Neuroendocrinol Lett
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Neuroendocrinol Lett · Apr 2002
Myocardial injury in scorpion envenomed children: significance of assessment of serum troponin I and interleukin-8.
(1) To investigate the significance of assessment of serum levels of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) beside other biomarkers of myocardial injury in scorpion envenomed children. (2) To find the correlation between these biochemical indices with clinical status, prognosis and outcome of these cases. ⋯ it may be suggested that cTnI is the most specific marker for diagnosis of myocardial injury in scorpion envenomation, which is almost associated with skeletal muscle injury. Other biochemical markers did not show such specificity. Also, IL-8 may be involved in the pathogenesis of myocardial injury of scorpion envenomation. Both cTnI and IL-8 may be useful to forecast the fatal outcome in scorpion envenomation.
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Neuroendocrinol Lett · Jun 2001
Melatonin inhibits spontaneous and oxytocin-induced contractions of rat myometrium in vitro.
The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of melatonin on spontaneous and oxytocin-induced contractility of pregnant and non-pregnant rat myometrium in vitro. ⋯ Data from this study demonstrates that melatonin inhibits spontaneous and oxytocin-induced contractions of myometrium from pregnant and non-pregnant rats. Although the exact mechanism is not clear, melatonin-induced inhibition of myometrial contractions may results from its interactions with Ca(2+) channels.
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Neuroendocrinol Lett · Jan 2000
Oncostatic activity of pineal neuroendocrine treatment with the pineal indoles melatonin and 5-methoxytryptamine in untreatable metastatic cancer patients progressing on melatonin alone.
The recent advances in psycho-neuro-endocrino-immunology have demonstrated the existence of several endogenous neuroendocrine substances, capable of affecting both tumor growth and host anticancer immune defenses. The pineal gland would represent one of the most important organs releasing antiproliferative and immunostimulating substances, the most known of them is melatonin (MLT). However, MLT would not be the only pineal indole provided by antitumor activity. Other pineal indoles, namely 5-methoxytryptamine (5-MTT), would play antitumor effects, by either inhibiting cancer cell proliferation or stimulating the anticancer immunity. Preliminary data have shown that MLT may deserve antitumor activity in the treatment of human neoplasms, whereas at present there are no clear data about 5-MTT. In an attempt to obtain some preliminary data about the anticancer properties of 5-MTT in humans, we have evaluated the efficacy of MLT plus 5-MTT in untreatable advanced cancer patients progressing on MLT alone. ⋯ A partial response (PR) occurred in two patients treated with MLT + 5-MTT and in none of the patients receiving MLT alone. A stable disease (SD) was achieved in only 2/37 patients on MLT therapy alone, and in 8/36 patients receiving MLT plus 5-MTT. Therefore, the percent of non-progressing patients (SD + PR) obtained with MLT plus 5-MTT was significantly higher than that obtained with MLT alone. Moreover, the relief of asthenia and depressant symptoms was significantly higher in patients concomitantly treated with 5-MTT. DISCUSSION: This preliminary study would suggest that the concomitant administration of the less known pineal indole 5-MTT, also provided by antiproliferative and immunomodulating effects, may further amplify the oncostatic activity of the pineal hormone MLT in the palliative and curative therapy of advanced untreatable human solid neoplasms.