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Disease
Symptom
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Enzyme
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Query: EC:2.7.10.2 (
focal adhesion kinase
)
44,029
document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)
Small molecule inhibitors, such as imatinib, are effective therapies for tyrosine kinase fusions BCR-
ABL
-TEL-PDGFbetaR-mediated human leukemias, but resistance may develop. The unique fusion junctions of these molecules are attractive candidates for molecularly targeted therapeutic intervention using RNA interference (RNAi), which is mediated by small interfering RNA (siRNA). We developed a retroviral system for stable expression of siRNA directed to the unique fusion junction sequence of TEL-PDGFbetaR in transformed hematopoietic cells. Stable expression of the siRNA resulted in approximately 90% inhibition of TEL-PDGFbetaR expression and its downstream effectors, including PI3K and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR). Expression of TEL-PDGFbetaR-specific siRNA (TPsiRNA) significantly attenuated the proliferation of TEL-PDGFbetaR-transformed Ba/F3 cells or disease latency and penetrance in mice induced by intravenous injection of these Ba/F3 cells. Although a 90% reduction in TEL-PDGFbetaR expression was insufficient to induce cell death, stable siRNA expression sensitized transformed cells to the PDGFbetaR inhibitor imatinib or to the mTOR inhibitor rapamycin. TPsiRNA also inhibited an imatinib-resistant TEL-PDGFbetaR mutant, and the inhibition was enhanced by siRNA in combination with PKC412, another PDGFbetaR inhibitor. Although siRNA delivery in vivo is a challenging problem, stable expression of siRNA, which targets oncogenic fusion genes, may potentiate the effects of conventional therapy for
hematologic malignancies
.
...
PMID:Stable expression of small interfering RNA sensitizes TEL-PDGFbetaR to inhibition with imatinib or rapamycin. 1519 13
Gene amplification is a relatively rare event in
hematologic malignancies
. The
ABL
gene on chromosome band 9q34 is a proto-oncogene and is the well-known translocation partner of the BCR gene on 22q11 giving rise to t(9;22)(q34;q11), which is the hallmark of chronic myeloid leukemia and is the most common chromosomal abnormality in adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Amplification of
ABL
is an exceedingly rare event, with only less than 5 cases reported in the literature. The p16(INK4a) (or CDKN2A) gene on 9p21 is a tumor suppressor gene, and deletion thereof is recently recognized as one of the most common genetic abnormalities in ALL. The authors herein describe an 8-year-old male patient with precursor T-cell ALL harboring both
ABL
gene amplification and p16(INK4a) gene deletion. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis using BCR/ABL probes revealed five or more
ABL
signals, indicating amplification in 51.5% of interphase nuclei. FISH using p16(INK4a) gene probes showed heterozygous p16(INK4a) deletion in 71.0%. On conventional cytogenetic analysis, however, only 10 metaphases were available, which showed the normal karyotype, 46,XY[10], serving no evidence for the findings on FISH. This is the first report of an ALL case with
ABL
amplification, and the authors speculate that both
ABL
proto-oncogene amplification and the p16(INK4a) tumor suppressor gene deletion have been implicated in leukemogenesis in the present case, although whether the
ABL
amplification truly contributes to the leukemogenesis or merely an epiphenomenon representing underlying genomic instability remains to be determined.
...
PMID:ABL oncogene amplification with p16(INK4a) gene deletion in precursor T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma: report of the first case. 1528 69
Asymptomatic hyperuricaemia is associated with ritonavir therapy, but gout has rarely been reported. We present a retrospective cohort study of 1825 HIV-positive patients seen at one inner London HIV clinic over a two-year period. In all, 18 patients had gout, of whom 15 were receiving antiretroviral therapy. Seven had predisposing risk factors for gout (e.g. pyrazinamide therapy,
haematological malignancy
). Of the remaining 11 patients, two were on no medication and eight (73%) were receiving ritonavir as a boosted protease inhibitor (PI). By comparison, 11% of HIV-positive patients without gout were receiving ritonavir (odds ratio = 22; confidence interval = 5-104). Seven of the 18 patients had documented features of lipodystrophy and dyslipidaemia. Gout was seen in patients with known risk factors for gout or who were receiving ritonavir as a boosted PI and who also had lipodystrophy.
