Animal models response inhibition

Carvediol is a vasodilator with beta-adrenergic antagonist activity. It has cardioprotective activity in animal models. The antioxidant effect of carvediol was compared with five other beta blockers in iron-initiated lipid peroxidation, where it inhibited TBARs formation and protected membrane-bound tocopherol in rat brain homogenate (Yue et al., 1992a). The ortJ <)-substituted phenoxylethyl-amine is responsible for the improved antioxidant activity. 

Experimental studies showed antitumoral effects of raloxifene in different in vitro preparations and animal models. Raloxifene has been able to inhibit the mitogenic effect induced by estrogens on ZR-75-1 cells, an estrogen responsive human breast cancer cell line (Poulin et al. 1989). In a well-accepted rat model of breast cancer induced by nitroso-methyl urea (NMU) raloxifene significantly suppressed the development of breast tumors and acted synergistically with 9 cis-retinoic acid (Anzano et al. 1996). 

Some xenobiotics may have divergent mechanisms of autoimmune responses. For example, hydralazine demonstrates adduct reactivity as well as inhibition of DNA methylation [68,73], while procainamide inhibits DNA methylation, forms immunogenic NPA, and disrupts clonal selection in the thymus [68, 72, 74], It is this complicated pattern of effects that makes assessment of autoimmune potential in the laboratory for new xenobiotics almost impossible. Animal models can sometimes be recreated to resemble human disease [74], and thus may be useful for therapy considerations, but are difficult to utilize for screening chemicals for hazard potential due to the diverse nature of autoimmunity mechanisms and physiological presentation. While evidence supports many different mechanisms for xenobiotic-induced autoimmune reactions, none have conclusively demonstrated the critical events necessary to lead to the development of autoimmune disease. Therefore, it is difficult to predict or identify xenobiotics that might possess the potential to elicit autoimmune disorders. 

Inhibitors of IkBo phosphorylation have been described which irreversibly inhibit cytokine-induced phosphorylation without affecting constitutive phosphorylation. One such compound (Bay 11-7083 ((E)3-[4-f-butylphenyl)-sulfonyl]-2-propenenitrile)) was found to be effective in two animal models of inflammation after intraperitoneal administration [89]. In addition to the effect it has on the expression of adhesion molecules in pro-inflammatory responses, inhibition of the transcription factor NFkB will also have an effect on angiogenesis. Endothelial cells can produce growth factors and cytokines which have pro-angiogenic effects. Some of these factors, e.g. IL-8, TNFa and MCP-1 are known to be produced via NFkB-mediated endothelial cell activation [90,91]. The importance of NFKB-mediated responses in pro-angiogenic endothelium was reflected in studies in which the NFkB inhibitor PDTC decreased retinal neovascularization in the eye of mice [92]. 

Altered startle reactivity and attenuation of the inhibition of the startle reflex by an acoustic prepulse has been observed in psychiatric patients, e.g. in schizophrenia (Braff et al. 1978). Disrupted prepulse inhibition in rats can be normalized by antipsychotics and this paradigm is being used as an animal model for drug development. Interestingly, a2c-KO mice had enhanced startle responses, diminished prepulse inhibition, and shortened attack... 

Interestingly, while peripheral neuroendocrine function appears normal in patients with panic disorder, decreased basal cortisol concentrations have been reported in most studies in PTSD patients. This relative hypocortisolism occurs in the context of increased feedback inhibition of the HPA axis (see Yehuda, 2000). However, a dissociation between central and adrenocortical (re)activity has been found in animal models of severe early-life stress as well as in abused children and women, suggesting that adrenal dysfunction may, at least in part, contribute to hypocortisolism in PTSD. In the face of hypocortisolism, it seems surprising that hippocampal atrophy is one of the most prominent findings in patients with PTSD, including adult survivors of childhood abuse with PTSD (see Newport and Nemeroff, 2000). While increased glucocorticoid sensitivity of hippocampal cells may play a role in the development of hippocampal atrophy, another potential mechanism may involve toxic effects of markedly increased cortisol responses to everyday stress in patients with PTSD. 

However, NO also appears to play an important protective role in the body via immune cell function. When challenged with foreign antigens, 1 cells (see Chapter 55) respond by synthesizing NO. Inhibition of NOS and knockout of the iNOS gene can markedly impair the protective response to injected parasites in animal models. 

Three lipids A have been more intensively studied in animal models, all of them having indirect effects, mediated in vivo by the immune system. For two of them, DT-5461 and ONO-4007, TNF-a is an important mediator acting at the vascular level that provokes tumor necrosis. For the third one, OM-174, the treatment induces the accumulation of IFN-y and EL-1 P in tumors, which activate NOS II transcription in tumor cells that produce autotoxic NO, which then provokes the apoptosis of tumor cells. At the same time this treatment inhibits the production of TGF-pi by tumor cells which reduces the TGF-pi induced immunosuppression and enhances NO production. Acquired immune response, probably completes the tumor regression started by the apoptosis process and, most probably induces specific memory. 

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