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 identification of genes undergoing genetic or epigenetic alterations and contributing to the development of cancer is critical to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of carcinogenesis. A new approach in identifying alterations of genes that might be relevant to the process of tumor development was used in this study by examining the gene expression profile in human lung cancer cells exposed to 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5-aza-dC). A cDNA array analysis was carried out on 5-aza-dC-treated and untreated non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell line NCI-H522. Sixteen and 14 genes were upregulated and downregulated, respectively, by 5-aza-dC treatment. Among them, downregulation of tyrosine protein kinase ABL2 (ABL2) gene and upregulation of hint/protein kinase C inhibitor 1 (Hint/PKCI-1), DVL1, TIMP-1, and TRP-1 genes were found in expanded observations in two or three of five 5-aza-dC-treated NSCLC cell lines. Among these genes, we found that cDNA transfer of Hint/PKCI-1 resulted in a significant in vitro growth inhibition in two cell lines exhibiting 5-aza-dC-induced upregulation of Hint/PKCI-1 and significantly reduced in vivo tumorigenicity of one NSCLC cell line. Hint/PKCI-1, which is the only other characterized human histidine triad (HIT) nucleotide-binding protein in addition to tumor-suppressor gene FHIT, might be involved in lung carcinogenesis.
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PMID:Aberrant gene expression in human non small cell lung carcinoma cells exposed to demethylating agent 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine. 1525 63

We found a gamma-resorcylic acid (gamma-RA, 2,6-dihydroxybenzoic acid) decarboxylase, as a novel enzyme applicable to carboxylation of resorcinol (RE, 1,3-dihydroxybenzene) to form gamma-RA, in a bacterial strain Rhizobium radiobacter WU-0108 isolated through the screening of gamma-RA degrading microorganisms. The activities for carboxylation of RE and decarboxylation of gamma-RA were detected in the cell-free extracts of R. radiobacter WU-0108 grown aerobically with gamma-RA. The enzyme, gamma-RA decarboxylase, was purified to homogeneity on SDS-PAGE through the steps of one ion-exchange chromatography and two kinds of hydrophobic chromatography. The molecular weight of the enzyme was estimated to be 130 kDa by gel-filtration, and that of the subunit was determined to be 34 kDa by SDS-PAGE, suggesting that the enzyme is a homotetrameric structure. The enzyme catalyzed the decarboxylation of gamma-RA, but not alpha-RA or beta-RA. Without addition of any cofactors, the enzyme catalyzed the regio-selective carboxylation of RE to form gamma-RA, without formation of alpha-RA and beta-RA, and of catechol to 2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid. In the presence of oxygen, this gamma-RA decarboxylase showed no decrease in both of the activities as for decarboxylation of gamma-RA and carboxylation of RE, different from other decarboxylases reported so far. The gene, rdc, encoding the gamma-RA decarboxylase was cloned into Escherichia coli, sequenced, and subjected to over-expression. The deduced amino acid sequence of the rdc gene consists of 327 amino acid residues corresponding to 34 kDa protein, and shows 42% and 30% identity to those of a 2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid decarboxylase from Aspergillus niger and a 5- carboxyvanillate decarboxylase from Sphingomonas paucimobilis SYK-6. A site-directed mutagenesis study revealed the two histidine residues at positions of 164 and 218 in Rdc to be essential for the catalytic activities of decarboxylation of gamma-RA and carboxylation of RE.
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PMID:Reversible and nonoxidative gamma-resorcylic acid decarboxylase: characterization and gene cloning of a novel enzyme catalyzing carboxylation of resorcinol, 1,3-dihydroxybenzene, from Rhizobium radiobacter. 1547 71