Int J
STD
AIDS 2005 May
PMID:Is ritonavir boosting associated with gout? 1594 66
Different mechanisms could sustain Imatinib resistance, including overexpression of MDR1, a gene already known to be responsible for multidrug resistance in other
hematologic malignancies
. In search for a possible correlation, BCR-
ABL
and MDR1 expression were measured in 115 serial bone marrow samples from 33 CML patients during Imatinib treatment. All patients achieved complete hematologic responses, and 22 patients also achieved complete cytogenetic responses, with median BCR-
ABL
mRNA values significantly lower than those observed in the group of cases that were persistently Philadelphia positive. All three cases treated during the accelerated phase showed disease progression after an initial period of remission; all presented either increased levels of BCR-
ABL
or MDR1 3 months before clinical progression. In the subgroup of cases treated during the chronic phase, BCR-
ABL
and MDR1 levels were significantly correlated after 3 and 6 months (88 and 80%, respectively) but not after 12 months of treatment (32%). Reported data maintain that MDR1 expression would play an important role in Imatinib resistance when the disease is not fully controlled (e.g., progressive disease or during the first months of treatment).
...
PMID:Quantitative molecular monitoring of BCR-ABL and MDR1 transcripts in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia during Imatinib treatment. 1615 1
Reflecting its critical role in integrating cell growth and division with the cellular nutritional environment, the mammalian target of rapamycin *(mTOR) is a highly conserved downstream effector of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt (protein kinase B) signaling pathway. mTOR activates both the 40S ribosomal protein S6 kinase (p70s6k) and the eukaryotic initiation factor 4E-binding protein-1. As a consequence of inhibiting its downstream messengers, mTOR inhibitors prevent cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) activation, inhibit retinoblastoma protein phosphorylation, and accelerate the turnover of cyclin D1, leading to a deficiency of active CDK4/cyclin D1 complexes, all of which may help cause GI phase arrest. Constitutive activation of the PI3K/Akt kinases occur in human leukemias. FLT3, VEGF, and BCR-
ABL
mediate their activities via mTOR. New rapamycin analogs including CCI-779, RAD001, and AP23573, are entering clinical studies for patients with
hematologic malignancies
.
...
PMID:Mammalian target of rapamycin as a therapeutic target in leukemia. 1630 91
Signal transducers and activators of transcription (STATs) comprise a family of several transcription factors that are activated by a variety of cytokines, hormones and growth factors. STATs are activated through tyrosine phosphorylation, mainly by JAK kinases, which lead to their dimerization, nuclear translocation and regulation of target genes expression. Stringent mechanisms of signal attenuation are essential for insuring appropriate, controlled cellular responses. Among them phosphotyrosine phosphatases (SHPs, CD45, PTP1B/TC-PTP), protein inhibitors of activated STATs (PIAS) and suppressors of cytokine signaling (SOCS) inhibit specific and distinct aspects of cytokine signal transduction. SOCS proteins bind through their SH2 domain to phosphotyrosine residues in either cytokine receptors or JAK and thus can suppress cytokine signaling. Many recent findings indicate that SOCS proteins act, in addition, as adaptors that regulate the turnover of certain substrates by interacting with and activating an E3 ubiquitin ligase. Thus, SOCS proteins act as negative regulators of JAK/STAT pathways and may represent tumour suppressor genes. The discovery of oncogenic partner in this signaling pathway, more especially in diverse
hematologic malignancies
support a prominent role of deregulated pathways in the pathogenesis of diseases. Fusion proteins implicating the JH1 domain of
JAK2
(TEL-
JAK2
, BCR-
JAK2
), leading to deregulated activity of
JAK2
, have been described as the result of translocation. Somatic point mutation in JH2 domain of
JAK2
(JAK2V617F), leading also to constitutive tyrosine phosphorylation of
JAK2
and its downstream effectors was reported in myeloproliferative disorders. Furthermore, silencing of socs-1 and shp-1 expression by gene methylation is observed in some cancer cells.
...
