Rising plasma nociceptin level during development of HCC: A case report

AIM: Although liver cirrhosis is a predisposing factor for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), relatively few reports are available on HCC in primary biliary cirrhosis. High plasma nociceptin (N/OFQ) level has been shown in Wilson disease and in patients with acute and chronic pain. METHODS: We report a follow-up case of HCC, which developed in a patient with primary biliary cirrhosis. The tumor appeared 18 years after the diagnosis of PBC and led to death within two years. Alfa fetoprotein and serum nociceptin levels were monitored before and during the development of HCC. Nociceptin content was also measured in the tumor tissue. RESULTS: The importance and the curiosity of the presented case was the novel finding of the progressive elevation of plasma nociceptin level up to 17-fold (172 pg/mL) above the baseline (9.2 +/- 1.8 pg/mL) parallel with the elevation of alpha fetoprotein (from 13 ng/mL up to 3 480 ng/mL) during tumor development. Nociceptin content was more than 15-fold higher in the neoplastic tissue (0.16 pg/mg) than that in the tumor-free liver tissue samples (0.01 pg/mg) taken during the autopsy. CONCLUSION: Results are in concordance with our previous observation that a very high plasma nociceptin level may be considered as an indicator for hepatocellular carcinoma

Metabolikus transzformációk kromatográfiás vizsgálata = Chromatographic studies on metabolic biotransformations

Az OTKA T049492 sz. kutatási támogatás eredményeinek összefoglalása Vizsgáltuk az N-demetileződés során keletkező formaldehidet, és annak szervezetbeni sorsát. Az N-metil csoporton 14C-vel jelölt deprenilt alkalmaztunk, és rétegkromatográfiásan, HPLC-vel, HPLC-MS-sel és HPLC-MS-MS-sel bizonyítottuk a radiojelzett formaldehid keletkezését, annak kiürülését részben a vizelettel, részben pedig további metabolizmussal való átalakulását, azaz a 14C-N-E-monometil-lizin keletkezését. Az N-metileződés a nem kötött (szabad) lizinen következik be. A radiojelzett metabolitok és az anyavegyület aránya a következő volt: methamfetamin:p-hidroximetamfetamin:deprenil:formaldehid = 20:3:1:1. A formaldehidnek csupán töredéke lépett be a lizint metilező reakcióba, és adott 14C-N-E-monometil-lizint. Peptid- és/vagy fehérje láncban kötött lizin metileződését radiojelzett kisérletein során nem tapasztaltuk. Táplálék hatására vagy patológiás állapotban lévő érfalból 14C-N-E-monometil-lizin kimutatása nem járt sikerrel. Bizonyos gyógyszerek (prodrug-ok) szervezeten belüli aktiválódása O-dezetileződéssel megy végre. Ilyen esetet követünk a moexipril metabolizmusának vizsgálata során, lizinen N-etileződést nem tapasztaltunk. Aromás gyűrűkben lévő kvaterner nitrogéneket összekötő alkil láncok esetében N-dezalkiláldást nem találtunk. | Progress report (final) of the OTKA T049492 project N-methyl group of L-deprenyl was labeled using 14C. The 14C-labelled methyl group was used to trace its fate in the body. Generation of 14C-labelled formaldehyde was verified using TLC, HPLC, HPLC-MS and HPLC-MS-MS. One part of the generated formaldehyde was urinary eliminated, an another part took place in the methylation reaction of L-lysine giving 14C-labelled N-E-monomethyl lysine. The ratio of the 14C-labelled deprenil metabolites was: methamphetamine:p-hydroxy-methamphetamine:deprenylformaldehyde = 20:3:1:1. Only a minor part of formaldehyde was subjected to N-methylation of lysine. Free lysine molecules were solely methylated, lysine residues of either peptides or proteins were not methylated by formaldehyde originated from deprenyl. N-methylation of lysine was not found under the effect of regular daily food, nor N-E-monomethyl lysine was detected under pathological conditions of blood vessels. Special prodrugs are activated by O-deethylation. Metabolic O-ethyl to N-ethyl transfer was not indicated during our metabolic study of moexipril. Alkyl-bridged quaternary amines (e.g. bis-pyridinium aldoximes) did not show metabolic N-dealkylation or alkyl transfer to another compound

