We attempted to develop a novel method for the chemical modification of cytokines with synthetic polymers to increase in vivo therapeutic efficacy. A pH-reversible amino-protective reagent, dimethylmaleic anhydride (DMMAn), was used for polymer conjugation of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) with polyethylene glycol (PEG). The novel PEGylated TNF-alpha, PEG-TNF-alpha(+), which was pretre...

Trypanosoma brucei gambiense, a causative agent of sleeping sickness, induced a dose-dependent production of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha by human macrophages in vitro. TNF-alpha was also induced in the Mono Mac 6 cell line, which indicates a direct effect of parasite components on macrophages. Parasite-soluble factors were also potent inducers of TNF-alpha. The addition of anti-TNF-alpha ...

Recombinant human tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) has demonstrable antitumor activity in transplantable murine tumor models and patients with cancer but is highly toxic to both animals and human beings. The narrow therapeutic index of TNF-alpha has limited its anticancer utility. Toxicity associated with many standard anticancer drugs is highly dependent upon the circadian timing of the...

BACKGROUND The heart is a tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha)-producing organ. Recent basic experimental and clinical evidence suggests that TNF-alpha is an important mediator of myocardial injury during acute myocardial infarction, chronic heart failure, cardiac allograft rejection, and cardiopulmonary bypass operations. Although it is known that the myocardium itself is capable of produci...

TNF alpha mRNA and protein biosynthesis were examined in the adult feline heart after stimulation with endotoxin. When freshly isolated hearts were stimulated with endotoxin in vitro, de novo TNF alpha mRNA expression occurred within 30 min, and TNF alpha protein production was detected within 60-75 min; however, TNF alpha mRNA and protein production were not detected in diluent-treated hearts....

INTRODUCTION The aim of this study was to compare the effects of tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-1-beta (IL-1beta) on protease and catabolic cytokine and receptor gene expression in normal and degenerate human nucleus pulposus cells in alginate culture. METHODS Cells isolated from normal and degenerate nucleus pulposus regions of human intervertebral discs were cultur...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) is regarded as one of the immune factors that can induce demyelination of peripheral nerves in patients with Guillian-Barre syndrome (GBS). This present study was undertaken to find out the role of TNF-alpha and soluble TNF receptors in the pathogenesis of GBS; and to study the effect of intravenous immunoglobulin (ivIg) therapy o...

Lately, TNF alpha has been the focus of studies of autoimmunity; its role in the progression of autoimmune diabetes is, however, still unclear. To analyze the effects of TNF alpha in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), we have generated nonobese diabetic (NOD) transgenic mice expressing TNF alpha under the control of the rat insulin II promoter (RIP). In transgenic mice, TNF alpha expre...

Muscle wasting and increased circulating levels of inflammatory cytokines, including TNF-alpha, are common features of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. To investigate whether inflammation of the lung is responsible for systemic inflammation and muscle wasting, we adopted a mouse model of pulmonary inflammation resulting from directed overexpression of a TNF-alpha transgene controlled by t...