Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:2.7.7.48 (transcriptase)
 9,479 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) have been implicated as causative agents in diseases characterized by inflammation and macrophage activation, such as multiple sclerosis. Because monocyte activation and differentiation influence retroviral transcription and replication, we investigated the contribution of these processes to the expression of four HERV families (HERV-W, HERV-K, HERV-E, and HERV-H) in human monocytes, and autopsied brain tissue from patients with brain diseases associated with increased macrophage activity. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction analysis of primary macrophages and U937 monocytoid cells stimulated with phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate or lipopolysaccharide revealed three- to ninefold increases in HERV-W, HERV-K, and HERV-H RNA levels. In addition, elevated reverse transcriptase activity and HERV RNA were detectable in supernatants from PMA-stimulated U937 cultures, properties that could be attenuated with the inhibitor of monocyte differentiation threonine-lysine-proline. In contrast, stimulation of monocytes decreased or had no effect on HERV-E expression. Compared with controls, HERV-W and HERV-K expression was increased in brain tissue from patients with multiple sclerosis or human immunodeficiency virus infection or AIDS, with concomitant elevated tumor necrosis factor-alpha levels. Similarly, elevated HERV-W levels were detected in patients with Alzheimer's dementia only when tumor necrosis factor-alpha expression was also evident (2 of 6 cases). The detection of several HERVs in inflammatory brain diseases and the capacity to augment HERV expression in monocytes with compounds that influence cellular activity suggest that increased expression of these viruses is a consequence of increased immune activity rather than causative of distinct diseases.
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PMID:Monocyte activation and differentiation augment human endogenous retrovirus expression: implications for inflammatory brain diseases. 1160 92

FGFR1, a transmembrane receptor tyrosine kinase for fibroblast growth factors, is constitutively activated by chromosomal translocations in an atypical stem-cell myeloproliferative disorder. The FGFR1 tyrosine domain is fused to dimerization domains encoded by 4 alternative genes: FOP at 6q27, CEP110 at 9q33, FIM/ZNF198 at 13q12, and BCR at 22q11. In this study, we report the molecular cloning of the t(8;19)(p12;q13.3), the fifth translocation associated with this syndrome. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) demonstrated that the translocation resulted in a long terminal repeat of human endogenous retrovirus gene (HERV-K)/fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (FGFR1) fusion transcript that incorporated 5' sequences from HERV-K fused in frame to 3' FGFR1 sequences encoding the kinase domain. RT-PCR detected only 1 of the 2 possible fusion transcripts, HERV-K/FGFR1.
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PMID:Endogenous retroviral sequence is fused to FGFR1 kinase in the 8p12 stem-cell myeloproliferative disorder with t(8;19)(p12;q13.3). 1239 97

Transformed cells express high levels of non-telomeric reverse-transcriptase (RT) activity of retrotransposon and endogenous retrovirus origin. We previously reported that RT inhibition, either pharmacological or through transient silencing of RT-encoding LINE-1 (L1) elements by RNA interference (RNAi), reduced proliferation, induced differentiation and reprogrammed gene expression in human tumorigenic cell lines. Moreover, the antiretroviral drug efavirenz antagonized tumor progression in animal models in vivo. To get insight into the role of retroelements in tumorigenesis, we have now produced two cell lines derived from A-375 melanoma, in which the expression of either L1 retrotransposon, or HERV-K endogenous retrovirus, was stably suppressed by RNAi. Compared to the parental A-375 cell line, cells with stably interfered L1 expression show a lower proliferation rate, a differentiated morphology and lower tumorigenicity when inoculated in nude mice. L1 silencing modulates expression of several genes and, unexpectedly, also downregulates HERV-K expression. In HERV-K interfered cells, instead, L1 expression was unaffected, and cell proliferation and differentiation remained unchanged compared to parental A-375 cells. In vivo, however, their tumorigenic potential was found to be reduced after inoculation in nude mice. These results suggest that L1 and HERV-K play specific and distinct roles in cell transformation and tumor progression.
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PMID:Distinct roles for LINE-1 and HERV-K retroelements in cell proliferation, differentiation and tumor progression. 1723 20