Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Thyroid Storm is a life-threatening but rare (incidence 0.2 per 100 000) disease state which presents as an extreme form of thyrotoxicosis. A hyper-metabolic state resulting from excessive thyroid hormone release which can be precipitated by both thyroidal and non-thyroidal illness.Case: In this case we discuss a 72 year old female with previously treated Graves disease who presented in thyroid storm one week after annual flu vaccination. O...

Temporary hypocalcaemia following total thyroidectomy occurs in around 30% of patients and is usually due to inadvertent damage to the parathyroid glands. Whilst mild cases are easily managed with oral calcium supplementation, there is the potential for severe calcium deficit with the ensuing risks of cardiac dysrhythmias, tetany and in extreme cases death. It is common practice to have a post-surgery protocol to allow the early identification of these patients. Whilst many pr...

Although the sodium iodide symporter (NIS) is expressed in 70–80% of breast cancers, only 20–30% is located at the plasma membrane (PM) and therefore functional. Previous work in thyroid cells leads demonstrated that PBF redistributes NIS from the PM into intracellular vesicles, potently reducing radioiodide uptake. We therefore examined whether increased membranous NIS could facilitate radioiodide therapy for breast cancer. Immunofluorescent microscopy revealed co-l...

The clinical effectiveness of ablative radioiodine treatment is limited by the ability of the sodium iodide symporter (NIS) to uptake 131I. A significant proportion of well-differentiated thyroid tumours are unable to concentrate sufficient radioiodine for effective therapy, and in other tumour models such as breast, where radioiodine uptake would be an attractive therapeutic option, uptake is insufficient. Pituitary tumor-transforming gene-binding factor (PBF/ PTTG...

Pituitary tumor transforming gene (PTTG) binding factor (PBF) is a proto-oncogene which is frequently upregulated in endocrine cancers. PBF has previously been determined to contain several putative signal sequences within its 180 amino acids. Previous studies have shown the nuclear localisation signal (NLS) to be functional and prediction software now suggests the presence of a putative leucine-rich nuclear export signal (NES) between residues 17 and 27. PBF is known to shutt...

p53 is rarely mutated in thyroid papillary carcinomas, despite the thyroid being highly sensitive to ionising radiation. The pituitary tumor transforming gene binding factor (PBF) is a proto-oncogene overexpressed in thyroid cancer. Oncogenic levels of PBF result in cell transformation in vitro and tumourigenesis in vivo. By serendipity we have found that PBF interacts directly with the tumour suppressor protein p53. In light of these data we have investigated th...

The human pituitary tumor transforming gene is overexpressed in thyroid cancers; inducing genetic instability through its role as a securin and propagating growth through induction of growth factors. We have demonstrated reduced cellular proliferation following hPTTG overexpression in neuronal cells. We hypothesised targeted hPTTG overexpression in mouse thyroids will result in hyperplastic/neoplastic growth and that stimulation of thyroid cell growth through standard methods ...

By exploiting the canonical function of the sodium iodide symporter (NIS), ablative radioiodide therapy is an effective treatment for thyroid cancer. However, a subset of patients are unable to accumulate sufficient radioiodide due to decreased expression and/or plasma membrane localisation of NIS. Radioiodide therapy has been proposed as a viable treatment for breast cancer, but is hampered by low levels of NIS membrane localisation. Currently, the regulation of NIS trafficki...

By exploiting the canonical function of the sodium iodide symporter (NIS), ablative radioiodide therapy is an effective treatment for thyroid cancer. However, a subset of patients are unable to accumulate sufficient radioiodide due to decreased expression and/or plasma membrane localisation of NIS. Radioiodide therapy has been proposed as a viable treatment for breast cancer, but is hampered by low levels of NIS membrane localisation. Currently, the regulation of NIS trafficki...

Section 1: Case history: A 46 year old man with Becker Muscular Dystrophy (BMD), was admitted with palpitations and shortness of breath. He had a past medial history of severe left ventricular dysfunction (LVSD) and cardiac arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation (AF) treated with amiodarone, and an implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) for non-sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT). He had been treated with 3 months of prednisolone for suspected type 2 amiodarone induced...