Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:2.7.1.21 (thymidine kinase)
7,561 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We have designed a series of recombinant CAT genes to study IL-1 signal transduction in murine fibroblast NIH 3T3 cells. We demonstrate that the HSV thymidine kinase (tk) promoter does not respond to IL-1, but that IL-1 induction of this promoter is observed after insertion of either NF-kB or AP-1 binding sites upstream of the HSV tk cap-site. We have studied the effects of indomethacin, dexamethasone and aurothioglucose (which have been used in the treatment of patients affected by rheumatoid arthritis) in the IL-1 inducible CAT assay. We show that aurothioglucose or dexamethasone is able to inhibit IL-1 induced CAT activity whereas a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (indomethacin) is inactive. Order of addition experiments indicate that aurothioglucose, which has disease-modifying activity in treated patients, acts as an IL-1 functional antagonist in this system.
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PMID:Aurothioglucose inhibits induced NF-kB and AP-1 activity by acting as an IL-1 functional antagonist. 139 Sep 47

Previously we have shown that bovine vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs) express c-myb mRNA (Reilly, C. F., Kindy, M. S., Brown, K. E., Rosenberg, R. D., and Sonenshein, G. E. (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264, 6990-6995). Here we have characterized changes in the low level of c-myb mRNA expressed in quiescent serum-deprived subconfluent SMCs upon entry into the cell cycle. After serum stimulation, levels of c-myb mRNA increased 3-4-fold during late G1 and remained at this level during S phase. A 1.5-kilobase partial c-myb cDNA clone, isolated from a bovine SMC library, was partially sequenced and found to be 89 and 85% homologous to the human and murine c-myb genes, respectively. Using bovine and murine c-myb clones, no change in the rate of c-myb gene transcription or mRNA stability was detected during the cell cycle. Thus, the regulation of changes in c-myb mRNA levels in SMCs appears distinct from mechanisms seen in hematopoietic or fibroblastic cells. Vectors containing myb binding sites linked to the thymidine kinase promoter and the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter gene were transiently transfected into SMC cultures. KHK-CAT-dAX, which contains nine concatenated myb binding sites, exhibited 7-fold more activity than the parental dAX-TK-CAT vector in exponentially growing SMCs. The levels of chloramphenicol acetyltransferase activity in exponentially growing cells were approximately 2-fold higher than in cells that had been serum deprived for 24 h and were entering quiescence. Thus SMCs produce a functional c-myb protein that can activate transcription from a heterologous promoter. Furthermore, introduction of antisense c-myb oligonucleotides to quiescent serum-deprived SMC cultures severely inhibited entry of cells into S phase upon serum addition. Thus, expression of the c-myb oncogene plays an important role in cell cycle progression of SMCs.
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PMID:Expression of the c-myb proto-oncogene in bovine vascular smooth muscle cells. 153 45

While steroid response is generally restricted by the availability of steroid receptors, the theoretical limits of the response are not known. We have constructed a series of cell lines that stably express the estrogen receptor (ER) at levels up to 5,000,000 ERs per cell and employed these cells to explore the limits of the estrogen response. Several reporter genes with estrogen response elements upstream of the herpes thymidine kinase promoter showed hyperbolic saturation kinetics with increasing ER. Maximum response was 10 times that seen in cell lines with receptor titers comparable to physiological levels. Half-maximal responses required 500,000 receptors per cell, and cells with 5,000,000 ERs showed greater than 90% maximum induction. Estradiol dose-response studies indicated that the receptors are limiting below 500,000 ERs per cell, but at higher ER titers there are spare receptors. In contrast to most reporters, the widely used reporter pA2-CAT, which has 200 base pairs of Xenopus vitellogenin DNA between the response element and the promoter, showed squelching at ER levels beyond 500,000 per cell. Cell lines that expressed ER above this level activated pA2-CAT with a distorted hormone dependence, where saturating ligand concentrations were inhibitory. All reporters displayed squelching when the ER was provided by transient transfection at a level that we judge is 20,000,000 per cell by extrapolation from the behavior of stable cell lines. These findings suggest that saturation of the cellular capacity to mediate an estrogen response and ER-dependent squelching occur at receptor titers well above those encountered in nature. If current models of steroid hormone action are correct, the findings also imply that estrogen response elements are occupied to very small extents under normal conditions.
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PMID:The limits of the cellular capacity to mediate an estrogen response. 156 62

