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

Overexpression of aspartyl (asparaginyl) beta-hydroxylase (AAH) has been demonstrated in hepatocellular carcinoma, cholangiocarcinoma, and pancreatic carcinoma. AAH has an important role in regulating cell motility and invasiveness. Humbug is a truncated homolog of AAH, with a role in calcium regulation. The present study examines the prognostic use of AAH and humbug gene expression in stage II colon cancer. One hundred thirty cases of TNM stage II colon carcinoma were retrieved from the Rhode Island Hospital pathology archives. Tissue microarrays were immunostained with the FB50 and 15C7 monoclonal antibodies generated to recombinant AAH. However, FB50 also recognizes humbug. In addition, AAH and humbug expression was analyzed in samples of colon cancer and adjacent normal mucosa by real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. Humbug (FB50) expression was localized to the tumor cytoplasm, whereas normal colonic epithelium did not exhibit significant immunoreactivity. Humbug staining was detected in 85% of the neoplasms, 23% of which stained strongly. Strong humbug immunoreactivity positively correlated with nuclear grade (P = .006) and inversely with survival (P = .027). In contrast to humbug, AAH (15C7) immunoreactivity was seen in normal and neoplastic epithelium. There was no correlation between AAH immunoreactivity and tumor grade, or survival. Correspondingly, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction studies demonstrated up-regulation of humbug but not AAH in 95% of colon carcinomas relative to adjacent colon cancer-free mucosa (P < .0001). This study demonstrates that high levels of humbug immunoreactivity in colon carcinomas correlate with histologic grade and tumor behavior, suggesting that humbug can serve as a prognostic biomarker of TNM stage II colon cancers. In addition, molecular studies demonstrated that the increased levels of FB50 detected were due to humbug, as opposed to AAH overexpression.
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PMID:Prognostic value of humbug gene overexpression in stage II colon cancer. 1702 Jul 79

Although we have made steady progress in the adjuvant chemotherapy of colorectal cancer, it is clear that any population benefits accrued stem from overtreatment of the majority of patients. For example, we have to treat 100 stage II patients to cure 3 or 4, while accepting that up to 40% of those treated will suffer significant toxicity and all will face the distinct social (and often financial) inconvenience of outpatient chemotherapy for 6 months. This has prompted much effort in the field of molecular diagnostics to develop "tools," which may allow selection of patients who will benefit most (or least) from chemotherapy. The majority of translational research to identify prognostic and/or predictive biomarkers has been somewhat confounded by studies of small sample size, insufficient statistical power, variable methodology, and incomplete clinical data sets, so other than conventional histopathological staging, there are no widely accepted molecular markers of prognosis and prediction. A novel reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction multigene assay, performed on RNA extracted from paraffin-embedded tumor tissue has been validated in a series of 1436 patients with stage II colon cancer and was found to be predict recurrence risk (HR/25 units = 1.58; 95% CI, 1.15-2.15; P = 0.004). This may become established as a prognostic tool of choice for stage II colon cancer.
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PMID:Gene profiling in early stage disease. 2052 98