Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:2.1.1.37 (DNA methyltransferase)
 4,983 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Overexpression of the major DNA methyltransferase Dnmt1 is cytotoxic and has been hypothesized to result in aberrant hypermethylation of genes required for cell survival. Indeed, overexpression of mouse or human Dnmt1 in murine and human cell lines decreased clonogenicity. By frame-shift and deletion constructs, this effect of mouse Dnmt1 was localized at the N-terminal 124 amino acid domain, which mediates interaction with proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). Mutation of the PCNA-binding site restored normal cloning efficiencies. Overexpression of Dnmt3A or Dnmt3B, which do not interact with PCNA, yielded weaker effects on clonogenicity. Following introduction of the toxic domain, no significant effects on apoptosis, replication, or overall DNA methylation were observed for up to 3 d. Suppression of clonogenicity by Dnmt1 was also observed in cell lines lacking wild-type p53, p21(CIP1), or p16(INK4A). Suppression of clonogenicity by Dnmt1 overexpression may act as a fail-safe mechanism against carcinogenicity of sustained Dnmt1 overexpression.
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PMID:Suppression of clonogenicity by mammalian Dnmt1 mediated by the PCNA-binding domain. 1549 88

Epigenetic drugs are in use in clinical trials of various human cancers and are potent at reactivating genes silenced by DNA methylation and chromatin modifications. We report here the analysis of a set of normal fibroblast and cancer cell lines after combination treatment with the DNA methyltransferase inhibitor 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5-aza-CdR) and the histone deacetylase inhibitor 4-phenylbutyric acid (PBA). Low doses of the drug combination caused cell cycle arrest, whereas high doses induced apoptosis in T24 bladder carcinoma cells. Both p16 (CDKN2A/INK4) and p21 (CIP1/SDI1/WAF1) expression were induced to similar levels in normal and cancer cells in a dose-dependent fashion after combination treatments. We detected a distinct increase of histone H3 acetylation at lysine 9/14 near the transcription start sites, in both LD419 normal fibroblasts and T24 bladder carcinoma cells, whereas the acetylation changes in the p21 locus were less apparent. Interestingly, the levels of trimethylation of histone H3 on lysine 9, which usually marks inactive chromatin regions and was associated with the p16 promoter in silenced T24 cells, did not change after drug treatments. Furthermore, we provide evidence that the remethylation of the p16 promoter CpG island in T24 cells after 5-aza-CdR treatment cannot be halted by subsequent continuous PBA treatment. The p16 gene is resilenced with kinetics similar to 5-aza-CdR only-treated cells, which is also marked by a localized loss of histone acetylation at the transcription start site. Altogether, our data provide new insights into the mechanism of epigenetic drugs and have important implications for epigenetic therapy.
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PMID:Inhibition of histone deacetylation does not block resilencing of p16 after 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine treatment. 1721 Jul 17

Decitabine (DAC) and 5-azacitidine have recently been approved for the treatment of myelodysplastic syndrome. The pharmacodynamic effects of DAC and 5-azacitidine outside their known activity as inhibitors of DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) require further investigation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of DAC on the expression of p21(WAF1/CIP1), a gene with a putative CpG island surrounding its promoter region. Promoter methylation analysis of p21(WAF1/CIP1) in leukemia cells revealed the absence of CpG methylation. However, DAC upregulated p21(WAF1/CIP1) expression in a dose-dependent manner (ED(50)=103.34 nM) and induced G2/M cell cycle arrest in leukemia cells. Sequential application of DAC followed by different histone deacetylase inhibitors induced expression of p21(WAF1/CIP1) synergistically. Upregulation of p21(WAF1/CIP1) paralleled DAC-induced apoptosis (ED(50)=153 nM). Low doses of DAC induced gamma-H2AX expression (ED(50)=16.5 nM) and upregulated p21(WAF1/CIP1) in congenic HCT 116 colon cancer cells in a DNMT-independent and p53-dependent fashion. Inhibition of p53 transactivation by pifithrin-alpha or the kinase activity of ATM by either the specific ATM inhibitor KU-5593 or caffeine abrogated p21(WAF1/CIP1) upregulation, indicating that DAC upregulation of p21(WAF1/CIP1) was p53- and ATM-dependent in leukemia cells. In conclusion, DAC upregulates p21(WAF1/CIP1) in DNMT-independent manner via the DNA damage/ATM/p53 axis.
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PMID:p21(WAF1/CIP1) induction by 5-azacytosine nucleosides requires DNA damage. 1822 91