Inhibition of Mammary Cancer Progression in Fetal Alcohol Exposed Rats by β-Endorphin Neurons

Involvement of the Opioid Peptide Family in Cancer Progression

Peptides mediate cancer progression favoring the mitogenesis, migration, and invasion of tumor cells, promoting metastasis and anti-apoptotic mechanisms, and facilitating angiogenesis/lymphangiogenesis. Tumor cells overexpress peptide receptors, crucial targets for developing specific treatments against cancer cells using peptide receptor antagonists and promoting apoptosis in tumor cells. Opioids exert an antitumoral effect, whereas others promote tumor growth and metastasis. This review updates the findings regarding the involvement of opioid peptides (enkephalins, endorphins, and dynorphins) in cancer development. Anticancer therapeutic strategies targeting the opioid peptidergic system and the main research lines to be developed regarding the topic reviewed are suggested. There is much to investigate about opioid peptides and cancer: basic information is scarce, incomplete, or absent in many tumors. This knowledge is crucial since promising anticancer strategies could be developed alone or in combination therapies with chemotherapy/radiotherapy.

Opioid Receptor-Mediated and Non-Opioid Receptor-Mediated Roles of Opioids in Tumour Growth and Metastasis

Opioids are administered to cancer patients in the period surrounding tumour excision, and in the management of cancer-associated pain. The effects of opioids on tumour growth and metastasis, and their consequences on disease outcome, continue to be the object of polarised, discrepant literature. It is becoming clear that opioids contribute a range of direct and indirect effects to the biology of solid tumours, to the anticancer immune response, inflammation, angiogenesis and importantly, to the tumour-promoting effects of pain. A common misconception in the literature is that the effect of opioid agonists equates the effect of the mu-opioid receptor, the major target of the analgesic effect of this class of drugs. We review the evidence on opioid receptor expression in cancer, opioid receptor polymorphisms and cancer outcome, the effect of opioid antagonists, especially the peripheral antagonist methylnaltrexone, and lastly, the evidence available of a role for opioids through non-opioid receptor mediated actions.

Preconception Alcohol Exposure Increases the Susceptibility to Diabetes in the Offspring

Heavy alcohol drinking alters glucose metabolism, but the inheritability of this effect of alcohol is not well understood. We used an animal model of preconception alcohol exposure in which adult female rats were given free access to 6.7% alcohol in a liquid diet and water for about 4 weeks, went without alcohol for 3 weeks, and then were bred to generate male and female offspring. Control animals were either ad lib-fed rat chow or pair-fed an isocaloric liquid diet during the time of alcohol-feeding in the experimental animals. Our results show that the female rats fed with alcohol in the liquid diet, but not with the isocaloric liquid diet, prior to conception had an altered stress gene network involving glucose metabolism in oocytes when compared with those in ad lib-fed chow diet controls. The offspring born from preconception alcohol-fed mothers showed significant hyperglycemia and hypoinsulinemia when they were adults. These rats also showed increased levels of inflammatory cytokines and cellular apoptosis in the pancreas, altered insulin production and actions in the liver, and a reduced number of proopiomelanocortin neurons in the hypothalamus. Replenishment of proopiomelanocortin neurons in these animals normalized the abnormal glucose to restore homeostasis. These data suggest that preconception alcohol exposures alter glucose homeostasis by inducing proopiomelanocortin neuronal functional abnormalities. Our findings provide a novel insight into the impact of high doses of alcohol on the female gamete that may cause inheritance of an increased susceptibility to diabetes.

Different Processed Products of Curcumae Radix Regulate Pain-Related Substances in a Rat Model of Qi Stagnation and Blood Stasis

Background

Curcumae blood Radix (Yujin) has been widely used to treat Qi stagnation and stasis in TCM. According to the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, the tuberous roots of Curcuma longed L. (i.e., Huangsiyujin, HSYJ) is one of the major species of Yujin. According to the processing theory of TCM, stir-frying HSYJ with vinegar might strengthen the effect of dispersing stagnated hepatoqi to relieve pain, and stir-frying HSYJ with wine might strengthen the effect of promoting blood circulation in order to remove blood stasis. However, the mechanism for the enhancement of clinical efficacy by processing is unclear.

Aim/Hypothesis

This study was aimed at evaluating the effect of different processed products of HSYJ on chemical constituents and pain-related substances to explore underlying mechanisms of HSYJ in treating pain caused by Qi stagnation and blood stasis.

Methods

The effects of different processing methods on the paste yield of water decoction were analyzed, and the content of the main constituents were detected by HPLC. A rat model of Qi stagnation and blood stasis was established by tail clamp stimulation combined with subcutaneous adrenaline injection. After treatment and intervention with HSYJ and its processed products, β-endorphin (β-EP) and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) were measured by ELISA, and the expression of c-fos was evaluated by immunohistochemistry.

Results

After stir-frying with vinegar or wine, the extract yield and curcumin content increased. Compared with model group, raw HSYJ could significantly improve the abnormality of 5-HT in plasma (P < 0.05) and β-EP in brain (P < 0.01). Stir-frying HSYJ with vinegar or wine could significantly improve the abnormality of 5-HT in plasma, β-EP in brain, and the expression of c-fos (P < 0.01). Stir-frying HSYJ with vinegar could also significantly increase the level of β-EP in plasma (P < 0.05).

Conclusion

These results showed that different processing methods have certain effects on the chemical constituents of HSYJ, mainly in increasing the decoction rate and curcumin content. HSYJ and its processed products can reduce 5-HT levels, increase β-EP levels, and inhibit the expression of c-fos in model rats. The effects of stir-frying HSYJ with vinegar on β-EP levels in plasma was superior to others.

Endogenous Opiates and Behavior: 2016

This paper is the thirty-ninth consecutive installment of the annual review of research concerning the endogenous opioid system. It summarizes papers published during 2016 that studied the behavioral effects of molecular, pharmacological and genetic manipulation of opioid peptides, opioid receptors, opioid agonists and opioid antagonists. The particular topics that continue to be covered include the molecular-biochemical effects and neurochemical localization studies of endogenous opioids and their receptors related to behavior, and the roles of these opioid peptides and receptors in pain and analgesia, stress and social status, tolerance and dependence, learning and memory, eating and drinking, drug abuse and alcohol, sexual activity and hormones, pregnancy, development and endocrinology, mental illness and mood, seizures and neurologic disorders, electrical-related activity and neurophysiology, general activity and locomotion, gastrointestinal, renal and hepatic functions, cardiovascular responses, respiration and thermoregulation, and immunological responses.

The Genetics of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

The term "fetal alcohol spectrum disorders" (FASD) defines the full range of ethanol (EtOH)-induced birth defects. Numerous variables influence the phenotypic outcomes of embryonic EtOH exposure. Among these variables, genetics appears to play an important role, yet our understanding of the genetic predisposition to FASD is still in its infancy. We review the current literature that relates to the genetics of FASD susceptibility and gene-EtOH interactions. Where possible, we comment on potential mechanisms of reported gene-EtOH interactions. Early indications of genetic sensitivity to FASD came from human and animal studies using twins or inbred strains, respectively. These analyses prompted searches for susceptibility loci involved in EtOH metabolism and analyses of candidate loci, based on phenotypes observed in FASD. More recently, genetic screens in animal models have provided an additional insight into the genetics of FASD. Understanding FASD requires that we understand the many factors influencing phenotypic outcome following embryonic EtOH exposure. We are gaining ground on understanding some of the genetics behind FASD, yet much work remains to be carried out. Coordinated analyses using human patients and animal models are likely to be highly fruitful in uncovering the genetics behind FASD.