Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:2.7.10.1 (ERK)
95,504 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Many pharmacological and clinical studies have demonstrated the importance of the dopaminergic (DA) system for cognitive functioning but little is known about the genetic basis of general cognitive ability that has been demonstrated to be highly heritable. Attempts to detect associations between certain gene loci and endophenotypes of general cognitive ability have turned out to be more promising. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate two dopaminergic candidate genes (COMT VAL158MET and DRD2 TAQ IA) for endophenotypes of cognitive functioning i.e. attention, vigilance, interference, time estimation and sensoric and motoric reaction times. Out of a gene data bank of more than 600 healthy Caucasian participants, 96 subjects (n = 48 males and n = 48 females) were recruited according to their genotype/allele pattern, resulting in six independent groups (COMT: VAL/VAL, VAL/MET, MET/MET)x(DRD2: A1-, A1+) of n = 16 subjects each. Results showed associations of the COMT gene with attention and with time estimation but most noteworthy was an interaction effect DRD2xVAL on interference performance as measured by the STROOP-test explaining 13% of the variance. Findings suggest that a balance between DA related catabolic enzyme activity and receptor density are good predictors for the endophenotype of cognitive interference and that the COMT gene is in accordance with previous studies related to cognitive functioning.
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PMID:The influence of the dopaminergic system on cognitive functioning: A molecular genetic approach. 1602 65

A relevant clinical problem in the treatment of ovarian cancer (OC) is the development of resistance to chemotherapy, frequently due to genetic variations in enzymes and receptors. Changes in the HER2 receptor have been associated with breast and ovarian cancers. The role of a polymorphism in the HER2 gene in the clinical outcome of OC patients was investigated in this study. We characterized DNA samples from 111 patients with OC treated with cisplatin and paclitaxel, using PCR-RFLP. Our results indicate that patients carrying the valine homozygotic genotype present a lower overall survival mean, suggesting a role for this polymorphism in the outcome of ovarian cancer patients. The G allele has been implicated in the formation of active HER2 receptors, with a more aggressive phenotype. We hypothesize that HER2 genotypes can be predictive biomarkers in ovarian cancer, contributing to a genetic individual profile of great interest in clinical oncology.
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PMID:The influence of HER2 genotypes as molecular markers in ovarian cancer outcome. 1611 85

An angle Omega is defined to serve as a metric for global side-chain orientations, which reflects the orientation of the side chain relative to the radial vector from the center of the protein to an amino acid. The side-chain orientations of buried residues exhibit characteristically different orientations than do exposed residues, in both monomeric and dimeric structures. Overall, buried side chains point mostly inward, whereas surface side chains tend to point outward from the surface. This difference in behavior also correlates well with the residue hydrophobicity; so a global side-chain orientation can be viewed as a direct structural manifestation of hydrophobicity. When various solvent-accessible layers are considered, the behavior is relatively continuous between centrally located and exposed residues. In the case of interfacial residues between subunits, there are statistically significant differences between exposed residues and interface residues for ALA, ARG, ASN, ASP, GLU, HIS, LYS, THR, VAL, MET, PRO, and overall the interface residues have an increased tendency to point inward. Presumably, these substantial differences in orientations of side chains may be a manifestation of hydrophobic forces.
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PMID:How do side chains orient globally in protein structures? 1615 44

FLT3 mutations have been reported to be the most frequent mutation in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). No data currently exist regarding FLT3 mutations in Southeast Asian patients. In this study, the incidence and type of FLT3 mutation in a large series of Thai AML patients were determined. FLT3 internal tandem duplication (ITD) mutations were observed in 24.6%, FLT3 tyrosine kinase domain mutations in 3.1%, and dual mutations in 2.7% of 256 newly diagnosed Thai AML patients. ITD mutations were mostly restricted to the juxtamembrane domain, and the in-frame ITD length varied from 21 to 201 base pairs. Six types of point mutations were identified, including Asp835Tyr, Asp835His, Asp835Glu, Asp835Ala, Ile836, and a novel mutation, Asp835Del/Ile836Val, which resulted in the loss of aspartic acid and substitution of isoleucine by valine. A rare leukemia karyotype, trisomy 11, was found to coexist with this novel FLT3 mutation, whereas the majority of patients with FLT3 mutations had a normal karyotype. Overall, FLT3 mutation was associated with a significantly higher white blood cell count and older age than the wild-type FLT3. In conclusion, the incidence of FLT3 mutation in Thailand is as high as that of western countries. The clinical significance of the novel mutation requires further studies in a larger population.
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PMID:Mutations of the FLT3 gene in adult acute myeloid leukemia: determination of incidence and identification of a novel mutation in a Thai population. 1621 60

