The thymus-neuroendocrine axis: physiology, molecular biology, and therapeutic potential of the thymic peptide thymulin.
Ann N Y Acad Sci
; 1153: 98-106, 2009 Feb.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-19236333
ABSTRACT
Thymulin is a thymic hormone exclusively produced by the thymic epithelial cells. It consists of a nonapeptide component coupled to the ion zinc, which confers biological activity to the molecule. After its discovery in the early 1970s, thymulin was characterized as a thymic hormone involved in several aspects of intrathymic and extrathymic T cell differentiation. Subsequently, it was demonstrated that thymulin production and secretion is strongly influenced by the neuroendocrine system. Conversely, a growing core of information, to be reviewed here, points to thymulin as a hypophysotropic peptide. In recent years, interest has arisen in the potential use of thymulin as a therapeutic agent. Thymulin was shown to possess anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties in the brain. Furthermore, an adenoviral vector harboring a synthetic gene for thymulin, stereotaxically injected in the rat brain, achieved a much longer expression than the adenovirally mediated expression in the brain of other genes, thus suggesting that an anti-inflammatory activity of thymulin prevents the immune system from destroying virus-transduced brain cells. Other studies suggest that thymulin gene therapy may also be a suitable therapeutic strategy to prevent some of the endocrine and metabolic alterations that typically appear in thymus-deficient animal models. The present article briefly reviews the literature on the physiology, molecular biology, and therapeutic potential of thymulin.
Texto completo:
1
Bases de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Peptídeos
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Fator Tímico Circulante
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Timo
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Terapia Genética
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Sistemas Neurossecretores
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Animals
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Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Ann N Y Acad Sci
Ano de publicação:
2009
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Argentina