Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:2.7.7.49 (reverse transcriptase)
31,746 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The effect of extracts of scutellariae radix (Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi) and its flavonoids, baicalin, baicalein and wogonin, on induction of quinone reductase (QR) in the Hepa 1c1c7 murine hepatoma cell line was examined. A significant and dose-dependent induction of QR activity was observed in the methanol extract of scutellariae radix and baicalin. HPCL analysis showed that baicalin was contained as a main component in the methanol extract of scutellariae radix, indicating that baicalin may be the major active principle of QR induction mediated by scutellariae radix extract. To elucidate the mechanism of baicalin-mediated induction of QR enzyme activity, the effect on QR mRNA levels in Hepa 1c1c7 cell cultures was investigated. Using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction techniques, time- and dose-dependent induction of QR mRNA levels by baicalin were demonstrated in Hepa 1c1c7 cells. On the basis of these results, the scutellariae radix extract or baicalin can be regarded as a readily available, promising, novel cancer chemopreventive agent.
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PMID:Induction of quinone reductase by a methanol extract of Scutellaria baicalensis and its flavonoids in murine Hepa 1c1c7 cells. 992 95

Telomerase is a specialized type of reverse transcriptase that catalyzes the synthesis and extension of telomeric DNA. High levels of telomerase activity have been detected in most hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues; very weak telomerase activity is, however, detected in approximately half of nontumorous chronic liver disease tissues. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible source of this weak telomerase activity in these tissues using quantitative competitive reverse transcription (RT)-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and in situ RT-PCR. Competitive RT-PCR indicated that the relative amount of human telomerase RNA (hTR) was significantly higher in chronic hepatitis or liver cirrhosis compared with the normal liver (p < 0.005), and in HCC compared with the normal liver (p < 0.001) and with chronic hepatitis or liver cirrhosis (p < 0.0001). In the normal liver tissue, hTR was detected by in situ RT-PCR in occasional sinusoidal cells and nuclei of occasional hepatocytes. In tumor-free liver or tumor-bearing liver, hTR was detected in sinusoidal cells, infiltrating lymphocytes, occasional proliferative bile ductal epithelial cells, and the nuclei of occasional hepatocytes. In HCC, hTR was detected in nuclei of all HCC cells as an intense signal and in sinusoidal cells. These results indicate that the amount of hTR increases in the nuclei of hepatocytes during hepatocarcinogenesis, and that the cells associated with the weak telomerase activity in approximately half of the nontumorous chronic liver lesions are mainly migrating lymphocytes and sinusoidal cells.
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PMID:Quantitative analysis and in situ localization of human telomerase RNA in chronic liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma. 995 7

The sequential development of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with post-transfusion hepatitis was a clue that led to the identification of hepatitis C virus (HCV) as a risk factor for HCC. The average time lag between transfusion-associated infection and cancer development was 30 years, with a range of 15-45 years. Using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique, HCV-RNA has been almost invariably detected in serum and tumor tissue of anti-HCV-seropositive patients with HCC In many patients, HCV-RNA was found to belong to the more pathogenic type 1b. However, it is unlikely that HCV plays a direct role in liver tumorigenesis, since no reverse transcriptase activity has been found in infected livers. One current opinion is that HCV may promote cancer through cirrhosis, which is per se an important risk factor for this tumor: almost all patients with HCC have cirrhosis and up to 30% of them have coexisting serological evidence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) or alcohol abuse, further supporting the idea that both HCC and cirrhosis might result from the interplay of several risk factors. However, there are also data suggesting that HCV may interact with cellular genes regulating cell growth and differentiation independently of the onset of cirrhosis.
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PMID:The role of hepatitis C virus in hepatocellular carcinoma. 1002 14

