Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:2.7.10.2 (focal adhesion kinase)
44,029 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Thrombospondin-1 (TSP1) is an endogenous inhibitor of angiogenesis, which limits blood vessel density in normal tissues and curtails tumor growth. Previous studies of the molecular and cellular effects of TSP1 in angiogenesis have been contradictory. Here, we show that retinal endothelial cells (REC) prepared from TSP1-deficient (TSP1-/-) mice are more proliferative and migratory compared to the wild type REC. We observed up-regulation of the cell cycle regulators, including cyclin A, D1, and Cdk2, as well as the enhanced sequential activities of Src, PI3-kinase, Akt/PKB, Rac1/Cdc42 GTPases, and p38 MAP kinase in TSP1-/- REC. The increased levels of fibronectin and active Akt/PKB were also observed in retinal vasculature of TSP1-/- mice in vivo. Inhibition of Src/PI3-kinase/P38 MAP kinase activities in TSP1-/- REC resulted in decreased migration. Furthermore, TSP1-/- REC showed decreased intracellular levels of active Fyn and JNK2 without affecting caspase-3 activity. Thus, our results demonstrate that in the absence of TSP1, the proangiogenic signaling is enhanced, possibly through up-regulation of fibronectin expression. The enhanced signaling further promotes EC proliferation, migration, and survival. These novel observations support the TSP1's role as an endogenous inhibitor of angiogenesis whose endothelium expression promotes a quiescent, differentiated phenotype.
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PMID:Enhanced proangiogenic signaling in thrombospondin-1-deficient retinal endothelial cells. 1662 39

Elevated focal adhesion kinase (FAK) expression occurs in advanced cancers, yet a signaling role for FAK in tumor progression remains undefined. Here, we suppressed FAK activity in 4T1 breast carcinoma cells resulting in reduced FAK Y925 phosphorylation, Grb2 adaptor protein binding to FAK, and signaling to mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase (MAPK). Loss of a FAK-Grb2-MAPK linkage did not affect 4T1 cell proliferation or survival in culture, yet FAK inhibition reduced vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression and resulted in small avascular tumors in mice. This FAK-Grb2-MAPK linkage was essential in promoting angiogenesis as reconstitution experiments using Src-transformed FAK-null fibroblasts revealed that point mutations affecting FAK catalytic activity (R454) or Y925 phosphorylation (F925) disrupted the ability of FAK to promote MAPK- and VEGF-associated tumor growth. Notably, in both FAK-inhibited 4T1 and Src-transformed FAK-null cells, constitutively activated (CA) mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 1 (MEK1) restored VEGF production and CA-MEK1 or added VEGF rescued tumor growth and angiogenesis. These studies provide the first biological support for Y925 FAK phosphorylation and define a novel role for FAK activity in promoting a MAPK-associated angiogenic switch during tumor progression.
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PMID:Intrinsic FAK activity and Y925 phosphorylation facilitate an angiogenic switch in tumors. 1668 56

Imatinib (Gleevec/STI-571/CGP57148B, Novartis) is a small-molecule, tyrosine kinase inhibitor developed to target BCR-ABL, c-Kit, and PDGF-R. Through inhibition of these oncogenic kinases, imatinib is effective in the treatment of BCR-ABL-positive leukemia, gastrointestinal stromal tumor, and hypereosinophilic syndrome, respectively. However, clinical success of imatinib is hampered by acquired resistance that may occur through several mechanisms including kinase domain mutation, target amplification, and activation of alternate signaling pathways. Strategies to overcome resistance have included targeting BCR-ABL stability and downstream signaling pathways important for tumor growth. Additional work has shown that new BCR-ABL kinase inhibitors with increased potency or alternate conformation-binding properties can target imatinib resistance. This review focuses on the mechanisms of imatinib resistance and the strategies currently being developed to overcome clinical resistance.
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PMID:Treating imatinib-resistant leukemia: the next generation targeted therapies. 1690 25

Integrins can alter cellular behavior through the recruitment and activation of signaling proteins such as non-receptor tyrosine kinases including focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and c-Src that form a dual kinase complex. The FAK-Src complex binds to and can phosphorylate various adaptor proteins such as p130Cas and paxillin. In normal cells, multiple integrin-regulated linkages exist to activate FAK or Src. Activated FAK-Src functions to promote cell motility, cell cycle progression and cell survival. Recent studies have found that the FAK-Src complex is activated in many tumor cells and generates signals leading to tumor growth and metastasis. As both FAK and Src catalytic activities are important in promoting VEGF-associated tumor angiogenesis and protease-associated tumor metastasis, support is growing that FAK and Src may be therapeutically relevant targets in the inhibition of tumor progression.
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PMID:Integrin-regulated FAK-Src signaling in normal and cancer cells. 1691 35