PMID:JAK/STAT signal transduction: regulators and implication in hematological malignancies. 1642 81
Aberrant DNA methylation patterns resulting in gene transcriptional repression are observed in numerous cancers. Decitabine, a DNA methyltransferase inhibitor, is being clinically evaluated in patients with
hematologic malignancies
and solid tumors. Decitabine is rather unstable and decomposes to 1-beta-D-2'-deoxyribofuranosyl-3-guanylurea under basic conditions and several additional unknown products under neutral conditions. This has greatly limited application of pharmacokinetic assays to clinical development of decitabine. In this paper, a high-performance liquid chromatography/ultraviolet multi-stage mass spectrometry (HPLC-UV-MSn) study of the decomposition of decitabine in water and human plasma revealed that these previously unknown products are isomers of the intermediates formyl-1-beta-D-2'-deoxyribofuranosyl-3-guanylurea and 1-beta-D-2'-deoxyribofuranosyl-3-guanylurea. A HPLC tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) method for the determination of decitabine concentrations in human and rat plasma has been developed. This method was based on a specific fragmentation pathway of the molecular ion of decitabine at m/z 229 to generate a unique fragment ion at m/z 113 under collision-induced dissociation. Separation of decitabine and the stable internal standard dihydro-5-aza-cytidine from the endogenous interfering substance in plasma extract was carried out on a C18 Aquasil column under an isocratic elution with a mobile phase consisting of 5% water/acetonitrile and 10 mM ammonium formate. The detection of decitabine was via selected reaction monitoring (
SRM
, 229 > 113), and its ionization was enhanced by post-column addition of acetonitrile. Effects of sample preparation and handling parameters on the stability of decitabine were also evaluated in human plasma at various temperatures. The accuracy and precision of this assay showed a coefficient of variation of <15% over the range of 0.5-25 ng for rat plasma and 0.1-25 ng for human plasma injected on-column. Pharmacokinetics of decitabine in rats following intravenous doses of 1.0 and 5.0 mg/kg were characterized. In the rat, plasma concentration-time profiles were found to follow a biexponential decline and the pharmacokinetics was dose-independent. Application of this decitabine pharmacokinetic assay to human studies is therefore justified and ongoing.
...
PMID:Characterization of decomposition products and preclinical and low dose clinical pharmacokinetics of decitabine (5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine) by a new liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry quantification method. 1652 29
Activation of tyrosine kinase genes is a frequent event in human
hematologic malignancies
. Because gene activation could be associated with gene dysregulation, we attempted to screen for activating gene mutation based on high-level gene expression. We focused our study on the
Janus kinase 2
(
JAK2
) gene in 90 cases of acute leukemia. This strategy led to the identification of a novel
JAK2
-acquired mutation in a patient with Down syndrome (DS) with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (BCP-ALL). This mutation involves a 5-amino acid deletion within the JH2 pseudokinase domain (JAK2DeltaIREED). Expression of JAK2DeltaIREED in Ba/F3 cells induced constitutive activation of the JAK-STAT pathway and growth factor-independent cell proliferation. These results highlight the
JAK2
pseudokinase domain as an oncogenic hot spot and indicate that activation of the JAK-STAT pathway may contribute to lymphoid malignancies and hematologic disorders observed in children with DS.
...
PMID:Novel activating JAK2 mutation in a patient with Down syndrome and B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia. 1706 51
Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is a
hematological malignancy
that is characterized by the chromosome anomaly, t(9;22)(q34;q11). By this chromosomal translocation, a novel activated tyrosine kinase, BCR-
ABL
chimeric protein, is generated, and the protein is causative of the disease. Recently, Imatinib mesylate targeting to a BCR-
ABL
chimeric protein has been developed, and shown to achieve complete remission at a high rate. Patients are currently required to receive a fixed dose, 400 mg daily; however, it is possible that some of patients can maintain their remission with reduced doses of imatinib. In this study, we determined levels of BCR-
ABL
transcript in CML patients by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis, and explored the possibility of individualization of therapeutic doses of imatinib. Thirty-five CML patients, including 17 newly diagnosed patients, 16 patients pre-treated with interferon-alpha, and 2 relapsed patients after allogeneic transplantation, were treated with imatinib. Complete cytogenetic response was achieved in 31 (89%) patients. Major molecular response (MMR) was achieved in 21 (60%). Complete molecular response (CMR) was achieved in 7 (20%). Imatinib was discontinued in 2 patients, one patient with MMR due to noncompliance and other patient sustaining CMR, but both patients relapsed 7 and 13 months later, respectively. The doses of imatinib were reduced in 7 patients due to its side effects, but 4 out of the 7 patients have sustained MMR, and 2 of them have sustained CMR for more than 23 months. These results indicate that some patients are able to maintain MMR with low-dose imatinib.
...
PMID:Dose modification of imatinib by monitoring the level of BCR-ABL transcript in chronic myelogenous leukemia. 1714 2
Mutations within the
ABL
kinase domain and overexpression of
SRC
family kinases have been identified among the known mechanisms of resistance to imatinib in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). The development of agents with dual inhibitory activity against
SRC
and
ABL
kinases is one approach to overcome imatinib resistance. One such agent, dasatinib (formerly BMS-354825), is approximately 300-fold more potent against BCR-
ABL
than imatinib, and is active against all tested
ABL
mutant isoforms, except for T315I. Dasatinib has demonstrated high efficacy in Phase I and II studies in patients with CML following failure of imatinib therapy. Studies exploring the efficacy of dasatinib as front-line therapy in patients with BCR-
ABL
-expressing
hematologic malignancies
are underway.
...
PMID:Targeting ABL and SRC kinases in chronic myeloid leukemia: experience with dasatinib. 1715 93
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