transforming-growth-factor-alpha and Fever

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death in women worldwide. The extremely fast rate of metastasis and ability to develop resistance mechanism to all the conventional drugs make them very difficult to treat which are the causes of high morbidity and mortality of breast cancer patients. Scientists throughout the world have been focusing on the early detection of breast tumor so that treatment can be started at the very early stage. Moreover, conventional treatment processes such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and local surgery suffer from various limitations including toxicity, genetic mutation of normal cells, and spreading of cancer cells to healthy tissues. Therefore, new treatment regimens with minimum toxicity to normal cells need to be urgently developed.. Iron oxide nanoparticles have been widely used for targeting hyperthermia and imaging of breast cancer cells. They can be conjugated with drugs, proteins, enzymes, antibodies or nucleotides to deliver them to target organs, tissues or tumors using external magnetic field.. Iron oxide nanoparticles have been successfully used as theranostic agents for breast cancer both in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, their functionalization with drugs or functional biomolecules enhance their drug delivery efficiency and reduces the systemic toxicity of drugs.. This review mainly focuses on the versatile applications of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles on the diagnosis, treatment, and detecting progress of breast cancer treatment. Their wide application is because of their excellent superparamagnetic, biocompatible and biodegradable properties.

Topics: Breast Neoplasms; Cell Line, Tumor; Drug Delivery Systems; Female; Ferric Compounds; Fever; Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone; Humans; Hyaluronan Receptors; Integrins; Nanoparticles; Phototherapy; Theranostic Nanomedicine; Transferrin; Transforming Growth Factor alpha; Trastuzumab

The maturation of many neural functions occurs during puberty. An abnormal development of these processes, in the context of genetic vulnerability, may result in sex- and age-dependent penetrance of neuropsychiatric disorders. Reduced transforming growth factors-alpha (TGF-alpha) expression in Waved-1 (Wa-1) mice impairs the stress response and fear memory in adult males, but are absent or far less prominent in adult females and in pubertal males. Gonadectomy around the onset of puberty, when the mutant anatomical and behavioral phenotypes are undetectable, results in significant gene x environment effects. Adult control males show reduced physiological stress response as a result of gonadectomy, but not adult Wa-1 males. In females, pubertal gonadectomy elevates specific anxiety parameters only in adult control mice. There also are general sex-specific effects of pubertal gonadectomy on adult stress and fear memory. Surgical stress alone also induces sex- and genotype-dependent effects, albeit in different behavioral parameters than those affected by gonadectomy. We conclude that normal development of stress and memory processes is reliant on the levels of stress and gonadal factors during puberty, the effects of which are modulated by genetic factors and sex.

Topics: Animals; Behavior, Animal; Conditioning, Psychological; Corticosterone; Fear; Female; Fever; Linear Models; Male; Memory Disorders; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Motor Activity; Orchiectomy; Ovariectomy; Penetrance; Sexual Maturation; Stress, Psychological; Transforming Growth Factor alpha

Sex- and age-associated deficits in brain structure and behavior are reported in a number of neuropsychiatric disorders. Although genetic and environmental factors are thought to contribute to the pathogenesis, there are only few examples in clinical or experimental systems that have identified specific causes. Here, we report that transforming growth factor-alpha (TGFalpha) may regulate sex- and age-dependent development of forebrain structures and associated neural functions after puberty. Waved-1 (Wa-1) mice inherit an autosomal recessive, spontaneous mutation that results in a postnatal reduction in TGFalpha gene expression. The assessment of forebrain structures using a three-dimensional magnetic resonance microscopy indicated ventricular enlargement and striatal reduction in both male and female Wa-1 adult mice, with Wa-1 males exhibiting a more severe phenotype. In contrast, the hippocampal volume was reduced only in adult Wa-1 males. Similarly, behavioral analyses showed impaired auditory and contextual fear learning in adult Wa-1 males only, whereas abnormal stress response was expressed by both male and female adult Wa-1 mice. Interestingly, all behavioral deficits were absent before full sexual maturation, despite some slight forebrain structural abnormalities. These results suggest that TGFalpha may regulate postpubertal, sex differentiation in ventricular and periventricular anatomy and associated behavior, affecting predominantly males. In particular, the adult male-specific reduction in hippocampal volume may reflect an age- and sex-specific regulation of stress homeostasis and fear learning. Furthermore, a lack of a behavioral phenotype, despite anatomical alterations in peripubertal Wa-1 mice, suggests that analysis of certain neuroanatomical features at puberty may predict neurobehavioral deficits in adulthood.

Topics: Acoustic Stimulation; Age Factors; Aging; Animals; Animals, Newborn; Behavior, Animal; Brain; Catecholamines; Choice Behavior; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Conditioning, Psychological; Corticosterone; Exploratory Behavior; Fear; Female; Fever; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Imaging, Three-Dimensional; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Mice, Neurologic Mutants; Prosencephalon; Radioimmunoassay; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; RNA, Messenger; Sex Differentiation; Stress, Physiological; Transforming Growth Factor alpha