Identification of oncogene dependent signaling pathways controlling aggressive tumor growth has led to the emergence of a new era of oncogene-blocking therapies, including Herceptin and Gleevec. In the recent years conditional mouse tumor models have been established that allow switching-off the expression of specific oncogenes controlling tumor growth. The results may have two important implications for oncogene-blocking therapies: (i) downregulation of oncogenes, for instance HER2, MYC, RAS, RAF, BCR-ABL or WNT1, usually leads to a rapid tumor remission. However, it was observed that the initial remission was followed by recurrent tumor growth in most studies. Interestingly, different oncogenes controlled tumor growth in the recurrent than in the primary tumors. This could explain the astonishing clinical observation that inhibitors of a broader spectrum of protein kinases (so-called: "dirty inhibitors") may be superior over highly specific substances. Due to their additional "unspecific" inhibition of a broader spectrum of kinases, they may hamper the escape mechanisms by antagonizing also the pathways controlling recurrent tumor growth. (ii) Experiments with cell systems that allow switching-on oncogene expression point to a so far possibly underestimated cancer drug target: the dormant tumor cell. Oncogene expression (for instance: NeuT or RAS) led to a phenomenon named oncogene-induced senescence or dormancy. Dormant cells are unresponsive to mitogenic stimuli. Importantly, such cells are not at all ready to die, but can remain viable for extended periods of time. Recently, dormant tumor cells have been shown to be more resistant to stresses such as hypoxia or exposure to cytostatic drugs. It still is a matter of debate if and under which conditions dormant tumor cells can be "kissed to life". If these cells contribute to carcinogenesis, it will be important to identify substances specifically killing senescent cells. This review will focus on the possible relevance of senescence both as a pre-oncogenic condition and also for therapy.
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PMID:Oncogene-blocking therapies: new insights from conditional mouse tumor models. 1710 May 66

The collagen type IV cleavage fragment tumstatin and its active subfragments bind to integrin alpha(V)beta(3) and inhibit activation of focal adhesion kinase, phophoinositol-3 kinase, Akt, and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) in what is thought to be an endothelial cell-specific manner. The resultant endothelial cell apoptosis accounts for the ability of tumstatin to function as an endogenous inhibitor of angiogenesis and an indirect suppressor of tumor growth. We hypothesized that the inability of tumstatin to directly suppress tumor cell growth might be the result of the constitutive activation of the Akt/mTOR pathway commonly seen in tumors. Consistent with this idea, several integrin alpha(V)beta(3)-expressing glioma cell lines with PTEN mutations and high levels of phospho-Akt (pAkt) were unaffected by exposure to an active fragment of tumstatin (T3), whereas alpha(V)beta(3)-expressing glioma cell lines with a functional PTEN/low levels of pAkt exhibited T3-induced growth suppression that could be bypassed by small interfering RNA-mediated suppression of PTEN, introduction of a constitutively expressed Akt, or introduction of the Akt and mTOR target eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E. The direct tumor-suppressive actions of T3 were further shown in an alpha(V)beta(3)-deficient in vivo mouse model in which T3, while unable to alter the tumstatin-insensitive vasculature contributed by the alpha(V)beta(3)-deficient host, nonetheless suppressed the growth and proliferative index of i.c. implanted alpha(V)beta(3)-expressing PTEN-proficient glioma cells. These results show that tumstatin, previously considered to be only an endogenous inhibitor of angiogenesis, also directly inhibits the growth of tumors in a manner dependent on Akt/mTOR activation.
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PMID:The PTEN/Akt pathway dictates the direct alphaVbeta3-dependent growth-inhibitory action of an active fragment of tumstatin in glioma cells in vitro and in vivo. 1714 79

Chromosome deletions do abound in cancer and are detected in certain regions in a non-random manner. Although their relevance remains elusive, it is a general agreement that segmental losses provide the cell with selective growth advantage. Consequently these may contain genes and/or regulatory sequences that control normal growth and inhibit malignancy. We have developed a monochromosomal hybrid based experimental model for the generation and functional analysis of deletions, that is called "elimination test" (Et). Focused on human chromosome 3 - that was known to carry multiple 3p deletions - the Et was expected to restrict a 3p tumor suppressor region to a sufficiently small segment that permits the selection of a critically important candidate gene. Surprisingly, we detected three regions that were lost in all or majority of tumors: CER1 (3p21.3, Mb: 43.32-45.74), CER2 (3p22, Mb: 37.83-39.06) and FER (3p14.3-p21.2, Mb: 50.12-58.03). In contrast a 3q26-qter region (CRR) was regularly retained. CER1 - our main focus - contains multiple genes that may inhibit tumor growth, but 3 genes, RIS1, LF (LTF) and LIMD1 have already the necessary experimental support to be considered bona fide tumor suppressors. Tumor suppressor region borders display instability features including: (1) they break in evolution and in tumors, (2) they evolve horizontally, and (3) they are enriched with pseudogene insertions. The most remarkable features at the breakpoint cluster regions were segmental duplications that drive horizontal evolution and contribute to cancer associated instability.
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PMID:Modeling non-random deletions in cancer. 1717 4

