INIBIOLP   05426
INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIONES BIOQUIMICAS DE LA PLATA "PROF. DR. RODOLFO R. BRENNER"
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
artículos
Título:
Physiology and Therapeutic Potential of the Thymic Peptide Thymulin
Autor/es:
REGGIANI PC; SCHWERDT JI; CONSOLE GM; ROGGERO EA; DARDENNE M; GOYA RG
Revista:
CURRENT PHARMACEUTICAL DESIGN.
Editorial:
BENTHAM SCIENCE PUBL LTD
Referencias:
Lugar: Oak Park; Año: 2014 vol. 20 p. 4690 - 4696
ISSN:
1381-6128
Resumen:
Thymulin is a thymic hormone exclusively produced by the epithelial cells of the thymus. After its discovery and initial characterization in the ?70s, it was demonstrated that the production and secretion of thymulin are strongly influenced by the neuro-endocrine system. Conversely, a growing body of evidence, to be reviewed here, suggests that thymulin is a hypophysiotropic peptide. Additionally, a substantial body of information pointing to thymulin and a synthetic analog as anti-inflammatory and analgesic peptides in the central nervous system brain and other organs will be also reviewed. In recent years, a synthetic DNA sequence encoding a biologically activeanalog of thymulin, metFTS, was constructed and cloned in a number of adenovectors. These include bidirectional regulatable Tet-Off vector systems that simultaneously express metFTS and green fluorescent protein and that can be down-regulated reversibly by the addition of the antibiotic doxycycline. A number of recent studies indicate that gene therapy for thymulin may be an effective therapeutic strategy to prevent some of the hormonal and reproductive abnormalities that typically appear in congenitally athymic (nude) mice, used as a suitable model of neuroendocrine and reproductive aging. Summing up, this article briefly reviews the publications on the physiology of the thymulin-neuroendocrine axis and the anti-inflammatory properties of the molecule and its analog. The availability of novel biotechnological tools should boost basic studies on the molecular biology of thymulin and should also allow an assessment of the potentialof gene therapy to restore circulating thymulin levels in thymodeficient animal models and eventually, in humans.