Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:1.5.1.3 (dihydrofolate reductase)
 5,819 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Transformed cells are characterized by imbalances in metabolic routes. In particular, different key enzymes of nucleotide metabolism and DNA biosynthesis, such as CTP synthetase, thymidylate synthase, dihydrofolate reductase, IMP dehydrogenase, ribonucleotide reductase, DNA polymerase, and DNA methyltransferase, are markedly up-regulated in certain tumor cells. Together with the concomitant down-modulation of the purine and pyrimidine degradation enzymes, the increased anabolic propensity supports the excessive proliferation of transformed cells. However, many types of cancer cells have maintained the ability to differentiate terminally into mature, non-proliferating cells not only in response to physiological receptor ligands, such as retinoic acid, vitamin D metabolites, and cytokines, but also following exposure to a wide variety of non-physiological agents such as antimetabolites. Interestingly, induction of tumor cell differentiation is often associated with reversal of the transformation-related enzyme deregulations. An important class of differentiating compounds comprises the antimetabolites of purine and pyrimidine nucleotide metabolism and nucleic acid synthesis, the majority being structural analogs of natural nucleosides. The CTP synthetase inhibitors cyclopentenylcytosine and 3-deazauridine, the thymidylate synthase inhibitor 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine, the dihydrofolate reductase inhibitor methotrexate, the IMP dehydrogenase inhibitors tiazofurin, ribavirin, 5-ethynyl-1-beta-D-ribofuranosylimidazole-4-carboxamide (EICAR) and mycophenolic acid, the ribonucleotide reductase inhibitors hydroxyurea and deferoxamine, and the DNA polymerase inhibitors ara-C, 9-(2-phosphonylmethoxyethyl)adenine (PMEA), and aphidicolin, as well as several nucleoside analogs perturbing the DNA methylation pattern, have been found to induce tumor cell differentiation through impairment of DNA synthesis and/or function. Thus, by selectively targeting those anabolic enzymes that contribute to the neoplastic behavior of cancer cells, the normal cellular differentiation program may be reactivated and the malignant phenotype suppressed.
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PMID:Role of antimetabolites of purine and pyrimidine nucleotide metabolism in tumor cell differentiation. 1041 91

The comet assay is a sensitive method for measuring DNA strand breaks in eukaryotic cells. After embedding in agarose, cells are lysed and electrophoresed at high pH. DNA loops containing breaks (in which supercoiling is relaxed) escape from the nucleoid comet head to form a tail. Oligonucleotide probes were designed for 5' and 3' regions of the genes for dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) and O6-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase (MGMT), both from the Chinese hamster, and the human tumour suppressor p53 gene. Alternate ends were labelled with either biotin or fluorescein. These probes were hybridized to the DNA of comets from Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells or human lymphocytes treated with H2O2 or photosensitizer plus light to induce oxidative damage. Amplification with Texas red- and fluorescein-tagged antibodies led, in the case of p53 in human cells, to red and green signals located in the comet tail (as well as in the head), indicating the presence of breaks in the vicinity of the gene. However, only one end of the MGMT gene appeared in the tail and almost no signals from the DHFR gene, either red or green, were in the tail of comets from CHO cells. Restriction on movement from the head to tail may result from the presence of a 'matrix-associated region' in the gene. The kinetics of repair of oxidative damage were followed; strand breaks in the p53 gene were repaired more rapidly than total DNA. Thus, fluorescent in situ hybridization in combination with the comet assay provides a powerful method for studying repair of specific genes in relation to chromatin structure.
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PMID:DNA damage and repair measured in different genomic regions using the comet assay with fluorescent in situ hybridization. 1521 25

Aberrant CpG island hypermethylation in gene promoter regions may be an important epigenetic event in human neoplasias, including breast cancer. Dietary and genetic factors that alter DNA methylation levels in normal and tumour tissues could therefore influence both the susceptibility to this disease and tumour phenotype, respectively. In the present study of 227 breast cancers, we investigated whether common polymorphisms in 6 key genes involved in methyl group metabolism (thymidylate synthase, methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase, cystathione beta-synthase, DNA methyltransferase 3B, methylene tetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase, and methionine synthase) were associated with major pathological features of this disease or the frequency of CpG island hypermethylation. No associations were observed between any of the polymorphisms and patient age, tumour size, histological grade or patient outcome. However, tumours from patients who were homozygous for the methionine synthase A2756G polymorphism showed strikingly lower estrogen and progesterone hormone receptor concentrations compared to wild-type homozygotes. Moreover, patients who were homozygous for the methylene tetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase G1958A polymorphism showed a significantly higher frequency of tumour CpG island hypermethylation compared to wild-type homozygotes. Our results show that polymorphisms in two genes involved in methyl group metabolism are associated with hormone receptor content and DNA methylation frequency in breast cancer, however these observations are unlikely to be linked.
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PMID:Germ-line variants in methyl-group metabolism genes and susceptibility to DNA methylation in human breast cancer. 1632 59