ZnS nanocrystal, a class of wide-gap semiconductors, has shown interesting optical, electrical, and optoelectric properties via quantum confinement. For those applications, phase controls of ZnS nanocrystals and nanowires were critical to tune their physical properties to the appropriate ones. The wurtzite ZnS nanocrystal growth at room temperature is the useful fabrication; however, the most stable ZnS structure in nanoscale is the zinc blende (cubic) structure, and scientists have just begun exploring the room-temperature synthesis of the wurtzite (hexagonal) structure of ZnS nanocrystals. In this report, we applied the Zn finger-like peptides as templates to control the phase of ZnS nanocrystals to the wurtzite structure at room temperature. The peptide nanotubes, consisting of a 20 amino acids (VAL-CYS-ALA-THR-CYS-GLU-GLN-ILE-ALA-ASP-SER-GLN-HIS-ARG-SER-HIS-ARG-GLN-MET-VAL, M1 peptide) synthesized based on the peptide motif of the Influenza Virus Matrix Protein M1, could grow the wurtzite ZnS nanocrystals on the nanotube templates in solution. In the M1 protein, the unfolding process of the helical peptide motif via pH change creates a linker region between N- and C-terminated helical domains that contains a Zn finger-like Cys2His2 motif. Because the higher pH increases the uptake of Zn ions in the Cys2His2 motif of the M1 peptide by unfolding more helical domains, the pH change can essentially control the size and the number of the nucleation sites in the M1 peptides to grow ZnS nanocrystals with desired phases. Here we optimized the nucleation sites in the M1 peptides by unfolding them via pH change to obtain highly monodisperse and crystalline wurtzite ZnS nanocrystals on the template nanotubes at room temperature. This type of peptide-induced biomineralization technique will provide a clean and reproducible method to produce semiconductor nanotubes due to its efficient nanocrystal formation, and the band gaps of resulting nanotubes can also be tuned simply by phase control of ZnS nanocrystal coatings via the optimization of the unfolding peptide structures.
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PMID:Room-temperature Wurtzite ZnS nanocrystal growth on Zn finger-like peptide nanotubes by controlling their unfolding peptide structures. 1628 68

The present study tests the psychometric properties and validity of the German version of the World Health Organization Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Self-Report Scale (ASRS), which is a short screening instrument for use in the general population. Furthermore, two candidate genes for ADHD, the COMT VAL158MET and the 5-HT2a T102C polymorphisms, were tested for associations with the ASRS subscales inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity in N = 203 healthy subjects. The ordinal CFA yielded a two-factorial model corroborating the structure of the official English WHO version. Genetic analysis revealed an association between the VAL allele of COMT and the inattention scale (F(1, 201) = 7.20, p = 0.008), the hyperactivity/impulsivity scale (F(1, 201) = 4.30, p = 0.039), and the total ASRS scale (F(2, 201) = 7.64, p = 0.006) with highest scores in carriers of the MET/MET genotype. The C-allele of 5-HT2a was significantly associated with the hyperactivity/impulsivity scale (F(1, 201) = 5.52, p = 0.020) and the total ASRS scale (F(1, 201) = 4.21, p = 0.042) with highest scores in carriers of the TT genotype. The data provide evidence for the structural as well as for the external validity of the ASRS.
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PMID:Inferring candidate genes for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessed by the World Health Organization Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS). 1636 39

Radiation exposure at a young age is the only environmental factor known to cause thyroid cancer, predominantly of the papillary type. We have previously reported a high percentage (86.7%) of RET-positive papillary thyroid cancers in a cohort of individuals exposed to external radiation of the head and neck area before the age of 16. Recently, we and others have reported that point mutations of the BRAF gene occur with high frequency among sporadic adult papillary thyroid carcinomas, but occur at a much lower frequency in the population exposed after the Chernobyl accident. We here report that there is a similar low frequency of BRAF mutations among our cohort of those exposed to external beam radiation as children who later developed papillary thyroid cancer as adults. Samples were analyzed by mutation allele-specific amplification (MASA) for the most common T1799A mutation in exon 15 that converts amino acid 600 from valine to glutamate. In 23 cases, only 1 sample was positive. These results are further evidence that BRAF mutations, while common in sporadic adult papillary thyroid cancers, are rare events in cancers seen in subjects exposed to radiation as children.
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PMID:Low frequency of BRAF mutations in adult patients with papillary thyroid cancers following childhood radiation exposure. 1648 15

