Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:2.3.1.28 (chloramphenicol acetyltransferase)
 5,100 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The various members of the myc gene family, including c-myc and N-myc, are supposed to play a role in the regulation of cell cycle and proliferation. Whereas c-myc is expressed nearly ubiquitously, the N-myc gene product is found mainly in actively proliferating neural tissues such as early development tissues or in retinoblastomas and neuroblastomas. In this report, the upstream region of mouse N-myc gene was ligated to pSVPCAT, which carries the simian virus 40 (SV40) promoter and bacterial chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) gene, and transcriptional activities were examined by CAT and S1 protection assays after transfection of the DNAs into human cervical carcinoma HeLa or neuroblastoma IMR32 cells. Several regulatory regions were identified: two promoting regions (-980 to -860 and -279 to +108) and an inhibiting one (-860 to -797). The region spanning positions -980 to -860 increased CAT expression independently of orientation and distance to the SV40 promoter, indicating that the element is a typical enhancer. Moreover, the expression levels from this enhancer were higher in IMR32 cells than in HeLa cells, indicating that action has, if not cell-type specificity, cell-type preference. These findings may provide useful bases for the understanding of the cell-type specific regulation of N-myc expression.
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PMID:The upstream region of the mouse N-myc gene: identification of an enhancer element that functions preferentially in neuroblastoma IMR32 cells. 132 47

All-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) has been shown to be one of the most potent chemical inducers of human neuroblastoma differentiation. The recent discovery that the stereoisomer of ATRA, 9-cis-retinoic acid (9-cis-RA), binds to both the retinoic acid and retinoid X series of receptors prompted us to evaluate the ability of this compound to promote differentiation of this cell type. Using the LA-N-5 cell line, we have now determined that 9-cis-RA can induce the differentiation of human neuroblastoma cells as evidenced by dose-dependent inhibition of cell proliferation, neurite outgrowth, increased acetylcholinesterase activity, and reduction of N-myc mRNA expression. In comparing the effects of 9-cis-RA to ATRA, we found that while both compounds induced qualitatively similar cholinergic (versus adrenergic) features in LA-N-5 cells, 9-cis-RA was 5-to-10-fold more potent than ATRA in its antiproliferative and differentiation activity. These results were supported by transient transfection experiments utilizing chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) plasmid constructs containing a retinoic acid responsive regulatory element which showed a 2-to-3-fold increase in reporter gene activity induced with 9-cis-RA over that seen with ATRA at pharmacologically relevant retinoid concentrations (> 10(-8) M). Furthermore, we have determined that 9-cis-RA can significantly enhance mRNA levels of the nuclear retinoic acid receptors alpha and beta in LA-N-5 cells. Taken together, these findings have established the ability of 9-cis-RA to induce neuroblastoma differentiation and suggest that this retinoic acid isomer may have better therapeutic characteristics than ATRA.
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PMID:Enhanced potency of 9-cis versus all-trans-retinoic acid to induce the differentiation of human neuroblastoma cells. 758 96

Herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSV-TK) gene was ligated with four repeats of the Myc-Max response elements (a core nucleotide sequence CACGTG), and its utility for gene therapy was examined by the treatment of either c-, L- or N-myc-overexpressing the small cell lung cancer (SCLC) cell line with ganciclovir (GCV). The chloramphenicol acetyltransferase assay demonstrated that the overexpression of any myc genes activated transcription from the CAT gene depending on the Myc-Max binding sites. The transduction of the HSV-TK gene ligated with the CACGTG core rendered all three SCLC lines to be more sensitive to GCV than parental ones in vitro. In addition, the growth of c- or L-myc-overexpressing SCLC cells containing the hybrid HSV-TK gene were significantly suppressed by GCV in vivo. When parental SCLC cells were mixed with HSV-TK-expressing tumor cells at a ratio of 1:3, GCV treatment inhibited tumor growth by 90% compared with parental cells only, indicating the existence of the "bystander effect." These data suggest that the CACGTG-driven HSV-TK gene may be useful for the treatment of SCLC overexpressing any type of myc family oncogenes.
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PMID:Eradication of Myc-overexpressing small cell lung cancer cells transfected with herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase gene containing Myc-Max response elements. 854 91

The regions upstream from the human N-myc gene were examined for both transcription and replication. The plasmids containing several N-myc regions linked to the bacterial chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) gene were transfected to human neuroblastoma IMR32 cells. The results indicated that the region spanning from the PstI to the BamHI site (N-mycP-B; about 800 bp adjacent to the RNA start site), possessed enhancer activity. Various segments of the N-myc gene, overlapping the transcriptional regulatory regions, were subcloned into pUC19, and the plasmids were transfected to IMR32 cells together with a hygromycin B resistance-expression vector. The transfected cells were cultured in the presence of hygromycin B to establish cell lines resistant to the drug. Among the cell lines obtained, only the cells co-transfected with pN-mycP-B, the region of which contains enhancer activity described above, harboured the replicated pN-mycB-P in an episomal state. The results of BrdU labelling followed by CsCl isopycnic centrifugation suggested that the pN-mycP-B replicated once per cell cycle (in S phase) in concord with the replication of chromosomal DNA. In an in vitro DNA replication system using the nuclear extract from IMR32 cells, pN-mycP-B functioned as an template DNA of replication. Deletions up to 200 bp in the N-mycP-B region did not abolish the replicating activity, regardless of the positions of deletion, but deletions of longer than 300 bp did. These results suggest that the replicating activity of the fragment upstream of the human N-myc gene requires certain length, as well as the specific sequences not yet determined.
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PMID:Autonomously replicating sequences identified in transcriptional regulatory regions of human N-myc gene. 2155 20