Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:3.1.27.1 (RNase)
 16,360 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

To investigate a potential role of NF2, the gene responsible for hereditary bilateral acoustic neurinomas, during carcinogenesis of non-neurogenic tissues, we screened somatic mutations of NF2 in 55 breast cancers and 44 colorectal carcinomas by an RNase protection assay coupled with the reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). By screening the entire coding region of the gene in these tumors, we detected missense mutations in the exon encoding the alpha-helical domain of the NF2 product in two colorectal carcinomas. No mutations were detected in any of the breast cancers. Our results suggested that inactivation of the NF2 gene was associated with carcinogenesis in some, but not the majority of, colorectal tumors. In the course of these analyses, we found various alternatively-spliced forms of NF2 transcript. These variants showed no specificity among the tissues examined except for one that resulted from alternative splicing at the 3'-region; this form was more abundantly expressed in skeletal and cardiac muscles than in other tissues.
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PMID:Alternative splicing of the NF2 gene and its mutation analysis of breast and colorectal cancers. 806 99

Activation of the Ha-ras oncogene in N-methyl-N-nitrosourea (MNU)-induced rat mammary tumors has been well documented. Such Ha-ras activation is thought to be brought about by direct action of carcinogens resulting in a G-->A transition at the second nucleotide of codon 12. However, a DNA repair enzyme, O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT), can specifically remove methyl groups from O6-methylguanine, which is a major mutagenic and carcinogenic DNA lesion leading to the G-->A transition. In this study, we compared the amount of MGMT mRNA in MNU-induced rat mammary tumors with and without such Ha-ras activation. A single injection of MNU into 82 female Sprague-Dawley rats induced 80 mammary carcinomas. RNase protection analysis and subsequent sequencing revealed that 42 of 65 randomly selected tumors contained Ha-ras oncogenes activated by the G-->A transition. The amount of MGMT mRNA was then measured by means of reverse transcriptase-mediated polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) amplification and Southern hybridization. No obvious difference in the level of MGMT mRNA was detected between the two tumor groups. In addition, in the course of our experiment, five of 42 tumors classified as containing activated Ha-ras oncogenes proved to contain low percentages of tumor cells with the Ha-ras activation. These results suggest that Ha-ras activation in MNU-induced rat mammary tumors may not necessarily be influenced by differences in MGMT activity. They also raise the possibility that activation of other oncogenes and/or inactivation of unidentified tumor suppressor gene(s) may be involved in development of a certain proportion of tumors with activated Ha-ras oncogenes, as is suspected in the case of tumors without Ha-ras activation.
Carcinogenesis 1994 Mar
PMID:Comparison of O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase mRNA levels in Ha-ras mutated and non-mutated rat mammary tumors induced by N-methyl-N-nitrosourea. 811 29

The adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene, responsible for familial adenomatous polyposis, is also associated with development of sporadic tumors in digestive system as colon, stomach, or pancreas. In order to investigate whether or not APC mutations occur as an early genetic event during gastric carcinogenesis, we examined somatic mutations of APC in flat adenomas of the stomach. DNAs isolated from flat adenomas were examined by means of an RNase protection analysis coupled with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by DNA sequencing of the PCR products. By screening a mutation cluster region (MCR: codons between 1286 and 1513) of APC in which two-thirds of somatic mutations were detected in colorectal tumors, somatic mutations were found in four of ten flat adenomas: three of which caused truncation of the gene product due to a nonsense mutation or 4-bp deletion; one other was a point mutation that altered amino acid from alanine to threonine. Our results imply that APC plays a crucial role in an early step of gastric carcinogenesis, as was observed in colorectal carcinogenesis.
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PMID:Somatic mutations of the APC gene in precancerous lesion of the stomach. 824 71

The in-vivo effect of the schistosomicidal drugs praziquantel and oltipraz on the activities of the liver lysosomal enzymes in Schistosoma mansoni-infected and non-infected mice was studied. The effect of S. mansoni infection and the administration of the schistosomicidal drugs on the activities of beta-glucuronidase, acid ribonuclease and alpha-naphthyl acetate esterases may be considered as indices for carcinogenicity. Drugs were given orally in subcurative doses, either in a single dose of 400 mg kg-1 for praziquantel or in five daily doses of 50 mg kg-1 oltipraz. The increase in enzymatic activities in infected animals was attributed to deranged metabolic function as a result of liver cell injury. Treatment of uninfected animals with either praziquantel or oltipraz significantly increased the activities of the three lysosomal enzymes. Praziquantel possesses reversible and less toxic effects on the liver than oltipraz. The role of these antischistosomal drugs cannot be ignored as a possible aetiological factor implicated in the process of carcinogenesis associated with schistosomiasis infection through modulation of the operating potential of the enzymes concerned with detoxification, protein and fat metabolism.
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PMID:An experimental study on the effect of praziquantel and oltipraz on some lysosomal enzymes. 842 71

