NEWS

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Category: NEWS

• receptors
• Drug
• neuropeptide-based
• drug therapy
• Vasoactive intestinal polypeptide

Novel concepts of neuropeptide-based drug therapy: Vasoactive intestinal polypeptide and its receptors

David A. Groneberga, b,  ,  , Klaus F. Rabec and Axel Fischera
aDepartment of Respiratory Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
bAllergy-Centre-Charité, Charité — Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Free University Berlin and Humboldt-University, Berlin, Germany
cDepartment of Pulmonology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
Accepted 13 December 2005.
Available online 10 February 2006.

Abstract
Chronic inflammatory airway diseases such as bronchial asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are major contributors to the global burden of disease. Although inflammatory cells play the central role in the pathogenesis of the diseases, recent observations indicate that also resident respiratory cells represent important targets for pulmonary drug development. Especially targeting airway neuromediators offers a possible mechanism by which respiratory diseases may be treated in the future.

Among numerous peptide mediators such as tachykinins, calcitonin gene-related peptide, neurotrophins or opioids, vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) is one of the most abundant molecules found in the respiratory tract. In human airways, it influences many respiratory functions via the receptors VPAC1, VPAC2 and PAC1. VIP-expressing nerve fibers are present in the tracheobronchial smooth muscle layer, submucosal glands and in the walls of pulmonary and bronchial arteries and veins. Next to its strong bronchodilator effects, VIP potently relaxes pulmonary vessels, and plays a pivotal role in the mediation of immune mechanisms. A therapy utilizing the respiratory effects of VIP would offer potential benefits in the treatment of obstructive and inflammatory diseases and long acting VIP-based synthetic non-peptide compounds may represent a novel target for drug development.
Keywords: VIP; Cytokine; Lung; Tachykinin

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Category: NEWS

• cancer
• chemotherapy
• tumours

Cancer, "chemotherapy makes 'immune' tumors and supports the growth"

Chemotherapy used for decades to fight cancer may actually stimulate the surrounding healthy cells, the secretion of a protein that supports growth and makes it "immune" to further cancer treatments. The discovery, "totally unexpected", was published in the journal Nature and is the result of a U.S. study on prostate cancer cells aimed to determine why these are so difficult to remove in the human body and are extremely easy to kill laboratory. Were analizzatigli effects of a type of chemotherapy on tissues collected from patients with prostate cancer.Have been discovered "evident in the DNA damage" in healthy cells around the area affected by cancer.

The latter produced higher quantities of the protein WNT16B which promotes the survival of tumor cells. The discovery that "the increase of WNT16B ... interacts with the neighboring tumor cells making them grow, propagate and, most importantly, get through the next anti-cancer ... it was totally unexpected," explained co-author Peter Nelson of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle in Washington state. Confirms the novelty inter alia an element known from the times between the oncologists: tumors respond well to the first chemo except then grow rapidly and develop a greater resistance to further treatment chemioterapoci. Demonstrated by a given percentage of reproduction of the tumor cells among the various treatments. "Our results indicate that the damage in benign cells may directly contribute to increasing growth 'kinetics' of cancer," says the study, the researchers said, was also confirmed in breast and ovarian cancers. But the discovery could pave the way for the development of a treatment that does not produce this damaging side effect of chemotherapy: "For example, an antibody to the WNT16B, taken during the chemo, the married may migliorane killing more cancer cells. Another alternative would be to reduce the doses of chemo. "

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Category: NEWS

• Omega-3
• ansia
• sintomi

Omega-3

di beneficio per i sintomi dell'ansia.

Gli Omega-3, acidi grassi polinsaturi a lunga catena, possono essere di beneficio per i sintomi di ansia. L'integrazione per due settimane con 2,5 g di Omega-3 ha dimostrato di esercitare effetti favorevoli sui sintomi di ansia in soggetti normali. Kielcolt-Glaser et al. hanno condotto uno studio clinico randomizzato, in dopp io cieco, controllato con placebo, su 68 studenti di medicina. Gli studenti sono stati trattati con 2085 mg di EPA (acido eicosapentaenoico) + 348 mg di DHA (acido docosaesaenoico) oppure con placebo.
Durante lo studio sono stati eseguiti prelievi del sangue sui partecipanti allo studio nei giorni precedenti l'esame all'Università e in periodi di stress inferiore.
I risultati hanno dimostrato una riduzione del 14% dei livelli di Interleuchina 6 (IL-6), una citochina pro-infiammatoria, e una riduzione del 20% dei sintomi dell'ansia nel gruppo trattato con Omega-3 rispetto al gruppo trattato con placebo.
Questo effetto è probabilmente dovuto al fatto che le citochine pro-infiammatorie promuovano la secrezione di ormone che rilascia la corticotropina (CRH), una delle principali risposte ormonali allo stress; il CRH stimola a sua volta l'amigdala, una regione del cervello implicata nell'insorgenza della paura e dell'ansia. Analisi secondarie in questo studio hanno dimostrato una riduzione ...