Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P61278 (somatostatin)
 22,083 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Substance P (sP) and Somatostatin (SOM), so as other neuropeptides can modulate neurologic and immunologic functions. sP has been described to enhance both in vitro and in vivo immunoglobulin synthesis. On the contrary, SOM has an inhibitory effect on the same activity. The modulating effect is more evident on IgA isotype. Hypergammaglobulinemia and in particular high levels of IgA is a common finding in pediatric AIDS and an imbalance among regulatory effects of neuropeptides might be suggested. In order to evaluate the plasma levels of sP in pediatric AIDS we studied 15 children with HIV infection (status P2), 10 seronegative children born to HIV positive mothers and 10 healthy children of the same age. All the HIV positive children had high plasma levels of IgG and IgA. The plasma level of sP was extremely higher in HIV positive children while no significant difference was found between seronegative children born to HIV positive mothers and healthy children. SOM was decreased in HIV positive children when compared to control groups but a significant difference was not reached. It might be supposed that HIV infection, through a dysregulation among neuropeptides interferes on immune functions and in particular on IgA synthesis. On the other hand it might be suggested that the imbalance between sP and SOM depends on the viral infection of immune cells since it has been demonstrated that SOM and other neuropeptide are synthesized by lymphoid tissue. Further studied relevance of neuropeptide disorders in pediatric AIDS.
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PMID:[Changed levels of substance P and somatostatin in HIV-positive children]. 128 55

We have designed two software systems allowing the study of proteins through a comparison to those stored in data banks. The first one, "Automat", locates in a systematic manner all identities shared by a given protein and the proteins in a data bank. The second, "Critic" enables the selection of specific segments in a given molecule by comparing them with those gathered in a data bank. These sites were termed "critical" since they mostly correspond to functional sites (active sites) of the well-known proteins which were studied with the aid of this program (somatostatin, insulin, IL2, etc). Automat allowed us to reveal homologies between HIV-1 and the CD4, which have remained unsolved until now. These similitudes proved to be critical sites (according to Critic). The putative involvement of these sites in the physiopathological processes as induced by HIV-1 are worth considering since the results of our experiments are consistent with this assumption.
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PMID:Critical sites: a semantic approach to protein sequences. Application to the HIV-1 envelope molecule. 129 44

A 25-year-old homosexual man with a 2-year history of watery diarrhoea and a 20 kg weight loss is described. He had been diagnosed HIV-1 antibody positive 6 years previously. Investigations excluded opportunist pathogens and other known causes of diarrhoea. A range of anti-diarrhoeal medication had been unsuccessful. Plasma levels of gastrointestinal and pancreatic peptides were normal and treatment with the somatostatin analogue, octreotide, which inhibits release of pancreatic/gut peptides, did not provide any benefit. Cardiovascular autonomic function tests revealed blunted pressor responses but no other abnormalities. Gastric emptying studies with a technetium labelled meal indicated rapid gastric emptying time. This was slowed by the anticholinergic drug, atropine. This suggested increased parasympathetic activity to the gut. He was, therefore, treated with the anti-cholinergic agent, propantheline bromide, which reduced the frequency and volume of stools. He put on weight and has remained well since. This case highlights the diagnostic challenge in HIV-associated chronic diarrhoea, the case for investigations of autonomic function, and the need for a therapeutic trial of anticholinergic drugs, when other measures have failed.
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PMID:Increased gut parasympathetic activity and chronic diarrhoea in a patient with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. 142 96

The presence of immunoreactivity to the neuronal phosphoprotein B-50 and the peptides bombesin, calcitonin gene-related peptide, galanin, neurotensin, neuropeptide Y, somatostatin, substance P, and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide was examined in biopsy specimens from the duodenum and rectum of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-seropositive and HIV-seronegative male homosexual patients. The distribution of B-50 and the peptides was correlated with HIV serology, number of CD4+ lymphocytes, and the presence of HIV in biopsy culture. There was a very low incidence of enteric pathogens in both groups of patients. It was found that HIV-seropositive patients had a greater incidence of abnormal patterns of immunoreactivity (reduced intensity and/or density of innervation) in enteric nerves and enteroendocrine cells than HIV-seronegative patients. A reduction of substance P immunoreactivity was significantly correlated with reduced CD4+ lymphocyte count and HIV status; a similar trend was also seen for somatostatin and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide. Using B-50 as a marker, it was found that both groups of patients had altered patterns of immunoreactivity in rectal nerves. The findings of this study suggest that some of the clinical symptoms associated with HIV infection may be caused by a specific HIV enteropathy that influences enteric nerve and/or enteroendocrine cell function by altering the density of peptide immunoreactivity.
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PMID:Peptides in the gastrointestinal tract in human immunodeficiency virus infection. The GI/HIV Study Group of the University of Calgary. 153 25

Patients with HIV infection were studied to assess the efficacy of octreotide, a somatostatin analogue, in the long-term management of refractory diarrhoea. Dosage of subcutaneous octreotide was increased progressively at 48 h intervals from 150 to 300, 750 and 1500 micrograms/day according to response. Twenty-nine patients, 21 with Cryptosporidium enteritis, one with Isospora belli enteritis and seven with no identifiable pathogen were selected for the study; four of these were excluded from the study because of death during the first month (two cases), abdominal pain and acute pancreatitis (one case each). Twenty-five patients were evaluable for response. Ten patients (four with Cryptosporidium enteritis, five without an identifiable pathogen and one with I. belli enteritis) achieved a complete response (40%) and nine cases (all with cryptosporidial enteritis) had a partial response (36%). Patients with higher weight and Karnofsky performance status and non-cryptosporidial enteritis had a better response to treatment. Mean durations of treatment and response were 4.2 +/- 4.2 and 4.4 +/- 4.5 months, respectively. In the absence of specific agents for cryptosporidial enteritis and HIV enteropathy, octreotide was found to be useful in the management of chronic diarrhoea in AIDS patients.
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PMID:Efficacy of octreotide in the management of chronic diarrhoea in AIDS. 181 31

