucocorticoid receptors, fibromyalgia and low back pain. 948 5

Acupuncture and electroacupuncture (EA) as complementary and alternative medicine have been accepted worldwide mainly for the treatment of acute and chronic pain. Studies on the mechanisms of action have revealed that endogenous opioid peptides in the central nervous system play an essential role in mediating the analgesic effect of EA. Further studies have shown that different kinds of neuropeptides are released by EA with different frequencies. For example, EA of 2 Hz accelerates the release of enkephalin, beta-endorphin and endomorphin, while that of 100 Hz selectively increases the release of dynorphin. A combination of the two frequencies produces a simultaneous release of all four opioid peptides, resulting in a maximal therapeutic effect. This finding has been verified in clinical studies in patients with various kinds of chronic pain including low back pain and diabetic neuropathic pain.
 ...
PMID:Acupuncture and endorphins. 1513 42


1 2 Next >>