Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts: Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound   Target Concepts: Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound

---

Query: EC:2.7.12.2 (MEK)
18,161 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Androgens have been associated with the risk for epithelial ovarian cancer (OVCA). Both IL-6 and IL-8 are also likely involved in the progression of OVCA. In order to discover the underline molecular mechanism, we investigated the modulation of androgen and two cytokines in the growth of epithelial OVCA. In these studies, the effect of 5alpha-dihydrotestosterone (DHT) on the expression levels of IL-6 and IL-8 was investigated. The effect of IL-6 and IL-8 on cell growth and androgen receptor (AR) expression was also analyzed. Gene expression profile analysis revealed that SKOV-3 cells, which express AR, IL-6 and IL-8 receptors, are suitable model for this study. We found that IL-6 and IL-8 markedly promoted SKOV-3 cell proliferation. Furthermore, DHT enhanced IL-6 and IL-8 secretion. Flutamide (Flu), an AR antagonist, completely abolished DHT-stimulated cell growth and the expression of IL-6 and IL-8. IL-6- or IL-8-induced cell proliferation was completely blocked by their specific neutralizing antibodies, which partially inhibited DHT-induced cell growth. In the absence of androgen, both cytokines enhanced AR expression and AR promoter activation, which was completely blocked by Flu. However, Flu failed tor educe IL-6-/IL-8-induced cell growth. Pretreatment of SKOV-3 cells with p38 MAPK, MEK1/2, and ErbB2 MAPK inhibitors, respectively, blocked IL-6-mediated enhancement of AR transcription while Src inhibitor blocked IL-8 induced AR transcription. These results provide a novel mechanism that androgens, IL-6 and IL-8 may form a common amplifying signaling cascade to modulate OVCA growth. Androgen-induced OVCA proliferation is partially occurring via enhanced IL-6 and IL-8 expression, and IL-6/IL-8 could also promote OVCA growth by activation of AR gene promoter.
...
PMID:Reciprocal regulation of 5alpha-dihydrotestosterone, interleukin-6 and interleukin-8 during proliferation of epithelial ovarian carcinoma. 1761 41

The double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-activated serine/threonine kinase R (PKR) is well characterized as an essential component of the innate antiviral response. Recently, PKR has been implicated in Toll-like receptor (TLR) signal transduction in response to bacterial cell wall components. Its contribution to pulmonary immunity, however, has not yet been elucidated. In this report we investigated whether PKR is involved in TLR2/TLR4-mediated immune responses of primary alveolar macrophages (AM). We found that both TLR2 (Pam3CSK4) and TLR4 (LPS) ligands induced rapid phosphorylation of PKR. Moreover, this activation was strictly dependent on the functionality of the respective TLR. Pharmacologic inhibition of PKR activity using 2-aminopurine (2-AP) and PKR gene deletion was found to reduce the TLR2/TLR4-induced activation of the JNK signaling pathway (MKK4/JNK/c-Jun), but did not affect p38 and extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 activation. Moreover, inhibition of PKR phosphorylation severely impaired TNF-alpha and IL-6 production by AM in response to LPS and Pam3CSK4. In addition, we found that PKR phosphorylation plays a major role in LPS- but not Pam3CSK4-induced activation of the p65 subunit of NF-kappaB. Collectively, these results indicate that functional PKR is critically involved in inflammatory responses of primary AM to gram-positive as well as gram-negative bacterial cell wall components.
...
PMID:PKR regulates TLR2/TLR4-dependent signaling in murine alveolar macrophages. 1769 Mar 30

UTP causes IL-6 production in HaCaT keratinocytes, which is partially inhibited by PD98059, a mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK) inhibitor, suggesting that a pathway other than the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) pathway is involved in the production. In the present study, we examined the involvement of calcineurin in the UTP-induced interleukin (IL)-6 production in HaCaT keratinocytes. FK506 and cyclosporine A, calcineurin inhibitors, partially inhibited UTP-induced IL-6 mRNA expression and protein production. In addition, combined application of FK506 and PD98059 synergistically inhibited the UTP-induced IL-6 production. These results suggest that ERK and calcineurin are cooperatively involved in UTP-induced IL-6 production.
...
PMID:Cooperation of calcineurin and ERK for UTP-induced IL-6 production in HaCaT keratinocytes. 1776 Nov 60

Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) is a pro-inflammatory cytokine that controls the initiation and progression of inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. Tpl2 is a MAPKKK in the MAPK (i.e. ERK) pathway, and the Tpl2-MEK-ERK signaling pathway is activated by the pro-inflammatory mediators TNFalpha, interleukin (IL)-1beta, and bacterial endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide (LPS)). Moreover, Tpl2 is required for TNFalpha expression. Thus, pharmacologic inhibition of Tpl2 should be a valid approach to therapeutic intervention in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory diseases in humans. We have developed a series of highly selective and potent Tpl2 inhibitors, and in the present study we have used these inhibitors to demonstrate that the catalytic activity of Tpl2 is required for the LPS-induced activation of MEK and ERK in primary human monocytes. These inhibitors selectively target Tpl2 in these cells, and they block LPS- and IL-1beta-induced TNFalpha production in both primary human monocytes and human blood. In rheumatoid arthritis fibroblast-like synoviocytes these inhibitors block ERK activation, cyclooxygenase-2 expression, and the production of IL-6, IL-8, and prostaglandin E(2), and the matrix metalloproteinases MMP-1 and MMP-3. Taken together, our results show that inhibition of Tpl2 in primary human cell types can decrease the production of TNFalpha and other pro-inflammatory mediators during inflammatory events, and they further support the notion that Tpl2 is an appropriate therapeutic target for rheumatoid arthritis and other human inflammatory diseases.
...
PMID:Pharmacologic inhibition of tpl2 blocks inflammatory responses in primary human monocytes, synoviocytes, and blood. 1784 81

Growing evidence suggests that a proportion of interstitial myofibroblasts detected during renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis originates from tubular epithelial cells by a process called epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). The IL-6-type cytokine oncostatin M (OSM) has been recently implicated in the induction of EMT. We investigated OSM effects on the expression of both cell-cell contact proteins and mesenchymal markers and studied OSM-induced intracellular signaling mechanisms associated with these events in human proximal tubular cells. Human recombinant OSM attenuated the expression of N-cadherin, E-cadherin, and claudin-2 in human kidney-2 (HK-2) cells associated with the induction of HK-2 cell scattering in 3D collagen matrices. Conversely, expression of collagen type I, vimentin, and S100A4 was induced by OSM. OSM-stimulated cell scattering was inhibited by antibodies against gp130. Besides inducing phosphorylation of Stat1 and Stat3, OSM led to a strong concentration- and time-dependent phosphorylation of the mitogen-activated protein kinases ERK1, ERK2, and ERK5. MEK1/2 inhibitor U0126 (10 muM) blocked basal and OSM-induced ERK1/2 phosphorylation but not phosphorylation of either ERK5 or Stat1/3. Both synthetic MEK1/2 inhibitors U0126 and Cl-1040, when used at concentrations which inhibit ERK1/2 phosphorylation but not ERK5 phosphorylation, restored N-cadherin expression in the presence of OSM, inhibited basal claudin-2 expression, but did not affect either basal or OSM-inhibited E-cadherin expression or OSM-induced expression of collagen type I and vimentin. These results suggest that in human proximal tubular cells ERK1/2 signaling represents an important component of OSM's inhibitory effect on N-cadherin expression. Furthermore, functional ERK1/2 signaling is necessary for basal claudin-2 expression.
...
PMID:Oncostatin M-induced effects on EMT in human proximal tubular cells: differential role of ERK signaling. 1788 58