Increased nociceptin/orphanin FQ plasma levels in hepatocellular carcinoma

AIM: The heptadecapeptide nociceptin alias orphanin FQ is the endogenous agonist of opioid receptor-like1 receptor. It is involved in modulation of pain and cognition. High blood level was reported in patients with acute and chronic pain, and in Wilson disease. An accidental observation led us to investigate nociceptin in hepatocellular carcinoma. METHODS: Plasma nociceptin level was measured by radioimmunoassay, aprotinin was used as protease inhibitor. Hepatocellular carcinoma was diagnosed by laboratory, ultrasound, other imaging, and confirmed by fine needle biopsy. Results were compared to healthy controls and patients with other chronic liver diseases. RESULTS: Although nociceptin levels were elevated in patients with Wilson disease (14.0 +/- 2.7 pg/mL, n = 26), primary biliary cirrhosis (12.1 +/- 3.2 pg/mL, n = 21) and liver cirrhosis (12.8 +/- 4.0 pg/mL, n = 15) compared to the healthy controls (9.2 +/- 1.8 pg/mL, n = 29, P < 0.001 for each), in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma a ten-fold increase was found (105.9 &PLUSMN; 14.4 pg/mL, n = 29, P < 0.0001). High plasma levels were found in each hepatocellular carcinoma patient including those with normal alpha fetoprotein and those with pain (104.9 +/- 14.9 pg/mL, n = 12) and without (107.7 +/- 14.5 pg/mL, n = 6). CONCLUSION: A very high nociceptin plasma level seems to be an indicator for hepatocellular carcinoma. Further research is needed to clarify the mechanism and clinical significance of this novel finding

A diabetes mellitus immunológiája: a hő-shock proteinek, egyéb endogén anyagok és gyógyszerek kölcsönhatása kardiovaszkuláris szövődmények kialakulására = The immunological aspect of diabetes mellitus: the interactions between heat-shock proteins, endogeneous substances and drugs in cardiovascular complications of diabetes mellitus

Autoimmun diabetes mellitust (DM) váltottunk ki streptozotocin (STZ) kis dózisával (3x30 mg/kg, 40mg/kg) patkányon és histidin dekarboxiláz knock-out (KO) egéren és vizsgáltuk a hőshock fehérjék(hsp) szerepét a DM kialakulásában. Vizsgálatainkat kiterjesztettük az endogén nociceptinerg és a hisztamin rendszer valamint a DM kapcsolatának kutatására. Patkányon a hsp65-el történő immunizálás (mind 1x, mind 2x) nem befolyásolta a magas vércukor értéket , de jelentősen növelte a túlélési százalékot . A hsp-vel történő kezelés hatása a DM-os állatok túlélésére szignifikánsnak bizonyult, azonban a hsp65 ellenanyag szint nem változott, továbbá nem befolyásolta a diabeteszes szívfunkció változást. A KO és vad egerek esetén a STZ kevésbé volt hatékony. A hsp-vel immunizált állatokban a vércukorérték csökkent, de az immunizálás csak a vad egerekben okozott szignifikáns hsp elleni antitest szint növekedést. Humán vizsgálatainkban az IDDM-ban szignifikáns eltolódás találtunk Th1 immunválasz irányába p277 esetén. A patkányokban a nociceptin (NC) a liquorban(CSF) a vizsgált agy részekben jelentős hisztamin szint növekedést okozott. A NC plazma koncentrációja életkorfüggő, a 14. hétre stabilizálódik. A CSF magasabb NC szintet mutat, mint a plazma, viszont a nocistatin (NS) a plazmában található magasabb koncentrációban, mint a CSF-ben. A STZ indukálta DM a NC szintre nincs hatással, viszont a NS koncentrációját mind a három vizsgált szövetben (plazma, CSF, májszövet) jelentősen megemelte. | Diabetes mellitus (DM) considered as autoimmune disease was induced by low dose of streptozotocin (STZ) in rats and histidine decarboxylase knock out (KO) mice. The role of different heat shock proteins (hsp65, p277) in the pathophysiology of DM was investigated. The aim was also to study the relationship between histaminergic and nociceptinegic systems and DM. In the rats STZ (3x30 mg/kg) was able to cause diabetes and the hsp65 treatment significantly increased the survival of the diabetic animals. However, the vaccination with hsp65 cause any significant change in the antibody level. In the case of KO and WT mice the STZ dose (3x 40 mg/kg) was not so effective, a less massive diabetes was observed. Vaccination with both hsp65 and p277 caused a significant decrease of glucose level, but the antibody level increased only in WT animals. Determining Th1 and Th2 cytokine levels in Type 1 diabetic patients we found a shift towards Th1 immun response in the case of p277. Nociceptin (NC) significantly increased the histamine levels in various brain region. In DM in rats NC and nocistatin (NS) levels in plasma and liquor(CSF) were measured. Age dependence of both plasma and CSF NC levels reached the adult level in 14 weeks old rats. NC level was higher in CSF than in plasma, while the NS level showed a contrary tendency. Neither plasma nor CSF NC levels showed significant difference from control in DM, while in the case of NS increased levels were observed in DM