Both breast and ovarian cancers are associated with HER2 receptor activation, which usually results from receptor overexpression and/or gene amplification. The HER-2 gene harbors a polymorphism at codon 655 (GTC/valine to ATC/isoleucine) in the transmembrane domain region, which has been associated with an elevated risk of breast cancer. The objective of this study was to determine whether the polymorphism is under a selection pressure during breast and ovarian carcinogenesis. The Ile/Val genotype was present in 41% (9/22) of the normal DNA of breast cancer patients. An allelic imbalance in the tumor tissue was found in three breast tumors, with overrepresentation of the Val allele. HER-2 was amplified and overexpressed in these tumors. Half of the eight ovarian tumor patients carried heterozygous Ile/Val genotypes. In contrast to breast tumors, all these ovarian cancer specimens showed the presence of the Ile allele. In our selected set of tumors, the Val allele was overrepresented in the subset of HER2-positive breast cancers and the Ile allele in serous ovarian cancer. Further analyses of tumors with known gene amplifications and overexpression may reveal novel associations between germline polymorphisms and development of sporadic tumors.
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PMID:Allelic imbalance of HER2 variant in sporadic breast and ovarian cancer. 1668 83

Mutations of genes coding effectors of signaling pathway RET/PTC-RAS-RAF-MEK-ERK, involved in cell growth and proliferation, are important in papillary thyroid cancer development. To earlier discovered mutations of RAS and RET/PTC genes, BRAF gene mutation has been recently added. Mutation of BRAF gene appears in various types of carcinomas, but most frequently in malignant melanomas (66%) and papillary thyroid cancer (average 44%). The BRAF gene protein product belongs to the serine-threonine kinase family and to the RAF proteins subfamily, among which it is the strongest activator of MAP kinases cascade. The most frequently mutation of BRAF gene is thymine to adenine transversion at nucleotide position 1796 (T1796A). This point mutation causes valine to glutamic acid substitution at residue 599 (V599E), that results in constitutive and oncogenic activation of BRAF kinase. The relation between mutations of BRAF, RAS and RET/PTC genes has not been found, although they together exist in two thirds of papillary thyroid cancers. BRAF(TI796A) oncogene appears in papillary thyroid cancer, whereas it has not been found in follicular thyroid cancer and benign thyroid adenomas. For this reason mutated BRAF gene could be specific molecular marker, with relatively high sensitivity in diagnostics of papillary thyroid cancer. In addition, BRAF gene has been demonstrated as a novel prognostic biomarker, which correlates with unfavorable clinicopathological factors, such as extrathyroidal invasion and distant metastasis.
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PMID:[BRAF gene mutation in thyroid cancer]. 1670 43

In the normal breast, ERBB4 regulates epithelial differentiation and functions as a nuclear chaperone for signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) 5A, thereby stimulating milk-gene expression. In addition, ERBB4 functions as a proapoptotic protein, suppressing the growth of malignant cells. We hypothesize that these ERBB4 activities can be marshaled to suppress the growth of breast tumors. To this end, we have created an ERBB4 allele harboring an activating transmembrane mutation (ERBB4-CA) by substituting isoleucine 658 for glutamic acid. This base substitution forms a valine-glutamic acid-glycine activation domain first identified in oncogenic ERBB2/HER2/Neu. Ectopic expression of ERBB4-CA in HEK293T cells resulted in a fivefold increase in receptor tyrosine phosphorylation. Functionally, ERBB4-CA exhibited higher levels of nuclear translocation than wild-type ERBB4, leading to significantly enhanced ERBB4-induced STAT5A simulation of the beta-casein promoter. Activated ERBB4 has been demonstrated to induce cell killing of breast tumor cells. Significantly, ERBB4-CA potentiated the proapoptotic function of ERBB4 in each breast, prostate and ovarian cancer cell line tested. Untransformed cell lines were resistant to both ERBB4 and ERBB4-CA-mediated apoptosis underscoring the potential utility of active ERBB4 signaling for the therapeutic intervention of human cancer.
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PMID:A constitutively active ERBB4/HER4 allele with enhanced transcriptional coactivation and cell-killing activities. 1683 45


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