Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Research indicates that prolactin, a hormone linked to lactation, may influence the brain’s reward system by interacting with dopamine. GLP-1 analogues, prescribed for diabetes and obesity, are known for their appetite-suppressant effects. With GLP-1 receptors found in mood and reward-related brain regions, a potential role of GLP-1 in reward regulation is suggested. A knowledge gap exists regarding the interaction between GLP-1 and prolactin in the context of...

Background: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic disease (Covid-19) affects thyroid function with different mechanisms: non-thyroidal illness syndrome (NTIS), direct infection of thyroid gland and cytokine storm. We provided the first description of painless atypical thyroiditis coexisting with NTIS in patients hospitalised for moderate-to-severe Covid-19 disease. We aimed to: 1) correlate thyroid dysfunction with Covid-19 disease severity;...

Introduction: A possible association between the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV)-2 pandemic, in terms of infection and/or vaccination, and subacute thyroiditis (SAT) has been recently reported. Although a higher SAT incidence in pandemic has been described, data are still conflicting.Aim: To determine SAT incidence in Italy during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and to characterize clinical peculiarities and response to medical treatment...

Background: Alemtuzumab (ALTZ) is a humanised monoclonal anti-CD52 antibody used as effective treatment for relapsing/remitting multiple sclerosis (MS), causing panlymphopenia with subsequent lymphocyte repopulation. Unfortunately, around 40% of patients develop secondary humoral autoimmunity, mainly affecting the thyroid gland. Anti-thyrotropin-receptor (TSHR) autoantibodies (TRAb) can stimulate (TSAb), block (TBAb) or not affect (‘neutral’) TSHR function, with TSAb...

Background: Alemtuzumab (ALTZ) is a humanised monoclonal anti-CD52 antibody used as effective treatment for relapsing/remitting multiple sclerosis (MS), causing panlymphopenia with subsequent lymphocyte repopulation. Unfortunately, around 40% of patients develop secondary humoral autoimmunity, mainly affecting the thyroid gland. Anti-thyrotropin-receptor (TSHR) autoantibodies (TRAb) can stimulate (TSAb), block (TBAb) or not affect (‘neutral’) TSHR function, with TSAb...

Background and Aims: Graves’ disease (GD) and orbitopathy (GO) are characterised by the presence of pathological anti-thyrotropin receptor antibodies. In thyroid autoimmunity, especially GD and GO, a dysregulation of several T cell subpopulations has been proposed, especially T regulatory (Treg) and T helper 17 (Th17) cells, determining (auto)immunity inhibition and enhancement, respectively. T follicular cells (Tf) within germinal centres (GC: aggregates of lymphocytes w...

Background: Changes of the gut microbiota may impact on the mechanisms of immune tolerance in Graves’ disease (GD) and Graves’ orbitopathy (GO). Probiotics, which contain live micro-organisms, can modify the composition of the gut microbiota.Aims: We tested in a double-blind randomized placebo controlled trial whether the administration of a well-characterized, commercially available, probiotic would 1) modify the microbiota composition in GD/G...

Promiscuous multi-agonists that simultaneously activate two or three key receptors (incretin- and/or glucagon receptor) were recently shown to improve glycemic control in mice. Here we investigated the underlying mechanisms of multi-agonists to enhance insulin secretion in murine islets and human pancreatic β-cells. These mixed agonists display a greater potency in cAMP signaling as compared to the native incretins. However, pharmacological blockade of cAMP signaling only...

The role of luteinizing hormone (LH) and its receptor (LHCGR) signaling in the adrenal gland remains unknown. Gonadectomy-induced chronically elevated LH levels trigger neoplastic transformation in genetically susceptible mouse strains (DBA/2J) or transgenic mice expressing the Simian Virus 40 T antigen (SV40Tag) oncogene under inhibin-α promoter (inhα/Tag). In order to study the functional role of LHR and GATA4 in the onset and progression of adrenocortical tumors i...

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare tumor with heterogeneous outcome and no available targeted therapy. The aim of the study is to identify prognostic molecular markers and novel potential drug targets.A total of 43 FFPE tumor samples were retrospectively investigated for somatic mutations and copy number variations (CNV) by next-generation sequencing (160 cancer-related genes, Qiagen). Gene expression was evaluated by quantitative RT-PCR in a subgr...