Monitoring by HPLC of chamomile flavonoids exposed to rat liver microsomal metabolism

Three major flavonoid chamomile components (quercetin, apigenin-7-O- glucoside and rutin) were subjected to oxidative metabolism by cytochrome P-450 of rat liver microsomal preparations. Changes over time in their respective concentrations were followed using reversed-phase HPLC with UV detection. No clean-up had to be applied as only the specific flavonoid had to be separated from the background components originating from the rat liver microsome. Neither the concentration of apigenin-7-O-glucoside nor that of the diglycoside rutin decreased during one hour of exposure to rat microsomal treatment. In contrast, the concentration of quercetin, a lipophilic aglycon, decreased. Our analytical HPLC results complement the in silico calculated lipophilicity (logP) of these compounds; the relatively high lipophilicity of quercetin appears to predispose it to oxidative metabolism in order to decrease its fat solubility. In contrast the much less lipophilic compounds apigenin-7-O-glucoside and rutin were resistant in vitro to microsomal treatment. © A.A. El Maghraby; Licensee Bentham Open

Front-end electronics for cable reduction in Intracardiac Echocardiography (ICE) catheters

3-D imaging ICE catheters with large element counts present design challenges in achieving simultaneous data readout from all elements while significantly reducing cable count for a small catheter diameter. Current approaches such as microbeamformer techniques tend to rely on area and power hungry circuits, making them undesirable for ICE catheters. In this paper, a system which uses are an efficient real-time programmable on-chip transmit (TX) beamformer circuitry to reduce the cable count on the TX side and analog 8/1 Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) with Direct Digital Demodulation (DDD) to reduce the cable count on the receive (RX) side is presented

Efficacy of N-Acetylcysteine, Glutathione, and Ascorbic Acid in Acute Toxicity of Paraoxon to Wistar Rats: Survival Study

There are a great number of reports with assertions that oxidative stress is produced by organophosphorus compound (OPC) poisoning and is a cofactor of mortality and morbidity in OPC toxicity. In addition, antioxidants have been suggested as adjuncts to standard therapy. However, there is no substantial evidence for the benefit of the use of antioxidants in survival after acute intoxication of OPCs. The present study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of three non-enzymatic antioxidants (NEAOs), N-acetylcysteine (NAC), glutathione (GSH), and ascorbic acid (AA), in acute intoxication of adult male Wister rats with paraoxon. The efficacy of the antioxidants was estimated as both a pretreatment and a concurrent application along with the standard oxime, pralidoxime (2-PAM). Relative risk of death after 48 hours of application was estimated by Cox regression analysis. The results revealed no benefit of either tested NEAO to the improvement in survival of experimental rats. The application of these antioxidants was found to be deleterious when administered along with pralidoxime compared to the treatment with pralidoxime alone. It has been concluded that the tested non-enzymatic antioxidants are not useful in acute toxicity for improving survival rates. However, the individual toxic dynamics of diversified OPCs should not be overlooked and further studies with different OPCs are suggested

Real-Time Imaging System using a 12-MHz Forward-Looking Catheter with Single Chip CMUT-on-CMOS Array