The internally fertilizing primitive frog Ascaphus truei (family Ascaphidae) from the Pacific Northwest is the only frog with an intromittent organ. The more advanced neobatrachian frog Eleutherodactylus coqui (family Leptodactylidae) from Puerto Rico has secondarily acquired internal fertilization but mates by cloacal apposition. Nonetheless, both frogs have introsperm with an elongated head containing highly condensed chromatin. Characterization of sperm nuclear basic proteins (SNBPs) in E. coqui by acid-urea polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis indicates that, as in A. truei, testes from a single animal contain several protamines. Amino acid analysis indicates a composition for the most rapidly moving protamine of each species as follows: in E. coqui, ARG (35.6 mol %) + LYS (3.8 mol %) + HIS (7.6 mol %) = 47 mol % total basic residues and in A. truei, ARG (42.1 mol %) + LYS (11.1 mol %) = 53.2 mol % total basic residues. Transmission electron microscopy shows that E. coqui introsperm, like those in A. truei, are elongate with highly condensed chromatin. However, E. coqui introsperm lacks an axial perforatorium that extends into an endonuclear canal. These morphological features are plesiomorphic (primitive) and shared by A. truei with urodeles and basal amniotes (Jamieson et al. (1993) Herpetologica 49:52-65). In E. coqui introsperm, the nucleoprotein complex has a cross-sectional axis of 420 + 20 angstroms and shows a knobby chromatin structural organization in TEM. The presence of arginine-enriched protamines in both a basal anuran like the ascaphid A. truei and a more advanced neobatrachian like the leptodactylid E. coqui supports the hypothesis that internal fertilization acts as a constraint on the range of SNBP diversity in animals.
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PMID:Protamines in the internally fertilizing neobatrachian frog Eleutherodactylus coqui. 1569 90

Screening of a partial genomic database of Pichia pastoris allowed us to identify the ARG1, ARG2, ARG3, HIS1, HIS2, HIS5 and HIS6 genes, based on homology to their Saccharomyces cerevisiae counterparts. Based on the cloned sequences, a set of disruption vectors was constructed, using the previously described PpURA5-blaster as a selectable marker, and the cloned genes were individually disrupted. All disruptants exhibited the expected auxotrophic phenotypes, with only the his2 knockouts displaying a bradytroph phenotype. To allow their use as auxotrophic markers, we amplified the open reading frames and respective promoters and terminator regions of PpARG1, PpARG2, PpARG3, PpHIS1, PpHIS2 and PpHIS5. We then designed a set of integration vectors harbouring cassettes of the ARG pathway as selectable markers, to disrupt the genes of the HIS pathway and vice versa. Employing this strategy, we devised a scheme allowing for the rapid and stable introduction of several heterologous genes into the genome of P. pastoris without the need for recyclable markers or strains with multiple auxotrophies. Furthermore, simple replica-plating, instead of cost-consuming and labour-intensive colony PCR or Southern analysis, can be used to identify positive transformants, making this approach amendable for initial high-throughput applications, which can then be followed up by a more careful analysis of the selected transformants.
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PMID:Cloning and disruption of the Pichia pastoris ARG1, ARG2, ARG3, HIS1, HIS2, HIS5, HIS6 genes and their use as auxotrophic markers. 1578 48

An active form of a single-chain antibody fragment (scFv) from the murine monoclonal antibody ABL-1, which is specific for B-cell-activating factor of the TNF family, was produced in Escherichia coli. The complementary DNAs encoding the variable regions of the heavy chain (VH) and light chain (VL) were connected by a (Gly4Ser)3 linker, using an assembly polymerase chain reaction. The construct VH-linker-VL was placed under the control of highly efficient T7 promoter system. The cloned scFv was expressed in E. coli BL21(DE3) as inclusion bodies. After extraction from the E. coli cells, the inclusion bodies were solubilized and denatured in the presence of 8M urea. The expressed scFv fusion proteins were purified by Ni(2+)-IDA His-bind resin and finally renatured by dialysis. The purity and activity of the purified scFv were confirmed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, Western blotting, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The result revealed that the ABL-1 scFv retains the specific binding activity to BAFF with an affinity constant of 0.9x10(-8)molL(-1).
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PMID:Production and characterization of a bacterial single-chain antibody fragment specific to B-cell-activating factor of the TNF family. 1602 70

