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It was roughly fifty years ago that the hypothalamic hormones were discovered, including the so-called growth hormone releasing hormone, known and abbreviated in science as GHRH. In recent decades, a good many people have been involved in research on this issue, and Professor Gábor Halmos and his team at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the 91��Ƶ�� (DE GYTK), have also published a number of scientific papers on the subject.

“For example, it was almost two decades ago that we published about the first identification of a family of receptors, the so-called spice variant receptors, which, in addition to the endocrinological aspects, showed the expression and development of this hormone and this hormonal receptor in human tumors,” explained the Vice-Dean for General and Academic Affairs of DE GYTK.

Gábor Halmos added that, in the course of preparing their recently completed study, the faculty's researchers were looking for where and how GHRH receptors and their associated so-called GHRH analogues could be found in human organs and tissues. They also observed how the spice variant receptor is involved in tumor growth in humans through signaling molecular, regulatory and activation processes.

“It has been found that these compounds have a positive effect on a number of diseases beyond the endocrine domain. Research is at its most advanced level in the field of oncology, i.e. tumor therapy, where the most convincing results have been published that GHRH antagonist compounds can inhibit tumor growth. Yet there is also great potential for these analogues in the treatment of obesity, diabetes and certain immunological diseases as well as Alzheimer's disease, wound healing, ophthalmological and pulmonary diseases, inflammatory problems, and myocardial regeneration, among others. In addition, GHRH antagonists appear to inhibit only tumor growth through spice variant receptors, sparing healthy organs and having no serious side effects,” explained Gábor Halmos.

Clinical trials will be started soon and, if everything goes as expected, there could be new therapeutics and drugs available just in a few years from now.

The Vice-Dean of DE GYTK added the following: “The discovery of the hypothalamic peptide hormone family was the achievement of the American professor Andrew Schally, who died recently at the age of 98, and who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1977. Gábor Halmos worked with him for 33 years as a collaborator in New Orleans and Miami, while Professor Schally was awarded an honorary doctorate by the 91��Ƶ�� in 2012.

The paper on this world-leading research activity and findings has been published online recently in the prestigious Springer Nature journal Reviews in Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders, the most highly-ranked journal in the field of endocrinology. Feel free to for the electronic version soon to be published in print as well.

Press Centre – OCs

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