Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:2.7.11.24 (mitogen-activated protein kinase)
95,810 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The mechanisms governing positive selection of T cells in the thymus are still incompletely understood. Here, we describe a N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea induced recessive mouse mutant, Ms. T-less, which lacks T cells in the peripheral blood because of a complete block of thymocyte development at the CD4(+)CD8(+) stage. Single nucleotide polymorphism mapping and candidate gene sequencing revealed a nonsense mutation in the inositol (1,4,5) trisphosphate 3 kinase B (Itpkb) gene in Ms. T-less mice. Accordingly, Ms. T-less thymocytes do not show detectable expression of Itpkb protein and have drastically reduced basal inositol (1,4,5) trisphosphate kinase activity. Itpkb converts inositol (1,4,5) trisphosphate to inositol (1,3,4,5) tetrakisphosphate, soluble second messengers that have been implicated in Ca(2+) signaling. Surprisingly, Ca(2+) responses show no significant differences between wild type (WT) and mutant thymocytes. However, extracellular signal-regulated kinase (Erk) activation in response to suboptimal antigen receptor stimulation is attenuated in Ms. T-less thymocytes, suggesting a role for Itpkb in linking T cell receptor signaling to efficient and sustained Erk activation.
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PMID:Inositol (1,4,5) trisphosphate 3 kinase B controls positive selection of T cells and modulates Erk activity. 1506 1

Immunoglobulin E (IgE) bound to multivalent antigen (Ag) elicits mast cell degranulation but not survival; on the contrary, IgE in the absence of Ag (IgE(-Ag)) induces survival only but not degranulation. Although these distinct responses are mediated through the same receptor, FcepsilonRI, the molecular mechanism generating the divergence is largely unknown. We recently showed that the signals through FcRgamma chain are essential for IgE(-Ag)-induced mast cell survival as well as IgE(+Ag)-induced degranulation. To determine whether the cellular output is regulated by the quantity of FcRgamma signal, we expressed CD8/FcRgamma chimeras (CD8/gamma) in bone marrow-derived mast cells (BMMCs) from FcRgamma(-/-) mice to manipulate the strength of FcRgamma signals by anti-CD8 cross-linking. Cross-linking of CD8/gamma induced mast cell survival and degranulation. Survival was induced by weaker stimulation than needed for degranulation in terms of anti-CD8 concentration and the valency of chimera. However, sustained extracellular signal-regulated kinase (Erk) activation seems to regulate survival even when the activation signal was strong enough to elicit degranulation. Generation of sustained Erk activation by active mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK) induced BMMC survival. These results suggest that the duration and the magnitude of FcRgamma signals may determine mast cell survival and degranulation, respectively.
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PMID:The quantity and duration of FcRgamma signals determine mast cell degranulation and survival. 1507 Jun 90

Mature dendritic cells (DCs) are central to the development of optimal T cell immune responses. CD40 ligand (CD40L, CD154) is one of the most potent maturation stimuli for immature DCs. We studied the role of three signaling pathways, p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), and phosphoinositide-3-OH kinase (PI3K), in CD40L-induced monocyte-derived DC activation, survival, and expansion of virus-specific CD8(+) T cell responses. p38 MAPK pathway was critical for CD40L-mediated up-regulation of CD83, a marker of DC maturation. CD40L-induced monocyte-derived DC IL-12 production was mediated by both the p38 MAPK and PI3K pathways. CD40L-mediated DC survival was mostly mediated by the PI3K pathway, with smaller contributions by p38 MAPK and ERK pathways. Finally, the p38 MAPK pathway was most important in mediating CD40L-stimulated DCs to induce strong allogeneic responses as well as expanding virus-specific memory CD8(+) T cell responses. Thus, although the p38 MAPK, PI3K, and ERK pathways independently affect various parameters of DC maturation induced by CD40L, the p38 MAPK pathway within CD40L-conditioned DCs is the most important pathway to maximally elicit T cell immune responses. This pathway should be exploited in vivo to either completely suppress or enhance CD8(+) T cell immune responses.
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PMID:The role of the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase, extracellular signal-regulated kinase, and phosphoinositide-3-OH kinase signal transduction pathways in CD40 ligand-induced dendritic cell activation and expansion of virus-specific CD8+ T cell memory responses. 1512 88