The O6-alkylguanine-DNA alkyltransferase (ATase) is known to overcome the effects of promutagenic, precarcinogenic O6-alkylguanine induced in DNA by exposure to environmental, chemotherapeutic and dietary alkylating agents. Within an organ, the cell type-specific responses to these agents may be attributed, in part, to varying expression of critical DNA repair genes, like ATase. In order to determine the cell-specific expression of the human ATase gene, in situ hybridization was used to map the cellular distribution of ATase mRNA in tissue sections of normal human fetal and adult livers. Tissue sections were hybridized with a digoxigenin-labeled 39 base oligomer, antisense to ATase cDNA. Following immunodetection, using an alkaline phosphatase-conjugated anti-digoxigenin antibody, the ATase-specific mRNA levels were visualized in parallel with liver cell type identification. The specificity of the antisense probe and hybridization to human ATase mRNA was demonstrated by: (i) staining of Mer+ and not Mer- cells by the antisense probe; (ii) faint staining of liver sections when the antisense probe was not used during hybridization; (iii) no hybridization of liver sections by the sense probe; (iv) no staining of sections preincubated with RNase before hybridization; and (v) the retention of cell type-specific staining patterns in tissue sections incubated with DNase prior to hybridization with the antisense probe. The staining patterns appeared similar in adjacent sections of tissues obtained from the same liver and in sections obtained from either adult or fetal livers of different individuals. The expression of the ATase mRNA, as noted by stain intensity, appeared highest in all of the bile ductal cells. There was a heterogenous expression in hepatocytes, which varied from moderate to high stain. Staining in Kupffer cells also appeared to be high. Sinusoidal cells, endothelial cells of the hepatic artery and cells of the connective tissue showed weak hybridization, indicating low levels of ATase mRNA. These data explain, in part, the basis for a differential response of various cell types within the liver to the mutagenic and carcinogenic effects of alkylating agents.
Carcinogenesis 1993 Apr
PMID:Cell type-specific expression of the O6-alkylguanine-DNA alkyltransferase gene in normal human liver tissues as revealed by in situ hybridization. 847 40

The APC gene was identified in 1991 at chromosome 5 q 21, which is responsible for the familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP). The gene has been classified as one of the tumor suppressor genes. The APC gene mutations were suggested to initiate sporadic as well as inherited colorectal neoplasia and to be related to mental retardation. The different forms of APC gene expression and their association to carcinogenesis have been carefully studied. However, the function of APC gene in the central nervous system has not been known. In this study, on the basis of the cDNA cloning of APC homologue in the guinea pig by Dr. Fan Meng, we rescued this fragment including the full length encoding region from plasmid pMe 18s and then subcloned it into the polylink site of the plasmid pBluscript KS. Both digoxigenin labeled sense and anti-sense RNA were synthesized by in vitro transcription. RNase protection assay and in situ hybridization enable us to examine the distribution of APC transcripts in guinea pig brain. Strong signals were detected in hippocampus. APC mRNA was mainly localized in the pyramidal neurons of CA 1, CA 3, as well as in the dentate granule cells; the cerebellum granular cells also showed strong staining; in the cerebrum, the parietal and primary olfactory cortex showed stronger signals than the frontal cortex; in olfactory bulb, positive cells with strong signals were observed: the brain stem showed a relatively weaker staining. Very similar expression pattern was also shown in embryonic guinea pig brain; except that the expression of APC gene in frontal cortex and olfactory bulb was stronger than that in adult animals. The results suggest that the APC transcripts in brain may play an important role during the early development of the central nervous system. Further study may enable us to take a deeper insight into the mechanism underlying inherited mental deficiency.
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PMID:[The distribution of tumor suppressor gene APC mRNA in guinea pig brain]. 857 9

Preneoplastic and neoplastic lesions in rodent liver show alterations in the expression of various enzymes which can be used for their identification. To address the question whether these enzymatic alterations result from specific changes in the levels of hepatocyte-enriched nuclear factors (HNF), we analysed the mRNA levels of six different HNFs (HNF-1alpha, beta, HNF-3alpha, beta, gamma, and HNF-4) by RNase protection assay in chemically induced liver tumours and corresponding normal liver tissue from mice of three different strains. When compared with the normal liver tissue, HNF-1beta, HNF-3alpha and HNF-3beta showed unchanged expression levels in the various liver tumours, which HNF-1alpha and HNF-4 mRNAs were lowered by 20-30%, and HNF-3gamma mRNA was increased by 50%. There were no significant differences in HNF-expression between tumours harbouring point mutations at codon 61 of the Ha-ras protooncogene and tumours without detectable Ha-ras mutations.
Carcinogenesis 1996 Mar
PMID:Expression of hepatocyte-enriched nuclear transcription factors in mouse liver tumours. 863 Nov 53