A strong positive element within the proximal promoter region of the human beta-myosin heavy chain (beta-MHC) gene that is required for high level expression in primary cultures of fetal rat heart cells was localized by transient assays and DNase I footprinting to positions- 277/-298. Using gel shift studies, this sequence was found to bind specifically at high affinity (Kd approximately 4 x 10(-9) M) to a transcriptional factor (beta F1) found in nuclear extracts from rabbit heart. Dimethyl sulfate interference studies suggested that beta F1 may bind as a dimer to two hexameric imperfect direct repeats containing the consensus sequence 5'-(C/G)-T-G-(T/A)-G-G-3'. Gel shift analyses suggested that beta F1 is related to the M-CAT factor, which is known to control muscle-specific expression of the cardiac troponin T gene. A clustered mutation of the region between the putative binding half-sites and within the "M-CAT"-like domain abolished beta-MHC promoter activity. The sequence of the positive element also contains binding motifs for several transcriptional factors that regulate viral and cellular genes, including AP4, AP5, TEF-1, and MyoD-like proteins. When multiple copies of the beta-MHC element were inserted downstream from the transcriptional initiation site of the thymidine kinase gene, it did not act as a classical enhancer, showing some dependence upon orientation.
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PMID:Characterization of a strong positive cis-acting element of the human beta-myosin heavy chain gene in fetal rat heart cells. 157 22

The upstream transcription control region of the rat alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) gene was analyzed using transient expression of CAT genes in HepG2 cells which express the gene; H4C3 cells which repress the AFP gene but express the albumin gene; and four nonexpressing cell lines. Deletion analysis based on the DNA sequence resolved three upstream enhancers corresponding to the mouse AFP enhancers, but showed additional weak effects from flanking sequences. Quantitative experiments demonstrated that the three enhancers were additive when acting through a single promoter and did not confirm the presence of a distal upstream repressor. All three enhancers stimulated the AFP, albumin, or thymidine kinase (tk) promoter in HepG2, but only the tk and albumin promoters in H4C3. Deletion of a proximal repressor region near the AFP promoter allowed expression in H4C3 cells with the AFP promoter. Thus, the liver-specific developmental repressor is near the AFP promoter, and H4C3 cells provide an in vitro system for analysis of this repressor in transfection assays. The repressor region also blocked expression of the SV40 enhancer through the AFP promoter in hepatic and nonhepatic cell lines, but when this enhancer was combined with an AFP promoter from which the repressor region was deleted, the combination showed expression in all six cell lines studied. AFP expression results from a combination of enhancer, promoter, and repressor activities, and the repressor is functional with a heterologous enhancer in a variety of cells.
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PMID:Enhancer, repressor, and promoter specificities combine to regulate the rat alpha-fetoprotein gene. 171 40

The intron 2 of the murine thymidine kinase (TK) gene was observed to contain two DNase hypersensitive site. In vitro footprinting experiments indicated specific binding sites for nuclear proteins which were characterized within the sequence of intron 2. Two GC boxes (binding sites for transcription factor SP1) and two new protein binding regions, one at the promoter proximal end of intron 2, the other one close to the border to exon 3 were found. Oligonucleotides were synthesized comprising the two new binding sites and were shown in gel mobility shift experiments to be capable of forming specific complexes with nuclear proteins. These proteins are present in growing as well as in quiescent cells suggesting that the sites described here do not contribute to growth regulation of TK expression. That they might play a role in upregulation of TK expression is, however, indicated by the results of CAT assays in which inclusion of downstream sequences of the TK gene containing parts or all of intron 2 were found to positively modulate the activity of the TK promoter.
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PMID:Presence of regulatory sequences within intron 2 of the mouse thymidine kinase gene. 176 10

