Agonist-specific patterns of beta 2-adrenoceptor responses in human airway cells during prolonged exposure.

Background And Purpose: Beta(2)-adrenoceptor agonists (beta(2)-agonists) are important bronchodilators used in the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. At the molecular level, beta(2)-adrenergic agonist stimulation induces desensitization of the beta(2)-adrenoceptor. In this study, we have examined the relationships between initial effect and subsequent reduction of responsiveness to restimulation for a panel of beta(2)-agonists in cellular and in vitro tissue models.

Alpha-lactalbumin unfolding is not sufficient to cause apoptosis, but is required for the conversion to HAMLET (human alpha-lactalbumin made lethal to tumor cells).

HAMLET (human alpha-lactalbumin made lethal to tumor cells) is a complex of human alpha-lactalbumin and oleic acid (C18:1:9 cis) that kills tumor cells by an apoptosis-like mechanism. Previous studies have shown that a conformational change is required to form HAMLET from alpha-lactalbumin, and that a partially unfolded conformation is maintained in the HAMLET complex. This study examined if unfolding of alpha-lactalbumin is sufficient to induce cell death.

HAMLET interacts with histones and chromatin in tumor cell nuclei.

HAMLET is a folding variant of human alpha-lactalbumin in an active complex with oleic acid. HAMLET selectively enters tumor cells, accumulates in their nuclei and induces apoptosis-like cell death. This study examined the interactions of HAMLET with nuclear constituents and identified histones as targets.

HAMLET kills tumor cells by an apoptosis-like mechanism--cellular, molecular, and therapeutic aspects.

HAMLET (human alpha-lactalbumin made lethal to tumor cells) is a protein-lipid complex that induces apoptosis-like death in tumor cells, but leaves fully differentiated cells unaffected. This review summarizes the information on the in vivo effects of HAMLET in patients and tumor models on the tumor cell biology, and on the molecular characteristics of the complex. HAMLET limits the progression of human glioblastomas in a xenograft model and removes skin papillomas in patients.