PDK1 and PKB/Akt have a pleckstrin homology (PH) domain at the C-terminus and N-terminus, respectively, which stabilizes an unphosphorylated, autoinhibited conformation. Binding of the PH domain to a phospholipid second messenger causes relief of autoinhibition, which results in kinase phosphorylation and activation. Baculovirus-mediated expression in Sf9 insect cells of both His(6)-PDK1 and His(6)-PKBbeta/Akt2 were optimized, which significantly improved the yields (5-fold) of the affinity purified enzymes over previously reported values. Isoelectric focusing (IEF) and Western analyses indicated that the apparent V(max)=192+/-13 U/mg and K(m) (PDK-Tide)=55+/-10 microM of purified His(6)-PDK1 results from a mixture of at least three different phospho-specific isoforms (pI values of 6.8, 6.5, and 6.4). A purely unphosphorylated isoform of His(6)-PDK1 (pI=6.8) was generated by treatment with lambda protein phosphatase (lambdaPP), which decreased V(max) to 2.4+/-0.4 U/mg and increased K(m) (PDK-Tide) to 217+/-61 microM. Isoelectric focusing and Western analyses indicated that the apparent V(max)=0.21+/-0.03 U/mg and K(m) (Crosstide)=87+/-30 microM of purified His(6)-PKBbeta/Akt2 results from a mixture of the enzyme monophosphorylated either at Ser-474 ( approximately 90%) or at Thr-309 ( approximately 10%). A purely unphosphorylated isoform of His(6)-PKBbeta/Akt2 (pI=6.4) was generated by treatment with lambdaPP, which decreased V(max) approximately 2-fold. The optimization of high-level production and detailed characterization of purified and lambdaPP-treated His(6)-PDK1 and His(6)-PKBbeta/Akt2 will facilitate detailed structural and kinetic studies aimed at understanding the mechanism of second messenger-induced activation.
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PMID:Improved yields for baculovirus-mediated expression of human His(6)-PDK1 and His(6)-PKBbeta/Akt2 and characterization of phospho-specific isoforms for design of inhibitors that stabilize inactive conformations. 1608 96

The effects of dipeptide cyclo-[His-Pro] (CHP), known to participate in the appetite behavior and food intake control, have been investigated using PC12 cells in culture as model system. We found that only in the presence of experimental conditions that cause cellular stress the cyclic dipeptide affect cellular proliferation and protects from apoptosis. It greatly enhances the phosphorylation of hsp27, alpha-B-crystallin, Cdc2, and p-38 MAPK, whereas it decreases the phosphorylation of MEK1, Cav 2, GSK3a, PKB/Akt, PKCdelta, PKCgamma, and Erk2. PKA and PKG are involved in ERK1/2 deactivation via a receptor that appears to be dually coupled to Gs and Gq protein subfamilies.
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PMID:Phosphoproteomic analysis of the effect of cyclo-[His-Pro] dipeptide on PC12 cells. 1613 90

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

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

We have previously shown that lysyl oxidase (LOX) mRNA is up-regulated in invasive breast cancer cells and that catalytically active LOX facilitates in vitro cell invasion. Here we validate our in vitro studies by showing that LOX expression is up-regulated in distant metastatic breast cancer tissues compared with primary cancer tissues. To elucidate the mechanism by which LOX facilitates cell invasion, we show that catalytically active LOX regulates in vitro motility/migration and cell-matrix adhesion formation. Treatment of the invasive breast cancer cell lines, Hs578T and MDA-MB-231, with beta-aminopropionitrile (betaAPN), an irreversible inhibitor of LOX catalytic activity, leads to a significant decrease in cell motility/migration and adhesion formation. Conversely, poorly invasive MCF-7 cells expressing LOX (MCF-7/LOX32-His) showed an increase in migration and adhesion that was reversible with the addition of betaAPN. Moreover, a decrease in activated focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and Src kinase, key proteins involved in adhesion complex turnover, was observed when invasive breast cancer cells were treated with betaAPN. Additionally, FAK and Src activation was increased in MCF-7/LOX32-His cells, which was reversible on betaAPN treatment. Hydrogen peroxide was produced as a by-product of LOX activity and the removal of hydrogen peroxide by catalase treatment in invasive breast cancer cells led to a dose-dependent loss in Src activation. These results suggest that LOX facilitates migration and cell-matrix adhesion formation in invasive breast cancer cells through a hydrogen peroxide-mediated mechanism involving the FAK/Src signaling pathway. These data show the need to target LOX for treatment of aggressive breast cancer.
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PMID:Lysyl oxidase regulates breast cancer cell migration and adhesion through a hydrogen peroxide-mediated mechanism. 1635 51


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