INIBIOLP   05426
INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIONES BIOQUIMICAS DE LA PLATA "PROF. DR. RODOLFO R. BRENNER"
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
artículos
Título:
Thymulin-based gene therapy and pituitary function in animal models of aging
Autor/es:
REGGIANI PC; POCH B; CONSOLE GM; RIMOLDI OJ; SCHWERDT JI; TUNGLER V; GARCIA BRAVO, MM; DARDENNE M; GOYA RG
Revista:
NEUROIMMUNOMODULATION.
Editorial:
KARGER
Referencias:
Año: 2011 vol. 18 p. 350 - 356
ISSN:
1021-7401
Resumen:
Thymulin is a thymic hormone exclusively produced by the thymic epithelial cells. It consists of a nonapeptide component coupled to the ion zinc, which confers biological activity to the molecule. After its discovery in the early ?70, thymulin was characterized as a thymic hormone involved in several aspects of intra- and extrathymic T-cell differentiation. Subsequently, it was demonstrated that thymulin production and secretion is strongly influenced by the neuroendocrine system. Conversely, a growing core of information, to be reviewed here, points to thymulin as a hypophysotropic peptide. In recent years, interest has arisen in the potential use of thymulin as a therapeutic agent. Thymulin was shown to possess anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties in the brain. Furthermore, an adenoviral vector harboring a synthetic gene for thymulin, stereotaxically injected in the rat brain, achieved a much longer expression than the adenovirally-mediated expression in the brain of other genes, thus suggesting that an anti-inflammatory activity of thymulin prevents the immune system from destroying virus-transduced brain cells. Other studies suggest that thymulin gene therapy may also be a suitable therapeutic strategy to prevent some of the endocrine and metabolic alterations that typically appear in thymus-deficient animal models. The present article briefly reviews the literature on the physiology, molecular biology and therapeutic potential of thymulin.