Recently, lamivudine used to treat patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection was revealed to have potent antiviral activity. However, HBV resistance to lamivudine has been reported and shown to have amino acid substitutions in the methionine residue of the conserved tyrosine (Y), methionine (M), aspartate (D), aspartate (D) motif of RNA-dependent DNA polymerase. To explore the consequences of substitutions in this motif (YMDD), we made 7 variants by substituting the methionine of the YMDD motif with isoleucine (I), valine (V), alanine (A), leucine (L), lysine (K), arginine (R), and threonine (T). Replication ability of these variants was evaluated by transfection into human hepatoma cells. Sensitivity to lamivudine was tested for replication-competent variants. Four variants with hydrophobic substitutions (I, V, A, and L) remained replication-competent, whereas 3 others with hydrophilic substitutions (K, R, and T) exhibited impaired replication. Of the 4 replication-competent variants, 2 (I and V) were resistant, and 2 (A and L) were sensitive to lamivudine. Because the polymerase and the surface gene overlap, the introduction of these mutations affected the secretion of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), namely 4 variants (I, V, L, and R) secreted HBsAg, whereas 3 variants (A, K, and T) did not. Our study elucidated that only one amino acid substitution in the YMDD motif was sufficient to cause lamivudine resistance in vitro. As a result of replication competence and lamivudine sensitivity, only viruses having YIDD or YVDD sequences may appear during treatment with lamivudine. This in vitro system could be used to study HBV mutations, replication competence, and their susceptibility to antivirals.
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PMID:YMDD motif in hepatitis B virus DNA polymerase influences on replication and lamivudine resistance: A study by in vitro full-length viral DNA transfection. 1005 1

To determine the role of the Wilms' tumor gene WT1 in tumorigenesis of solid tumors, expression of the WT1 gene was examined in 34 solid tumor cell lines (four gastric cancer cell lines, five colon cancer cell lines, 15 lung cancer cell lines, four breast cancer cell lines, one germ cell tumor cell line, two ovarian cancer cell lines, one uterine cancer cell line, one thyroid cancer cell line, and one hepatocellular carcinoma cell line) by means of quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. WT1 gene expression was detected in three of the four gastric cancer cell lines, all of the five colon cancer cell lines, 12 of the 15 lung cancer cell lines, two of the four breast cancer cell lines, the germ cell tumor cell line, the two ovarian cancer cell lines, the uterine cancer cell line, the thyroid cancer cell line, and the hepatocellular carcinoma cell line. Therefore, of the 34 solid tumor cell lines examined, 28 (82%) expressed WT1. Three cell lines expressing WT1 (gastric cancer cell line AZ-521, lung cancer cell line OS3, and ovarian cancer cell line TYK-nu) were further analyzed for mutations and/or deletions in the WT1 gene by means of single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis. However, no mutations or deletions were detected in the region of the WT1 gene ranging from the 3' end of exon 1 to exon 10 (the WT1 gene consists of 10 exons) in these three cell lines. Furthermore, when AZ-521, OS3, and TYK-nu cells were treated with WT1 antisense oligomers, the growth of these cells was significantly inhibited in association with a reduction in WT1 protein levels. Furthermore, constitute expression of the transfected WT1 gene in cancer cells inhibited the antisense effect of WT1 antisense oligomer on cell growth. These results indicated that the WT1 gene plays an essential role in the growth of solid tumors and performs an oncogenic rather than a tumor-suppressor gene function.
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PMID:Expression of the Wilms' tumor gene WT1 in solid tumors and its involvement in tumor cell growth. 1018 90

The emergence of resistant hepatitis B virus (HBV), with mutations in the YMDD motif of the polymerase gene after treatment with lamivudine, is becoming an important clinical problem. In this study, susceptibility of wild-type and lamivudine-resistant HBV M552I, M552V, and L528M/M552V mutants to other reverse transcriptase inhibitors was investigated by transient transfection of full-length HBV DNA into human hepatoma cells. HBV DNA replication was monitored by Southern blot hybridization, which showed the presence of a single-stranded band (representative of the HBV replicative intermediates) in the drug-free, wild-type HBV-transfected cells. This band was diminished in the samples of wild-type HBV DNA treated with either lamivudine, adefovir, or lobucavir. The band intensities from the lamivudine-resistant mutants were not decreased by treatment with lamivudine, but were decreased by the treatments with adefovir or lobucavir. In contrast, penciclovir and nevirapine did not diminish the intensity of the single-stranded band of wild-type HBV or the lamivudine-resistant mutants. These results demonstrate that lamivudine-resistant HBV is susceptible to adefovir and lobucavir. Lamivudine-resistant HBV should be treated with adefovir or lobucavir, and combination therapy with lamivudine and adefovir/lobucavir may prevent the emergence of lamivudine-resistant HBV.
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PMID:Susceptibility of lamivudine-resistant hepatitis B virus to other reverse transcriptase inhibitors. 1037 69

