objective(s) using herbal medicines as a complementary treatment method is increasing in wide variety of diseases. ms14-an herbal-marine preparation-is reported to have anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory activities; however, the mechanism underlying its therapeutic effect is not known. macrophages play an important role in host defense mechanisms and carry out their role by producing variou...

Chronic inflammation has long been associated with the development of cancer, ever since Rudolf Virchow's first observation that leukocytes were present in neoplastic tissue more than 130 years ago. Recent evidences have reignited the interest of cancer researchers in the exciting concept of an association between chronic inflammation and cancer. Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), initial...

Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) is a candidate human immunodeficiency virus type 1-induced neurotoxin that contributes to the pathogenesis of AIDS dementia complex. We report here on the effects of exogenous TNF-alpha on SK-N-MC human neuroblastoma cells differentiated to a neuronal phenotype with retinoic acid, TNF-alpha caused a dose-dependent loss of viability and a corresponding inc...

Epidemiologic studies implicate inflammatory stimuli in the development of ovarian cancer. The proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) and both its receptors (TNFRI and TNFRII) are expressed in biopsies of this malignancy. Here, we tested the hypothesis that TNF-alpha is a regulator of the proinflammatory microenvironment of ovarian cancer. A cancer profiling array show...

We determined the effects of yolk water-soluble protein (YSP) on bone resorption. YSP potently suppressed osteoclastogenesis from bone marrow-derived precursor cells driven by tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). YSP (200 microg/ml) abolished the formation of tartarate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP)-positive osteoclasts. Furthermore, TNF-alpha induced TRAP activity was greatly inhibited ...

Amphotericin B derivatives, such as MS-8209, have been evaluated as a therapeutic approach to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. We show that MS-8209, like amphotericin B, increases tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) mRNA expression and TNF-alpha production and consequently HIV replication in human macrophages. These effects confirm the pharmacological risk associated with the a...

Inhibitors of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) have been approved for treating rheumatoid arthritis. As one of the biological response modifiers, etanercept has also been used in the treatment of psoriatic arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease. While etanercept is effective, certain infectious complications, such as tuberculosis, fungus, and cytomegalovirus, have been reported. We rep...

In sarcoidosis, host genetic factors are discussed as contributing to disease susceptibility and course. Since tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha is a central mediator of granuloma formation and since elevated TNF-alpha levels are found during active phases of sarcoidosis, genetic polymorphisms correlating with influences on TNF-alpha levels are of special interest. The complete sequencing of th...

We describe an enhancer site in the third intron of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha). A reporter construct containing the 5'-flanking region of the mouse TNF-alpha gene displayed weak activity when transfected into RAW264.7 macrophage-like cells. The addition of the third intron of TNF-alpha to this construct resulted in an enhancement of CAT protein. This enhancement was eliminated if a...