We have recently shown that multidrug resistance-associated protein (MRP) and gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase (gamma-GCS) heavy subunit genes are coordinately overexpressed in cisplatin-resistant human leukemia cells (T. Ishikawa et al. J. Biol. Chem., 271: 14981-14988, 1996). Using the RNase protection assay, we examined expression levels of these genes in colon tumor and nontumorous biopsy specimens from 32 cancer patients who had not been treated with chemotherapy. Increased mRNA levels (P < 0.001) of MRP and gamma-GCS genes were observed in 16 (50%) and 20 (62%) tumor samples, respectively. More importantly, all of the 16 (100%) MRP-overexpressing tumor specimens also exhibited higher levels of gamma-GCS mRNA than those in the matched nontumorous specimens. The correlation coefficient between MRP and gamma-GCS mRNA levels was r = 0.78 for all of the tumor samples studied. These results strongly suggest that MRP and gamma-GCS genes are coordinately up-regulated during colorectal carcinogenesis.
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PMID:Frequent coordinated overexpression of the MRP/GS-X pump and gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase genes in human colorectal cancers. 870 99

Current histopathological evidence suggests that gall-bladder cancer has two main morphological pathways for its development: de novo (ab initio) origin and adenoma-carcinoma sequence. In order to investigate the genetic difference between them, APC mutations were examined by RNase protection analysis, K-ras mutations by nested polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis, and p53 gene overexpression by immunohisto-chemical analysis in both tumors and benign lesions of the gall-bladder. Overexpression of the p53 gene was detected in 105 of 164 (64%) de novo carcinomas regardless of size and depth of invasion, but not in 16 tumors of carcinoma-in-pyloric-gland-type adenoma, or in 51 adenomas (47 pyloric gland-type and 4 intestinal-type). K-ras codon 12 mutation was detected in 4 of 40 (10%) de novo carcinomas, all four being associated with p53 gene overexpression, but not in 12 tumors of carcinoma in adenoma or 16 adenomas (14 pyloric gland-type and 2 intestinal-type). APC mutation was not found in 16 de novo carcinomas or the one pyloric gland-type adenoma examined. These results suggest that there are two distinct genetic pathways in gall-bladder carcinogenesis; that is, de novo carcinoma develops from a predominant p53 alteration with low K-ras mutation, and carcinoma-in-pyloric-gland-type adenoma develops from p53-, K-ras-, and APC-gene-unrelated, as yet unknown, alteration.
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PMID:APC, K-ras codon 12 mutations and p53 gene expression in carcinoma and adenoma of the gall-bladder suggest two genetic pathways in gall-bladder carcinogenesis. 880 79

Epigenetic alterations in the genome of tumor cells have attracted considerable attention since the discovery of widespread alterations in DNA methylation of colorectal cancers over 10 years ago. However, the mechanism of these changes has remained obscure. el-Deiry and coworkers [el-Deiry, W. S., Nelkin, B. D., Celano, P., Yen, R. C., Falco, J. P., Hamilton, S. R. & Baylin, S. B. (1991) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 88, 3470-3474], using a quantitative reverse transcription-PCR assay, reported 15-fold increased expression of DNA methyltransferase (MTase) in colon cancer, compared with matched normal colon mucosa, and a 200-fold increase in MTase mRNA levels compared with mucosa of unaffected patients. These authors suggested that increases in MTase mRNA levels play a direct pathogenetic role in colon carcinogenesis. To test this hypothesis, we developed a sensitive quantitative RNase protection assay of MTase, linear over three orders of magnitude. Using this assay on 12 colorectal carcinomas and matched normal mucosal specimens, we observed a 1.8- to 2.5-fold increase in MTase mRNA levels in colon carcinoma compared with levels in normal mucosa from the same patients. There was no significant difference between the normal mucosa of affected and unaffected patients. Furthermore, when the assay was normalized to histone H4 expression, a measure of S-phase-specific expression, the moderate increase in tumor MTase mRNA levels was no longer observed. These data are in contrast to the previously reported results, and they indicate that changes in MTase mRNA levels in colon cancer are nonspecific and compatible with other markers of cell proliferation.
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PMID:Limited up-regulation of DNA methyltransferase in human colon cancer reflecting increased cell proliferation. 881 6


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