Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:2.7.12.2 (MEK)
 18,161 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

RKIP has been shown to regulate the RAS-RAF-MEK-ERK kinase cascade acting as modulator of apoptosis and metastasis in prostate cancer. Our goal was to examine the expression of the RAF (A-RAF, B-RAF and RAF-1) and RKIP genes in urinary bladder cancer. Microarray analysis and qPCR was employed to investigate the expression of RAF and RKIP, in 30 patients with transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the urinary bladder vs. the corresponding levels of adjacent normal tissue. Computational analysis was also performed on Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets, to unravel differences in the expression of RAF or RKIP between tumor and control samples, and between superficial and muscle invasive tumors. Microarray analysis revealed >2-fold expression of BRAF and RKIP in T2, T3, grade III tumors vs. controls. B-RAF over-expression was verified by qPCR in pT1, grade III tumors vs. their normal counterparts (p = 0.016). qPCR revealed a significant RKIP reduction in TCC vs. normal tissue (p = 0.002 and p < 0.001 for T1, grade II and Ta-T1, grade III, respectively); All RAF genes were positively correlated among each other (A-RAF/B-RAF, p = 0.003; A-RAF/RAF-1, p < 0.001; B-RAF/RAF-1, p = 0.050), whereas B-RAF was negatively correlated with RKIP in TCC (p = 0.050). Further computational analysis revealed different expression profiles for the genes of interest, among muscle invasive carcinomas, superficial TCCs, cystectomy specimens and normal tissue. The reduced RKIP mRNA levels in TCC and the elevated levels of B-RAF in pT1, grade III tumors vs. normal tissue, corroborate that these genes are involved in the pathogenesis of urinary bladder cancer.
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PMID:Implication of RAF and RKIP genes in urinary bladder cancer. 2085 79

RAF family kinases are central components of the Ras-RAF-MEK-ERK cascade. Dimerization is a key mechanism of RAF activation in response to physiological, pathological and pharmacological signals. It is mediated by a dimer interface region in the RAF kinase domain that is also conserved in KSR, a scaffolding protein that binds RAF, MEK and ERK. The regulation of RAF dimerization is incompletely understood. Especially little is known about the molecular mechanism involved in the selection of the dimerization partner. Previously, we reported that Ras-dependent binding of the tumour suppressor DiRas3 to C-RAF inhibits the C-RAF:B-RAF heterodimerization. Here we show that DiRas3 binds to KSR1 independently of its interaction with activated Ras and RAF. Our data also suggest that depending on the local stoichiometry between DiRas3 and oncogenic Ras, DiRas3 can either enhance homodimerization of KSR1 or recruit KSR1 to the Ras:C-RAF complex and thereby reduce the availability of C-RAF for binding to B-RAF. This mechanism, which is shared between A-RAF and C-RAF, may be involved in the regulation of Ras12V-induced cell transformation by DiRas3.
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PMID:Stabilization of C-RAF:KSR1 complex by DiRas3 reduces availability of C-RAF for dimerization with B-RAF. 2736 19


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