We aim to investigate the anticancer effect of a novel immunomodulator FTY720 on a rat orthotopic liver tumor model. A buffalo rat orthotopic liver tumor model was established by injection of a buffalo hepatoma cell line MH7777 into the right portal vein. FTY720 was administered by intraperitoneal injection starting at 10 days after tumor cell injection at a dosage of 5 mg/kg/day. FTY720 markedly suppressed tumor growth and inhibited tumor progression by selective induction of apoptosis of tumor cells via down-regulation of phospho-Akt(ser473) and up-regulation of cleaved caspase-3, together with decrease of focal adhesion kinase. Moreover, the proliferation index of tumor cells was significantly reduced to 15.92+/-5.03% by FTY720 compared with that of 42.92+/-4.47% in the control group (p<0.001). In addition, we confirmed that FTY720 caused no effect on infiltrated lymphocyte in tumor tissue. We conclude that FTY720 is an effective anticancer agent for liver tumor in a rat model without affecting the immune system of the host.
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PMID:Marked suppression of tumor growth by FTY720 in a rat liver tumor model: the significance of down-regulation of cell survival Akt pathway. 1720 19

Oncogenic signaling through activation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), HER-2, and hypoxia inducible-factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha) has been implicated in gastric cancer growth and angiogenesis through up-regulation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Recently, heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) has been identified as a critical regulator of oncogenic protein stability, including EGFR, HER-2, and HIF-1alpha. We hypothesized that inhibition of Hsp90 impairs EGF- and hypoxia-mediated angiogenic signaling in gastric cancer cells and consequently inhibits angiogenesis and tumor growth. In vitro, the geldanamycin derivate 17-allylamino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin (17-AAG) led to marked reduction in constitutive and inducible activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2, Akt, and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 and decreased nuclear HIF-1alpha protein. In addition, EGFR and HER-2 were down-regulated after Hsp90 inhibition. With respect to regulation of angiogenic molecules, 17-AAG significantly reduced EGF-mediated VEGF secretion. Phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase and paxillin were both abrogated by 17-AAG, which resulted in significant impairment of cancer cell motility. Interestingly, cytotoxic effects of 17-AAG in vitro were higher on cancer cells and gastric fibroblasts than on pericytes. In vivo, the water-soluble compound 17-dimethylaminoethylamino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin (17-DMAG; 25 mg/kg, thrice per week) significantly reduced s.c. xenografted tumor growth. By immunohistochemistry, 17-DMAG significantly reduced vessel area and numbers of proliferating tumor cells in sections. Furthermore, similar significant growth-inhibitory effects of 17-DMAG were achieved when administered as low-dose therapy (5 mg/kg, thrice per week). In conclusion, blocking Hsp90 disrupts multiple proangiogenic signaling pathways in gastric cancer cells and inhibits xenografted tumor growth in vivo. Hence, gastric cancer harbors attractive molecular targets for therapy with Hsp90 inhibitors, which could lead to improved efficacy of antineoplastic therapy regimens.
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PMID:Inhibition of heat shock protein 90 impairs epidermal growth factor-mediated signaling in gastric cancer cells and reduces tumor growth and vascularization in vivo. 1736 5

Increased activity of the proto-oncogene c-Src and elevated levels of integrin alpha(v)beta(3) are found in melanomas and multiple carcinomas. Regulation of c-Src involves "priming" through disruption of intramolecular interactions followed by "activation" through phosphorylation in the kinase domain. Interactions with overexpressed receptor tyrosine kinases or mutations in the SRC gene can induce priming of c-Src in cancer. Here, we show that alpha(v)beta(3) promotes activation of primed c-Src, causing enhanced phosphorylation of established Src substrates, survival, proliferation, and tumor growth. The beta(3) cytoplasmic tail is required and sufficient for integrin-mediated stimulation of all these events through a mechanism that is independent of beta(3) tyrosine phosphorylation. Instead, experiments using Src variants containing the v-Src Src homology 3 (SH3) domain and using mutant beta(3) subunits indicate that a functional interaction of the beta(3) cytoplasmic tail with the c-Src SH3 domain is required. These findings delineate a novel integrin-controlled oncogenic signaling cascade and suggest that the interaction of alpha(v)beta(3) with c-Src may represent a novel target for therapeutic intervention.
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PMID:Integrin alpha v beta 3 controls activity and oncogenic potential of primed c-Src. 1736 90


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