An integral transmembrane glycoprotein of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is gp 41. Five peptides (P1, P2, P3, P4, and P5) containing a conserved region of the gp 41 molecule have been synthesized. We tested P3, P4 and P5 for their effects on short-circuit current (Isc) across rat colonic mucosa. All three peptides increased the Isc; P5 was the most potent agonist. Serosal pretreatment of tissues with the chloride transport inhibitor, bumetanide (0.1 mM) or chloride replacement with gluconate, inhibited the response, suggesting that the increase in Isc was due to stimulation of active chloride secretion. The synthetic somatostatin analog octreotide (0.1 mM) also inhibited (P less than .05) the response to P5 (1 microM). The data provide a possible rationale for one aspect of the efficacy of octreotide in treating secretory diarrhea in patients with Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS).
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PMID:Peptides of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) evoke rat colonic electrolyte secretion inhibitable by the somatostatin analog octreotide. 199 Feb 29

Apart from the very frequent HIV encephalitis, which lays the foundation for opportunistic infections, the most common diseases encountered in HIV-infected patients are toxoplasmosis and lymphoma; the percentage of cases of other diseases is very small. It is capital to diagnose cerebral lymphoma at an early stage in these patients who already are in a precarious general and neurological state since this type of lesion usually occurs late in the natural course of AIDS. In the differential diagnosis between toxoplasmosis and lymphoma only stereotaxic biopsy enables a positive diagnosis to be made, but imaging methods, such as CT and MRI, provide data that help guide to a diagnosis which sometimes may be definitive. Suggestive of lymphoma is a single infiltrating lesion wider than 4 cm, which is paraventricular or located in the posterior fossa, has little perilesional alteration and a short tumoral doubling time during the imaging follow-up. Suggestive of toxoplasmosis are multiple, small, annular or nodular lesions with an important perilesional inflammation and usually located in basal ganglia. In addition, in MRI the kinetics of enhancement after contrast injection is intense and occurs early in lymphoma, in contrast with the toxoplasmic abscesses, and this should provide a more specific differential diagnosis. Scintigraphic studies with somatostatin or positron emission tomography, using fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG-PET scintigraphy), also seem to be an interesting mean of making a specific diagnosis of cerebral lesion, according to a principle that is close to dynamic MRI. In lymphoma, capturing of the tracer is about 3 times greater than in infective lesions, notably the toxoplasmic ones. Imaging, therefore, is provided with tools which permit an increasingly specific approach to the primary cerebral lymphoma of AIDS, the definitive diagnosis of which rests on stereotaxic biopsy. This high specificity facilitates a better selection of patients requiring this procedure and shortens the delay in its execution.
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PMID:[The diagnosis of primary cerebral lymphoma in AIDS. The contribution of imaging]. 747 39

Mice infected with the LP-BM5 murine leukemia virus mixture develop severe immunosuppression and an encephalopathy characterized by spatial learning deficits. Twelve weeks after infection of C57BL/6J mice with LP-BM5, significant (50-60%) reductions in Met-enkephalin and substance P levels were observed in the striatum, whereas somatostatin levels were unchanged. In addition, a 39% decrease in hypothalamic substance P concentrations was observed, with no alteration in Metenkephalin levels. The apparent selectivity of the decrease in neuropeptide concentrations indicates that a functional alteration of the primary striatal efferent neurons occurs in this infection, which may contribute to the impairment of spatial learning observed in these mice. Moreover, this decrease in striatal neuropeptide levels is similar to the neuropathological changes in basal ganglia observed in HIV-infected individuals and is consistent with previous studies suggesting that the LP-BM5-infected mouse may serve as a useful model of AIDS dementia.
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PMID:Striatal met-enkephalin and substance P levels are decreased in mice infected with the LP-BM5 murine leukemia virus. 753 38

Prior to the onset of immunodeficiency disease, neurochemical and neuropathological events associated with motor and/or cognitive impairment can be identified in rhesus monkeys infected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). These are astrocytosis, up-regulation of mRNA encoding the neuropeptide somatostatin (SRIF) and an increased expression of MHC Class II antigen. End-stage immunodeficiency disease has been associated with robust viral expression in the CNS frequently observed as multinucleated giant cell formation. SIV encephalitis has not been observed in animals whose only clinical signs of SIV disease were motor and/or cognitive impairment. These data suggest that neuronal dysfunction discernable as altered neuropeptide expression in cortical neurons precedes frank structural damage to the CNS in SIV encephalopathy. This model is consistent with the mechanism of neuropathogenesis in human HIV encephalopathy that can be partially inferred from neurochemical and neuropathological examination of autopsy material in HIV disease.
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PMID:Neuronal substrates for SIV encephalopathy. 787 94

Peptide T, the HIV envelope-derived fragment Ala-Ser-Thr-Thr-Thr-Asn-Tyr-Thr, has already been used to successfully treat psoriatic patients without major side-effects. The underlying reason for the positive effect is, however, at present unknown. In the following minireview, we summarize today's knowledge regarding peptide T's interaction with other chemical messenger molecules, such as somatostatin, vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) and epidermal growth factor (EGF), within the human skin, and, finally, speculate about their relationship to each other. In summary, we believe that the clearance effect of peptide T on psoriasis will open up new avenues with regard to the concept of the pathogenesis of as well as the clinical attendance to this disease.
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PMID:Speculations around the mechanism behind the action of peptide T in the healing of psoriasis: a minireview. 790 47


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