Carbon monoxide (CO), a product of heme degradation by heme oxygenases (HO), has been shown to provide cytoprotection in various tissue injury models. This study examined the efficacy and molecular mechanisms of exogenously delivered inhaled CO in protecting liver grafts from cold ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury associated with liver transplantation. Orthotopic syngenic liver transplantation (OLT) was performed in Lewis rats with 18-h cold preservation in University of Wisconsin solution. Recipients were exposed to air or different concentrations of CO (20-250 ppm) for 1 h before and 24 h after OLT and killed 1-48 h posttransplant. CO inhalation significantly decreased serum alanine transaminase (ALT) levels and suppressed hepatic necrosis and neutrophil accumulation at 24-48 h after OLT in a dose-dependent manner. Reduced hepatic injury with inhaled CO is associated with marked downregulation of early mRNA expression for TNF-alpha and IL-6. Expression in liver grafts of mRNA and protein of the stress-responding enzyme inducible nitric oxide synthase was significantly reduced by CO, while HO-1 was only marginally suppressed. Cold hepatic I/R injury was associated with prompt MAPK phosphorylation in liver grafts at 1 h after OLT, and CO significantly inhibited phosphorylation of ERK1/2 MAPK and its upstream MEK1/2 and downstream transcriptional factor c-Myc. CO also significantly inhibited I/R injury-induced STAT1 and STAT3 activation. In contrast, CO did not inhibit p38 or JNK MAPK pathways during hepatic I/R injury. Results demonstrate that exogenous CO suppresses early proinflammatory and stress-response gene expression and efficiently ameliorates hepatic I/R injury. The possible mechanism may include the downregulation of MEK/ERK1/2 signaling pathway with CO.
...
PMID:Protection of transplant-induced hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury with carbon monoxide via MEK/ERK1/2 pathway downregulation. 1800 5

The extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) are phosphorylated after inhalation of asbestos. The effect of blocking this signaling pathway in lung epithelium is unclear. Asbestos-exposed transgenic mice expressing a dominant-negative mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase-1 (dnMEK1) (i.e., the upstream kinase necessary for phosphorylation of ERK1/2) targeted to lung epithelium exhibited morphologic and molecular changes in lung. Transgene-positive (Tg+) (i.e., dnMEK1) and transgene-negative (Tg-) littermates were exposed to crocidolite asbestos for 2, 4, 9, and 32 days or maintained in clean air (sham controls). Distal bronchiolar epithelium was isolated using laser capture microdissection and mRNA analyzed for molecular markers of proliferation and Clara cell secretory protein (CCSP). Lungs and bronchoalveolar lavage fluids were analyzed for inflammatory and proliferative changes and molecular markers of fibrogenesis. Distal bronchiolar epithelium of asbestos-exposed wild-type mice showed increased expression of c-fos at 2 days. Elevated mRNA levels of histone H3 and numbers of Ki-67-labeled proliferating bronchiolar epithelial cells were decreased at 4 days in asbestos-exposed Tg+ mice. At 32 days, distal bronchioles normally composed of Clara cells in asbestos-exposed Tg+ mouse lungs exhibited nonreplicating ciliated and mucin-secreting cells as well as decreased mRNA levels of CCSP. Gene expression (procollagen 3-a-1, procollagen 1-a-1, and IL-6) linked to fibrogenesis was also increased in lung homogenates of asbestos-exposed Tg- mice, but reduced in asbestos-exposed Tg+ mice. These results suggest a critical role of MEK1 signaling in epithelial cell proliferation and lung remodeling after toxic injury.
...
PMID:Targeting the MEK1 cascade in lung epithelium inhibits proliferation and fibrogenesis by asbestos. 1819

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha is central to the endometriotic disease process. TNF-alpha receptor signaling regulates epithelial cell secretion of inflammation and invasion mediators. Because epithelial cells are a disease-inducing component of the endometriotic lesion, we explored the response of 12Z immortalized human epithelial endometriotic cells to TNF-alpha. This report reveals the impact of disruption of established TNF-alpha-induced signaling cascades on the expression of biomarkers of inflammation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) from endometriotic epithelial cells. Note that we show the molecular potential of soluble TNF-R1 [TNF binding protein (TBP)] and a panel of small molecule kinase inhibitors to block endometriotic gene expression directly. The TNF-alpha receptor is demonstrated to signal through IkappaB kinase complex (IKK) 2 > IkappaB > nuclear factor kappaB, extracellular signal-regulated kinase > mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK), p38, and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) > Akt1/2. TNF-alpha induces the expression of transcripts for inflammatory mediators interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, regulated on activation normal T cell expressed and secreted, TNF-alpha, granulocyte macrophage-colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1 and also invasion mediators matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-7, MMP-9, and intracellular adhesion molecule-1. Indeed, TBP inhibits the TNF-alpha-induced expression of all the above endometriotic genes in 12Z endometriotic epithelial cells. The secretion of IL-6, IL-8, GMCSF, and MCP-1 by TNF-alpha is blocked by TBP. Interestingly, MEK, p38, and IKK inhibitors block TNF-alpha-induced IL-8, IL-6, and GM-CSF secretion and 12z invasion, whereas the PI3K inhibitors do not. The only inhibitor to block MCP-1 expression is the p38 inhibitor. Last, TBP, MEK inhibitor, or p38 inhibitor also block cell surface expression of N-cadherin, a marker of mesenchymal cells. Taken together, these results demonstrate that interruption of TNF-alpha-induced signaling pathways in human endometriotic epithelial cells results in decreased expression and secretion of biomarkers for inflammation, EMT, and disease progression.
...
PMID:Tumor necrosis factor-alpha regulates inflammatory and mesenchymal responses via mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase, p38, and nuclear factor kappaB in human endometriotic epithelial cells. 1825 6

The proinflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-1 activates several hundred genes within the same cell. This occurs in part by activation of the MKK7-JNK-c-Jun signaling pathway whose precise role in the regulation of individual inflammatory genes is still incompletely understood. To identify the genes that are under specific control of activated JNK, we used a JNK-MKK7 fusion protein. Genome-wide microarray analysis revealed EGR-1 as the transcript that was most strongly induced by JNK-MKK7. IL-1-stimulated EGR-1 mRNA and protein expression were impaired in cells lacking JNK or c-Jun. Transcriptional activation of the EGR-1 promoter by JNK-MKK7 or by IL-1 required a single upstream AP-1 site and three distal serum-response elements (SRE). Reconstitution experiments in c-Jun-deficient cells revealed that c-Jun is required for EGR-1 transcription through both the AP-1 site and the distal SREs. By chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis, we found IL-1-inducible recruitment of c-Jun to the AP-1 site and to the region containing the three distal SREs. These experiments suggest that c-Jun plays a dual role in EGR-1 transcription. It directly binds to the AP-1 element, and at the same time it is essential for promoter activation through the three distal SREs by an indirect unknown mechanism. As predicted by TRANSFAC analysis and verified by ChIP experiments, IL-1-induced EGR-1 protein binds to the promoter regions of inflammatory mediators such as IL-6, IL-8, and CCL2. Furthermore, short interfering RNA-mediated suppression of EGR-1 partially suppresses IL-1-inducible transcription of IL-8, IL-6, and CCL2. In summary, we provide novel evidence for a complex c-Jun-mediated mechanism that is essential for inducible EGR-1 expression. We identify this pathway as a previously unrecognized part of a multistep gene regulatory network that controls cytokine and chemokine expression via the IL-1-MKK7-JNK-c-Jun-EGR-1 pathway.
...
PMID:Transcriptional regulation of EGR-1 by the interleukin-1-JNK-MKK7-c-Jun pathway. 1828 87

Ixodes ticks are major vectors for human pathogens, such as Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease. Tick saliva contains immunosuppressive molecules that facilitate tick feeding and B. burgdorferi infection. We here demonstrate, to our knowledge for the first time, that the Ixodes scapularis salivary protein Salp15 inhibits adaptive immune responses by suppressing human dendritic cell (DC) functions. Salp15 inhibits both Toll-like receptor- and B. burgdorferi-induced production of pro-inflammatory cytokines by DCs and DC-induced T cell activation. Salp15 interacts with DC-SIGN on DCs, which results in activation of the serine/threonine kinase Raf-1. Strikingly, Raf-1 activation by Salp15 leads to mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK)-dependent decrease of IL-6 and TNF-alpha mRNA stability and impaired nucleosome remodeling at the IL-12p35 promoter. These data demonstrate that Salp15 binding to DC-SIGN triggers a novel Raf-1/MEK-dependent signaling pathway acting at both cytokine transcriptional and post-transcriptional level to modulate Toll-like receptor-induced DC activation, which might be instrumental to tick feeding and B. burgdorferi infection, and an important factor in the pathogenesis of Lyme disease. Insight into the molecular mechanism of immunosuppression by tick salivary proteins might provide innovative strategies to combat Lyme disease and could lead to the development of novel anti-inflammatory or immunosuppressive agents.
...
PMID:Salp15 binding to DC-SIGN inhibits cytokine expression by impairing both nucleosome remodeling and mRNA stabilization. 1828 94


<< Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next >>

---