Transfection of HeLa cells with cDNA vectors expressing the wild-type human glucocorticoid receptor (GR) enabled dexamethasone to strongly repress cytokine- and second messenger-induced expression of cotransfected chimeric reporter genes containing transcription regulatory DNA elements from the human interleukin 6 (IL-6) promoter. Deletion of the DNA-binding domain or of the second Zn finger or a point mutation in the Zn catenation site in the second finger blocked the ability of GR to mediate repression of the IL-6 promoter. Unexpectedly, deletion of the first Zn finger, a point mutation in the Zn-catenation site in the first finger, or one in the steroid-specificity domain at the base of the first finger converted GR into a dexamethasone-responsive activator that enhanced basal and interleukin 1-induced IL-6 promoter function. These first-finger mutants of GR also mediated dexamethasone-responsive enhancement of expression of the herpesvirus thymidine kinase-chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (TK-105-CAT and TK-80-CAT) reporter genes but not of the murine mammary tumor virus long terminal repeat-CAT or the c-fos-CAT (pFC700) reporter genes. Wild-type GR was able to specifically bind to DNA fragments containing glucocorticoid response element sequences in both the murine mammary tumor virus and IL-6 promoters, albeit weakly to the latter, in a sequential DNA-binding immunoprecipitation assay. The first-finger mutants of GR, however, were inactive in this assay. Thus, mutations in the first Zn finger unmask unusual promoter-specific activation properties of GR that may not require direct high-affinity binding of the mutant GR to target DNA.
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PMID:Repressor to activator switch by mutations in the first Zn finger of the glucocorticoid receptor: is direct DNA binding necessary? 187 Nov 24

In order to further investigate the mechanism of antisense inhibition of gene expression, a series of plasmids which generate short antisense RNAs deriving from the 5' end of the CAT gene were constructed. When transfected into COS1 cells, these constructions were capable of specifically reducing CAT gene expression. Unexpectedly, transfection with constructions expressing defective RNA in the sense orientation also resulted in reduced levels of both CAT enzyme and mRNA. This was mediated by both short and full-length CAT-gene fragments, and was dependent on the presence of the tested transcriptional promoters, either the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (TK) or simian virus 40 late (SVL) promoters. These results, in conjunction with computer aided secondary structure prediction, indicate a possible similarity of regulatory mechanism for both senses of RNA acting within the cell.
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PMID:Inhibition of gene expression by a short sense fragment. 201 21

We have delineated a positive regulatory element in the interleukin-2 receptor alpha-chain gene (IL-2R alpha) between positions -299 and -243 that can potently activate a heterologous (herpesvirus thymidine kinase [tk]) promoter in phorbol myristate acetate (PMA)-induced Jurkat T cells and is functional when cloned in either orientation. This enhancerlike element contains a site (-268/-257) that can bind NF-kappa B; however, unlike the immunoglobulin kappa gene kappa B enhancer element, the IL-2R alpha kappa B-like site alone can only weakly activate a heterologous promoter. Adjacent 5' and 3' sequences also weakly activate the tk-CAT vector, but constructs combining the IL-2R alpha kappa B-like site plus adjacent 5' and 3' sequences potently activate gene expression. This combination of regions is essential for potent PMA-induced transcription from the tk promoter. Experiments using constructs in which IL-2R alpha upstream sequences are sequentially deleted suggested that there is a region 5' of position -299 which can suppress IL-2R alpha promoter and/or enhancer activity. Thus, it is possible that both positive and negative elements may be important in the regulation of IL-2R alpha gene transcription.
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PMID:Delineation of an enhancerlike positive regulatory element in the interleukin-2 receptor alpha-chain gene. 215 27

Three DNA constructs, the natural human growth hormone gene (hGH-hGH) its 500 bp promoter linked to the chloramphenicol acetyl transferase reporter gene (hGH-CAT), and its structural part linked to the herpes virus thymidine kinase promoter (TK-hGH) were introduced into rat pituitary GC cells by DEAE-dextran transfection. Transient expression was followed as a function of triiodothyronine (T3) concentration. The hGH-CAT expression was specifically inhibited by T3 following a typical dose-response curve while hGH-GH gene expression was not significantly modified. The transient expression of TK-hGH increased as a function of T3 concentration. These results indicate that T3 exerts two opposite effects on hGH gene expression. First, it down-regulates expression by acting on the promoter; second, it up-regulates expression by acting on the structural part of the gene. These action could be due to regulation of transcription and mRNA stabilization, respectively.
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PMID:Triiodothyronine inhibits transcription from the human growth hormone promoter. 221 33


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