Forward looking (FL) imaging catheters would be an important tool for several intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) applications. Single chip capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) arrays fabricated on front-end CMOS electronics with simplified electrical interconnect have been previously developed for highly flexible and compact catheters. In this study, we present a custom built real time imaging system utilizing catheters with single chip CMUT-on-CMOS arrays and show initial imaging results. The fabricated array has a dual-ring structure with 64 transmit (Tx) and 56 receive (Rx) elements. The CMUT arrays fit on a 2.1 mm diameter circular region with all the required front-end electronics. The device operates at 12 MHz center frequency and has around 20 V collapse voltage. The single-chip system requires 13 external connections including 4 Rx channels and power lines. The electrical connections to micro cables in the catheter are made from the top side of the chip using polyimide flex tapes. The device is placed on a 6-Fr catheter shaft and secured with a medical grade silicon rubber. For real time data acquisition, we developed a custom design FPGA based imaging platform to generate digital control sequences for the chip and collect RF data from Rx outputs. We performed imaging experiments using wire phantoms immersed in water to test the real time imaging system. The system has the potential to generate images at 32 fps rate with the particular catheter. The overall system is fully functional and shows promising image performance

Neuro- és citoprotektív mechanizmusok kutatása. = Studies on neuro- and cytoprotective mechanisms.

Az elmúlt négy évtized magyar gyógyszerkutatásának sikervegyületét, a (-)-deprenylt tanulmányoztuk a neuroprotektív hatás újabb lehetőségeinek feltárására. Vizsgáltuk a deprenyl-N-oxid képződését és farmakokinetikáját. Megállapítottuk, hogy a propargyl-csoporttal rendelkező deprenyl metabolit, a deprenyl-N-oxid nagy koncentrációban sem idéz elő apoptózist, ugyanakkor a belőle kis mennyiségben visszaalakuló deprenyl hatékonyan kivédheti az apoptotikus sejtpusztulást. A neurodegeneratív betegségek gyógykezelésére használt deprenylt p.o. adják 5-10 mg dózisban, melynek 75 %-a "first-pass" metabolizmust szenved. A szokványos dózisban parenterálisan adott (-)-deprenyl elkerülve a "first-pass" metabolizmust bénítja a MAO-A-t is és alkalmas antidepresszív hatás kiváltására. Ebből a szempontból a transzdermális vagy liposzóma készítmény tűnik előnyösebbnek. Az SSAO fiziológiai és pathofiziológiai szerepének megismerését hátráltatja egy szelektív, hatékony és emberi terápiában alkalmazható gátlószer hiánya. Duellinnel kezelt parkinsonos betegeken követtük az SSAO enzim aktivitását. A Duellin carbidopa komponense olyan tartós SSAO-gátolt állapotot hoz létre, mely alkalmas lehet különböző kórképekben az ok-okozat elemzésére. Kapilláris elektroforézis módszert dolgoztunk ki az oxidatív károsodást előidéző reaktív gyökök stabil végtermékeinek meghatározására. A módszer lehetővé teszi új targetek vizsgálatát, melyek szerepe fontosnak tűnik a neuroprotekció kialakulásában. | (-)-Deprenyl, the success compound of the Hungarian drug research in the last four decades, has been studied to reveal new ways of neuroprotection. Metabolic formation and pharmacokinetics of deprenyl-N-oxide have been clarified. This propargyl derivative does not induce apoptosis even at a high concentration, however its small portion is converted back to deprenyl, low concentration of which may prevent apoptotic cell death. Daily 5-10 mg oral deprenyl is used in neurodegenerative diseases, although 75% of the dose undergoes first pass metabolism, and only 25% reaches the systemic circulation. Similar dose of deprenyl given parenterally provides the inhibition of both monoamine oxidase A and B (because of its much less first pass metabolism), resulting in antidepressant effect. Transdermal or liposome formulations seem to be preferred. The lack of effective, selective SSAO inhibitor makes the elucidation of the physiological and pathophysiological role of the enzyme difficult. Serum SSAO activity in parkinsonian patients treated with Duellin was measured. As the hydrazine derivative carbidopa in Duellin provided long-term inhibition of SSAO, it could be used in further studies to clarify SSAO function. Capillary electrophoresis methods have been developed to measure the stable end-products of the cytotoxic reactive oxygen and nitrogen species. These methods allow the study of new targets in neuroprotection