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has spread to a global pandemic, especially in Asia. The transmission route of SARS has been clarified, but the immunopathogenesis of SARS is unclear. In an age-matched case-control design, we studied immune parameters in 15 SARS patients who were previously healthy. Plasma was harvested for detection of virus load, cytokines, and nitrite/nitrate levels, and blood leukocytes were subjected to flow cytometric analysis of intracellular mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) in different leukocytes. Patients with SARS had significantly higher IL-8 levels (p = 0.016) in early stage, and higher IL-2 levels (p = 0.039) in late stage than normal controls. Blood TNF-alpha, IL-6, and IL-10, and nitrite/nitrate levels were not significantly elevated. In contrast, TGF-beta and PGE(2) levels were significantly elevated in SARS patients. Five of the 15 SARS patients had detectable coronaviruses in blood, but patients with detectable and undetectable viremia had no different profiles of immune mediators. Flow cytometric analysis of MAPKs activation by phospho-p38 and phospho-p44/42 (extracellular signal-regulated kinase) expression showed that augmented p38 activation (p = 0.044) of CD14 monocytes associated with suppressed p38 activation (p = 0.033) of CD8 lymphocytes was found in SARS patients. These results suggest that regulation of TGF-beta and PGE(2) production and MAPKs activation in different leukocytes may be considered while developing therapeutics for the SARS treatment.
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PMID:Altered p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase expression in different leukocytes with increment of immunosuppressive mediators in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome. 1518 68

The roles played by specific transcription factors during the regulation of early T cell development remain largely undefined. Several key genes induced during the primary checkpoint of T cell development, beta-selection, contain cAMP response element sites within their enhancer-promoter region that are regulated by CREB activation. In this study, we show that CREB is constitutively phosphorylated in the thymus, but not the spleen. We also show that CREB is activated downstream of the pre-TCR complex, and that the induction of CREB activity is regulated by protein kinase C alpha- and ERK-MAPK-mediated signals. We addressed the importance of this activation by expressing a naturally occurring inhibitor of CREB, inducible cAMP early repressor in wild-type fetal liver-derived lymphoid progenitor cells, and assessed their developmental potential. Fetal thymic organ cultures reconstituted with cells constitutively expressing inducible cAMP early repressor displayed a delay in generating CD4(+)CD8(+) thymocytes and a decrease in cellularity compared with control fetal thymic organ cultures. Taken together, our studies establish that CREB plays a central role in relaying proliferation and differentiation signals from the pre-TCR complex into the nucleus in developing thymocytes.
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PMID:Cyclic adenosine 5'-monophosphate response element binding protein plays a central role in mediating proliferation and differentiation downstream of the pre-TCR complex in developing thymocytes. 1526 11

The issue of whether three ITAMs in the TCR zeta chain can transmit qualitatively distinct signals or redundantly amplify TCR-mediated activation signals was extensively investigated using stable hCD8-zeta Jurkat transfectants which contain stepwise deletions of each ITAM or mutations of tyrosine residues in each ITAM of TCR zeta chain. The influence of mutations of each tyrosine residue on reduction of the amount and species of tyrosine phosphorylated proteins recruited to zeta chain was quite distinctive, but they were roughly proportional to the number of functionally intact ITAMs. However, the first N-terminal ITAM had a signaling potential to trigger most intracellular signaling events for T cell activation and apoptosis similar to wild-type CD8-zeta, but this level was substantially reduced in the presence of the first and second N-terminal ITAM together. Mutations of tyrosine residues in first and second N-terminal ITAM significantly impaired most signaling events leading to T cell activation and activation-induced cell death, but phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) was differentially impaired in each mutant. The mutation of the first tyrosine residue in C-terminal ITAM did not show any impairment in induction of surface antigens and cell death, but rather increased IL-2 secretion and MAPK phosphorylation. Therefore, in this study we demonstrated that the ITAMs and their tyrosine residues of TCR zeta chain can transmit qualitatively differential intracellular signals upon TCR stimulation through distinctive regulation of recruitment of tyrosine phosphorylated proteins to zeta chain and activation of various MAPKs.
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PMID:Qualitatively differential regulation of T cell activation and apoptosis by T cell receptor zeta chain ITAMs and their tyrosine residues. 1530 45

Mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases are essential regulators in immune responses, and their activities are modulated by kinases and phosphatases. MAP kinase phosphatase (MKP) is a family of dual-specificity phosphatases whose function is evolutionarily conserved. A number of mammalian MKPs have been identified so far, but their specific physiological functions in negative regulation of MAP kinases have not been genetically defined. Here we examine innate and adaptive immune responses in the absence of MKP5. JNK activity was selectively increased in Mkp5 (also known as Dusp10)-deficient mouse cells. Mkp5-deficient cells produced greatly enhanced levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines during innate immune responses and exhibited greater T-cell activation than their wild-type counterparts. However, Mkp5-deficient T cells proliferated poorly upon activation, which resulted in increased resistance to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. By contrast, Mkp5-deficient CD4(+) and CD8(+) effector T cells produced significantly increased levels of cytokines compared with wild-type cells, which led to much more robust and rapidly fatal immune responses to secondary infection with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus. Therefore, MKP5 has a principal function in both innate and adaptive immune responses, and represents a novel target for therapeutic intervention of immune diseases.
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PMID:Regulation of innate and adaptive immune responses by MAP kinase phosphatase 5. 1530 13

A major function of NKG2D linking innate and adaptive immunity is to upregulate antigen-specific CTL-mediated cytotoxicity in tissues expressing stress-induced NKG2D ligands, such as MIC, by coactivating TCR signaling. Here, we show that, under conditions of dysregulated IL15 expression in vivo in patients with celiac disease and in vitro in healthy individuals, multiple steps of the NKG2D/DAP10 signaling pathway leading to ERK and JNK activation are coordinately primed to activate direct cytolytic function independent of TCR specificity in effector CD8 T cells. These findings may not only explain previous reports of transformation of CTL into NK-like "lymphokine-activated killers" (LAK cells) under high doses of IL2 (a substitute for IL15) but may also have significant implications for understanding and treating immunopathological diseases.
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PMID:Coordinated induction by IL15 of a TCR-independent NKG2D signaling pathway converts CTL into lymphokine-activated killer cells in celiac disease. 1535 41

MUC1 is a transmembrane glycoprotein expressed on the apical surface of epithelial cells and exhibiting structural features characteristic of receptors for cytokines and growth factors. Its intracellular cytoplasmic tail (CT) contains multiple amino acid sequence motifs that, once phosphorylated, serve as docking sites for SH2 domain-containing proteins mediating signal transduction. Most studies examining MUC1 signaling have focused on cancer cells where MUC1 is overexpressed, aberrantly glycosylated, and constitutively phosphorylated. No studies have determined the signaling pathways activated in response to stimulation of its ectodomain. To better understand the signaling mechanisms of MUC1, we stably transfected HEK293 cells with an expression plasmid encoding a chimeric protein consisting of the extracellular and transmembrane domains of CD8 and the MUC1 CT (CD8/MUC1). Extracellular treatment of HEK293-CD8/MUC1 cells with CD8 antibody induced intracellular Tyr phosphorylation of the MUC1 CT and activated ERK1/2, but not the p38, SAPK/JNK, or ERK5 MAP kinases. Moreover, phosphorylation of ERK1/2 was completely blocked using a CT deletion mutant or a mutant construct in which all Tyr residues in the CT were changed to Phe. These results establish that Tyr phosphorylation of the MUC1 CT is required for activation of a downstream ERK1/2 pathway.
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PMID:MUC1 tyrosine phosphorylation activates the extracellular signal-regulated kinase. 1535 96

Thymic myoid cells correspond to a muscle-like cell population present in the thymic medulla. They are well conserved throughout species evolution, but their biological role is not known. We demonstrated that myoid cells protected thymocytes from apoptosis as evidenced by a strong decrease of annexin-V-FITC positive thymocytes. This effect was (1) specific of myoid cells compared to thymic epithelial cells; (2) dependent on direct cell-to-cell contacts and (3) triggered rapidly after 2 h in cocultures. This protective phenomenon was due to the activation of prosurvival mechanisms. Indeed, myoid cells activated extracellular-regulated kinases (ERK1/2) and Akt in thymocytes. Myoid cells also influenced thymocyte maturation. We observed an increase in CD4(+) and a decrease in CD8(+) single positive (SP) thymocytes when cocultured with myoid cells, independently of a CD8(+)SP increased death or a CD4(+)SP overproliferation. Consequently, thymic myoid cells protect thymocytes from apoptosis and could also modulate their differentiation process.
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PMID:Thymic myoid cells protect thymocytes from apoptosis and modulate their differentiation: implication of the ERK and Akt signaling pathways. 1577 97


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