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)

The management of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) has become complex due to the availability of improved diagnostic procedures and life-prolonging or even curative treatment strategies that are more successful the earlier they are applied in the course of the disease. This is true for allogeneic bone-marrow transplantation, treatment with interferon alpha (IFN) and Philadelphia-negative stem-cell collections for autografting. Outcome differs according to risk profiles of patients at diagnosis. In addition, molecular techniques for the detection of the BCR-ABL fusion gene or its products, such as the reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (PCR), Southern blot analysis, or fluorescence in situ hybridization, facilitate accurate diagnosis and the monitoring of residual disease. They allow the individualization of treatment such as early infusion of donor lymphocytes if molecular relapse is detected after allografting, or discontinuation of IFN in the presence of very low BCR-ABL transcript levels). The availability of real-time PCR devices further improves and accelerates the diagnosis and monitoring of residual disease. This article addresses recent developments in drug therapy and allografting, including treatment intensification with low-dose ara C or intensive chemotherapy followed by autografting, introduction of new drugs (such as homoharringtonine or tyrosine kinase inhibitor STI571), progress with unrelated donor transplantations, use of peripheral blood stem cells for allografting, and transplantation without myeloablative conditioning. Tradeoffs between the treatment options will be discussed in the context of the evidence-based guidelines for treating CML, as recently published by the American Society of Hematology. Finally, the new competence network on acute and chronic leukemias will be introduced.
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PMID:Current trends in the management of chronic myelogenous leukemia. 1096 82

Very limited data exists in Thailand regarding the frequency of BCR-ABL leukemic gene and its prognostic implication in Thai CML patients. The objective of this study was to develop a rapid molecular assay for the detection of the two most commonly reported variants of BCR-ABL fusion gene, B2A2 and B3A2 in CML patients. Bone marrow or peripheral blood were used for RNA extraction and reverse-transcribed to cDNA for PCR amplification. 92 per cent of CML patients (91/99) were positive for BCR-ABL gene (61% B3A2 and 31% B2A2). 8/99 CML patients were BCR-ABL-negative. B3A2 and B2A2-positive patients did not have any different clinical and hematological features at presentation although B3A2 patients tended to be slightly older and had higher platelet counts. 71/71 non-CML including other MPD and leukemia cases were all negative for BCR-ABL gene. In conclusion, a rapid RT-PCR assay has now been developed for the detection of this hallmark gene in CML patients. It should be of great value in the differential diagnosis of CML from other diseases. Long-term follow-ups of CML patients with different variants are needed to determine the prognostic importance of each gene variant.
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PMID:Detection of molecular variants of BCR-ABL gene in bone marrow and blood of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). 1099 48

By employing a new semi-quantitative assay system that includes co-culturing leukemia cells with the mouse bone marrow-derived stromal cell line MS-5, we examined the suppressive effect of a selective inhibitor of ABL tyrosine kinase, STI571, on acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells with BCR-ABL fusion. Leukemic blast cells from eight patients with B-precursor ALL, including three patients with BCR-ABL-positive ALL, were cultured on monolayers of MS-5 cells for 3 weeks with or without addition of variable amounts of STI571. In all cases, cobblestone areas (CAs) were formed, showing clear linear cell dose-dependent curves, allowing quantitative assessment of blast cell growth. The progenitor frequencies obtained by this direct CA-forming cell (CAFC) assay were equivalent to ALL progenitor frequencies assessed by the standard limiting dilution assay. The number of CAFCs ranged from 12.3 to 140.3/10(4) cells. In BCR-ABL-positive ALL patients, CA-containing cells were examined by FISH, and all contained BCR-ABL fusion genes. STI571 inhibited CA formation of BCR-ABL-positive ALL cells virtually 100% at 0.1-1.0 micromol/l. None of the five BCR-ABL-negative ALL patients showed this growth inhibition by STI571 at 0.1-1.0 micromol/l. Our results indicate that STI571 selectively inhibits in vitro growth of BCR-ABL-positive ALL cells.
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PMID:Effect of a selective Abl tyrosine kinase inhibitor, STI571, on in vitro growth of BCR-ABL-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells. 1136 61

The BCR-ABL fusion gene is important for the leukemogenesis of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). A relationship between types of BCR-ABL transcripts in CML and clinical features has been proposed. We present here a patient with CML who carried an aberrant BCR-ABL transcript with an intronic sequence insert. A 26-year-old woman was diagnosed as having Philadelphia chromosome (Ph) positive CML. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction detected an atypically large BCR-ABL mRNA transcript. Sequencing revealed a 589bp insertion consisting of a 5' portion of BCR intron b2 and a 3' portion of ABL intron 1b between BCR exon b2 and ABL exon a2. Although the typical b2a2 transcript was undetectable initially, it appeared after intensive chemotherapy. The aberrant transcript presumably arose as a result of a lack of splicing, and chemotherapy might modify the disease course by selecting the subpopulation of the CML clone expressing typical BCR-ABL mRNA dominantly.
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PMID:Aberrant BCR-ABL transcript with intronic insertion in a patient with philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia: implications for disease progression. 1137 54

Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) is characterised by an indolent, chronic phase (CP) preceding an acute transformation to blast crisis (BC). While the BCR-ABL fusion oncogene is strongly implicated in the CP, the molecular changes underlying BC are largely unknown. The ataxia telangiectasia gene, ATM, is a candidate gene for this transformation because the complex karyotypes associated with BC of CML suggest that DNA double-strand break repair is defective and because the ABL pathway involves the interaction between the Abl and the Atm proteins. We performed a mutational analysis for ATM in CML using genomic DNA from 14 CML cell lines and 59 CML patients in BC. No clearly deleterious nucleotide changes were observed. A new polymorphism C4138T was discovered which results in a non-conservative amino acid substitution (H1380Y). This variant lies in the Atm recognition motif for the Abl protein. While ATM is unlikely to contribute substantially to CML, further investigation of the H1380Y substitution should clarify whether it has any functional effect.
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PMID:Investigation on the role of the ATM gene in chronic myeloid leukaemia. 1151 6

A woman with Ph-positive chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) with an atypical e1a3 BCR-ABL hybrid gene is described. To our knowledge, this is the first report of this transcript type as a unique naturally occurring BCR-ABL fusion in a CML patient. This case was characterized by a low leucocyte count and a very indolent course without treatment. Because the deletion of ABL exon 2 sequences results in deletion of an essential part of the ABL SH3 domain, our case suggests that this ABL SH3 domain is not absolutely necessary for efficient induction of a myeloproliferative disease in the context of BCR-ABL/p190.
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PMID:E1A3 as a unique, naturally occurring BCR-ABL transcript in an indolent case of chronic myeloid leukaemia. 1155 90

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML), a myeloproliferative disease of stem cell origin, is characterized by the presence of the Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome and the bcr-abl oncogene. The BCR-ABL fusion gene product, thought to be causative in CML, has multiple effects on diverse cell functions such as growth, differentiation and turnover as well as adhesion and apoptosis. Persistent Ph-negative progenitors co-exist with leukemic cells, both in the marrow and blood of patients, in the early chronic phase of the disease. Despite accumulating knowledge of hemopoiesis and the disease process, CML remains incurable with conventional chemotherapy. Nonetheless, with the efficacy of the ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitor STI-571 (signal transduction inhibitor 571) as a novel therapy in CML recently being realized in clinical trials, it is therefore timely to review our current understanding of the cell biology of this fascinating disease.
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PMID:A comparison of normal and leukemic stem cell biology in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. 1157 31

The BCR-ABL gene that arises in chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) is a neoantigen. Peptides derived from the BCR-ABL fusion junction may therefore be immunogenic, if appropriately presented to the immune system. This article reviews data demonstrating that certain junctional peptides will bind to HLA molecules, and that these peptides will elicit specific T-lymphocyte responses in vitro, in both normal subjects and in CML patients. The clinical relevance of these observations is discussed.
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PMID:BCR-ABL fusion peptides and cytotoxic T cells in chronic myeloid leukaemia. 1169 42

Persistence of BCR-ABL rearrangements was demonstrated by D-FISH technique in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients in complete cytogenetic response (CCR) after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) or interferon-alpha therapy (IFN-alpha). Samples from bone marrow aspirate or peripheral blood or both were analyzed by conventional cytogenetics, Southern blot, fluorescent interphase in situ hybridization (FISH), and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (Q-RT-PCR). In all patients, FISH detected 1% to 12% nuclei with a BCR-ABL fusion gene, whereas Q-RT-PCR were negative or weakly positive. Based on these results, we hypothesize that the BCR-ABL genomic rearrangement remains unexpressed in a small percentage of cells whatever the treatment (IFN-alpha or BMT), and this in spite of the negativity of the RT-PCR-based classical molecular remission criterion. These data corroborate those obtained by other investigators and point to the need for follow-up of CML patients in CCR over an extensive period, at the DNA level to evaluate the residual disease and at the RNA level (Q-RT-PCR) to estimate the risk of relapse and guide the therapeutic decision. Experimental models suggesting the persistence of positive BCR-ABL cells are discussed and tentative explanations of tumor "dormancy" are proposed.
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PMID:Persistence of transcriptionally silent BCR-ABL rearrangements in chronic myeloid leukemia patients in sustained complete cytogenetic remission. 1169 48

For the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), attempts have been made to design various ribozyme motifs that can specifically recognize and cleave BCR-ABL fusion mRNAs. In the case of L6 BCR-ABL b2a2 mRNA, it is difficult to cleave the abnormal mRNA specifically because the mRNA includes no sequences that can be cleaved efficiently by conventional hammerhead ribozymes near the BCR-ABL junction. We recently succeeded in designing a novel maxizyme, which specifically cleaves BCR-ABL fusion mRNA, as a result of the formation of a dimeric structure [Kuwabara, T.; et al. Mol. Cell 1998, 2, 617-627; Tanabe, T.; et al. Nature 2000, 406, 473-474]. Specifically, we tailored the maxizyme with molecular switching function: the maxizyme splices a cleavable GUC site, but only when it appears within a strand of mRNA that possesses the abnormal splice junction. We demonstrated that this approach is generalizable [Tanabe, T.; et al. Biomacromolecules 2000, 1, 108-117]. All the maxizymes designed in the past functioned as a result of the formation of a dimeric structure. Questions have been asked whether a similar molecular switching might be possible within a single molecule when two monomer units of the maxizyme were connected via a linker sequence. We found that an analogous conformational change could not be induced within a single molecule when two maxizyme units were simply connected via a nonregulatable linker sequence. However, an active conformation was achieved by the introduction of an antisense modulator within the linker sequence that adjusted the overall structure to the correct form. Results of studies in cultured cells suggested that the desired conformational change could indeed be induced within the modified single-chained maxizyme and such a construct caused apoptosis only in leukemic cells with the Philadelphia chromosome.
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PMID:Allosterically controlled single-chained maxizymes with extremely high and specific activity. 1171 33


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