Receptors for interleukin-6 (IL-6) occur in body fluids in soluble form, as well. This is an approx. 50 kDa protein with the ability to bind IL-6. The soluble IL-6 receptor (sIL-6R)/IL-6 complex can attach to membrane anchored gp130, a molecule associated with the signal transduction induced by IL-6 and by other related cytokines. Earlier we described the appearance of sIL-6R in various body fluids of autoimmune patients. In this study using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) we isolated and characterised a truncated form of amplified cDNA reverse-transcribed from IL-6 receptor mRNA both from human hepatoma cell line HepG2 and mononuclear cells from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. Using digestion by Pvu II restriction endonuclease and direct nucleotide sequencing we conclude that alternative splicing is likely involved in generation of sIL-6R. Our further experiments suggest that IL-6 and recombinant sIL-6R themselves do not influence the alternative splicing of IL-6 receptor gene.
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PMID:Generation of 'truncated' interleukin-6 receptor (IL-6R) mRNA by alternative splicing; a possible source of soluble IL-6R. 1039 66

We compared the efficacy of 4 methods for isolating circulating tumor cells: immunocapture with Ber-EP4-coated magnetic beads, density gradient separation, ammonium chloride, and distilled water-mediated erythrocyte lysis. Human blood from healthy volunteers was mixed with serial dilutions of prostate (LNCaP) and liver (HepG2) derived tumor cells. Isolation of circulating tumor cells was followed by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction with primers specific for prostate-specific antigen and alpha-fetoprotein. Ber-EP4 antigen expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry in 27 hepatocellular carcinomas and 34 prostate adenocarcinomas. Peripheral blood samples from 12 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and 10 with prostate adenocarcinoma also were tested. Density gradient separation and Ber-EP4 immunocapture were the most sensitive techniques for isolating circulating tumor cells in in vitro tests. Isolation by density gradient separation was significantly more sensitive than Ber-EP4 immunocapture when applied to peripheral blood samples of patients with cancer, a result consistent with the variable expression of Ber-EP4 antigen that we found by immunohistochemistry in prostate adenocarcinomas and hepatocellular carcinomas.
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PMID:Efficiency of Ber-EP4 antibody for isolating circulating epithelial tumor cells before RT-PCR detection. 1043 96

The telomere hypothesis postulates stabilization of telomere length and telomerase activation as key events in cellular immortalization and carcinogeneses. Accordingly, telomerase has been suggested as a novel and highly selective target for design of antitumor drugs. Screening of a chemical library including 16 000 synthetic compounds yielded six that strongly inhibited telomerase activity in extracts of cultured human cells, including four isothiazolone derivatives and two unrelated compounds. The most potent inhibitor was 2-[3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]isothiazolin-3-one (TMPI), a concentration of 1.0 microM inhibited telomerase activity by 50% according to a telomere repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) assay. Analysis using partially purified telomerase from AH7974 rat hepatoma cells demonstrated noncompetitive inhibition with the telomere-repeat primer and mixed inhibition with the dNTPs; the inhibition constant was 2.5 microM. TMPI did not inhibit eukaryotic DNA polymerase alpha, beta, or human immunodeficiency virus reverse transcriptase (HIV RT). Thus, inhibition by TMPI was highly selective for telomerase. Inhibition by TMPI was quenched by 1 mM of dithiothreitol or glutathione, suggesting that TMPI inhibits telomerase by acting at a cysteine residue. TMPI inhibition of this enzyme may find application as an antineoplastic agent.
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PMID:Isothiazolone derivatives selectively inhibit telomerase from human and rat cancer cells in vitro. 1047 2

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is pathogenetically involved in many cases of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) worldwide. HCV-related HCC is on the rise in many developed countries as a consequence of past infections with HCV. The time lag between HCV infection and cancer development is several decades. HCV-related tumors arise in older patients, are almost invariably associated with cirrhosis, and often have a less aggressive course than HCC related to other etiologic factors. In most patients, HCC grows as a single hepatic node for years before generating satellite or distant tumor nodes. However, there are tumors that originate as multifocal disease. Tumor progression and hepatic failure are the leading causes of death in most patients. HCV has been almost invariably detected in tumor tissue of anti-HCV patients with HCV, but it is not clear whether the virus promotes cancer through chronic hepatocellular inflammation, which is per se an important risk factor for HCC, or has a direct role in liver carcinogenesis. No reverse transcriptase activity has been found in infected livers, but there are data suggesting that HCV has oncogenic properties, because its interacts with cellular genes regulating cell growth and differentiation.
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PMID:Hepatitis C virus and hepatocellular carcinoma. 1051 6


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