Endocrine Abstracts

Immunotherapies such as IL-2 and interferon have long been used in the treatment of certain cancers and immune mediated conditions. It has also long been recognised that their use is associated with an increased risk of autoimmune thyroid disease. Recent advances in the use of checkpoint inhibitors, such as ipilimumab and PD-1 inhibitors, in the treatment of a number of common cancers, as well as treatments such as alemtuzumab in multiple sclerosis have dramatically increased ...

Over the past decade, annual spending on pharmaceutical development to treat many endocrinological systems has increased exponentially. At the same time, in spite of these huge sums invested, the average number of drugs being approved for human use has decreased to one in ten. Currently, preclinical studies to test the safety and efficiency of new drugs, use laboratory animals and traditional 2D cell culture models. Neither of these methods are completely accurate reflections ...

Immunotherapies such as IL-2 and interferon have long been used in the treatment of certain cancers and immune mediated conditions. It has also long been recognised that their use is associated with an increased risk of autoimmune thyroid disease. Recent advances in the use of checkpoint inhibitors, such as ipilimumab and PD-1 inhibitors, in the treatment of a number of common cancers, as well as treatments such as alemtuzumab in multiple sclerosis have dramatically increased ...

Over the past decade, annual spending on pharmaceutical development to treat many endocrinological systems has increased exponentially. At the same time, in spite of these huge sums invested, the average number of drugs being approved for human use has decreased to one in ten. Currently, preclinical studies to test the safety and efficiency of new drugs, use laboratory animals and traditional 2D cell culture models. Neither of these methods are completely accurate reflections ...

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) plays fundamental roles in the control of reproductive physiology. Perturbations in GnRH production or secretion cause infertility or subfertility. GnRH analogs are used clinically to both promote and inhibit the reproductive axis. GnRH is produced in neurons in the hypothalamus and is released in pulses into the pituitary portal system. The hormone binds to its cell surface receptor, GnRHR, on pituitary gonadotrope cells, where it stimula...

Checkpoint Inhibitors have emerges as a major breakthrough in cancer therapy. Side effects are largely immune mediated, termed immune related adverse events. Whilst the majority of these respond to immunosuppressive treatment, most frequently glucocorticoids, endocrinopathies are amongst the more frequent adverse events, and usually lead to permanent hormone deficiency, requiring life long hormone replacement. There are differences in the pattern of endocrinopathy between diff...

Thyroid eye disease (TED), or Graves’ orbitopathy, is a common manifestation of autoimmune thyroid disease, affecting up to 30% of patients. Prompt identification of the development of TED is often difficult as the underlying inflammation of the orbital tissues and can lead to a wide range of symptoms and signs.These include extraocular muscle fibrosis leading to diplopia, orbital congestion leading to optic nerve compression and lid retraction lead...

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) are incretin hormones secreted by gut endocrine cells that act on structurally related β-cell G protein coupled receptors to trigger glucose-dependent insulin secretion. Both peptide hormones augment glucose-stimulated insulin secretion although the actions of GIP are diminished in the setting of hyperglycemia. Moreover, the two incretin hormones, and their structurally related receptor...

The wealth of new information, published over the past two decades, has led an international committee (under the auspices of the American Endocrine Society) to propose clinical guidelines for the management of thyroid diseases associated with the pregnant state. These guidelines were reviewed and endorsed by the four world Thyroid Associations (ETA, ATA, LATS, AOTA) and the Endocrine Society. They have been published in August 2007 as a supplement to the Journal of Clinical E...

Ghrelin, an appetite-stimulatory hormone secreted by the stomach, was discovered as a ligand for the growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHSR). Through GHSR, ghrelin stimulates growth hormone (GH) secretion, a function that evolved to protect against starvation-induced hypoglycemia. Though the biology mediated by ghrelin has been described in great detail, regulation of ghrelin action is poorly understood. Here, we report the discovery of liver-expressed antimicrobial peptid...