Molecular Imaging Targeting Corticotropin-releasing Hormone Receptor for Corticotropinoma: A Changing Paradigm

Plain-language guide to PMID 33079979 (2021): clinical trial study of ACTH (Corticotropin) and CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone).

Key Facts

PMID: 33079979
Journal: The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism
Year: 2021
Study type: Clinical Trial
Authors: Walia R et al. (19 authors)
DOI: 10.1210/clinem/dgaa755

What This Study Did, in Plain Language

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of ACTH (Corticotropin) and CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone), published as a clinical trial.

Corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH) is the major regulator of adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) secretion from the anterior pituitary and acts via CRH-1 receptors (CRH-1R).

Corticotropinoma though autonomous, still retain their responsiveness to CRH and hence, the researchers hypothesize that in vivo detection of CRH-1 receptors on pituitary adenoma using Gallium-68 (68Ga)-tagged CRH can indicate the functionality of adenoma, and combining it with positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) can provide requisite anatomical information.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as teenagers, young adults, adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

Subjects with ACTH-dependent Cushing's syndrome (CS) (n = 27, 24 with Cushing's disease [CD], 3 with ectopic CS [ECS]) underwent 68Ga CRH PET-CT.

How the Study Was Run

Two nuclear medicine physicians read these images for adenoma delineation and superimposed them on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sella.

The information provided was used for intraoperative navigation and compared with operative and histopathological findings.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include ACTH Syndrome, Ectopic, ACTH-Secreting Pituitary Adenoma, Adenoma, Adrenocorticotropic Hormone, Cushing Syndrome, Diagnosis, Differential and Gallium Radioisotopes.

The authors tagged it with the keywords 68Ga CRH PET-CT, BIPSS, Cushing’s, MRI and diagnostic imaging.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is a clinical trial of ACTH (Corticotropin) and CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone).

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 4 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2021 (The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism), a journal based in United States.

More context: the ACTH (Corticotropin) compound page and the CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone) compound page, all human trials.

Our Notes on the Compounds

ACTH (Corticotropin): The 39-amino-acid pituitary hormone that drives cortisol production; given as repository corticotropin (Acthar Gel).

CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone): The 41-amino-acid hypothalamic hormone that triggers ACTH release; corticorelin is used diagnostically.

Source: PubMed record. This explanation is written by PeptideWhiz from the public record. For research and education only. Not medical advice; no dosing information is given.