10th Meeting of the European Neuroendocrine Association (ENEA) - Report
From the September 12 to 14, 2002 the 10th Congress of the ENEA took place in Munich under the presidency of Professor Günter K. Stalla (Max-Planck-Institute of Psychiatry, Dept. of Endocrinology, Munich). |
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The aim of ENEA which was founded 1984 in Switzerland is to support and to integrate pre-clinical and clinical aspects of neuroendocrinology in Europe. For this reason biennial ENEA congresses take place in different European capitals. Despite current competitive meetings, the ENEA congress 2002 was attended by more than 750 physicians and scientists and around 100 co-workers of the pharmaceutical and biotechnical industry from 54 nations.
Therefore, the ENEA congress 2002 was so far the world-wide most successful congress in neuroendocrinology and represented a highlight in the history of ENEA meetings. Especially the big number of participants from Eastern European countries and of countries outside of Europe should be mentioned.
During the congress 414 scientific abstracts and contributions from 39 countries were presented within a frame of 4 plenary lectures, 13 symposia, 2 workshops, 3 Meet-the-Professor-Sessions, oral communications and posters.
In addition, the prize for Endocrine Communication and Regulation of the Ipsen Foundation was awarded to Prof. Wylie Vale (Salk Institute, USA). His scientific work comprises the identification of a number of important neuroendocrine peptides such as CRF, urocortins, GRF and activin as well as the cloning of the CRF type I receptor and of a modulating binding protein. The two ENEA Young Investigator Awards 2002 (for basic and clinical research) have been awarded for outstanding research in neuroendocrinology.
Major clinical topics have been future therapeutical options provided by new and specific somatostatin analogues and by GH receptor antagonists, management of complicated pituitary tumours, GH replacement strategies and neuroendocrinology of aging. Prof. S. Lamberts (Rotterdam) reported that individuals with genetically determined low IGF-I levels exhibit an increased risk for diabetes mellitus and heart attack. Prof. G. Aimaretti (Turin) showed that 39 % of patients with severe brain injury and 63 % of patients with subarachnoidal bleeding develop pituitary insufficiency.
Topics of the symposia related to basic neuroendocrine research have been dealing with the role of estrogens in neuroprotection, with neuroendocrine-immune interactions, with neuroendocrine signal transduction mechanisms, with the pathogenesis and development of pituitary tumours, with different regulatory factors of pituitary function and with neuroendocrine mechanisms of weight control.
Highlights of the ENEA meeting have been the 4 plenary lectures:
Prof. Shlomo Melmed (Los Angeles) reported about recent advances in the understanding of the pathogenesis of pituitary adenomas. He showed that the pituitary tumour transforming gene (PTTG) product is an oncogene, which is involved in early steps of pituitary tumour formation. PTTG expression is stimulated by estradiol and cyclically fluctuating during the estrous cycle in female rats. Sustained estrogen-induced PTTG over-expression probably induces aneuploidy of pituitary cells and moreover, initiates over-expression of growth factors like FGF leading finally to prolactinoma formation. Therefore, anti-estrogens block the estrogen/PTTG-induced prolactinoma development.
Prof. Andre Lacroix (Montreal) was talking about the genesis of Cushing´s syndrome as a consequence of aberrant hormone receptors of the adrenals. Abnormal function and/or expression of vasopressin-, serotonin- and other receptors can induce hypersecretion of cortisol by still largely unknown molecular mechanisms. Aberrant adrenal hormone receptors have to be taken into consideration in the differential diagnosis of Cushing´s syndrome.
Prof. Florian Holsboer (Munich) demonstrated on the basis of CRH the way from basic research on depression to the development of novel therapeutical approaches in the treatment of this disease. Mice overexpressing CRH show signs and symptoms of affective disorders, whereas CRH receptor type-1 (CRHR1) knock-out mice show reduced anxiety-like behaviour. In vivo studies in innate high-anxiety rat strains with a novel CRHR1 antagonist (R121919) reduced anxiety-like behaviour. In patients with major depression R121919 was as effective as standard antidepressants. This indicates that CRHR1 antagonists represent powerful future tools for the individual pharmacological treatment of patients with affective disorders.
Prof. Stephen O´Rahilly (Cambridge) summarised the genetic background of obesity. Deficiency or inactivating mutations of different factors or various receptors (e.g. leptin deficiency, mutations of pro-opiomelanocortin, leptin receptor or prohormone convertase-1) can cause severe obesity. Moreover, genome-wide scans have provided first evidence for the involvement of particular chromosomal regions in the pathogenesis of obesity.
During the ENEA Congress 2002, as a joint meeting the 6th Annual Conference of the Neuroendocrine Section of the German Endocrine Society took place. In this meeting perspectives of novel techniques (e.g. DNA arrays, proteomics) and of magnetic resonance tomography (MR) for basic and clinical neuroendocrinology were discussed. In particular it was shown that MR can be used as a non-invasive method to visualise three-dimensional anatomical structures (MR angiography) and to determine metabolic parameters in tissues and cells. Moreover, functional MR can be applied for mapping of neurofunctional structures and MR is also very helpful in intraoperative monitoring.
The 10th ENEA meeting provided a state of the art overview of the full field of neuroendocrinology and an excellent occasion for informative discussions and debates with colleagues from all over the world.
The next Congress of the ENEA will take place in Sorrent-Naples (Italy) from the 24th to the 27th of April 2004.