Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:3.1.30.2 (endonuclease)
18,621 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We describe a procedure for quantification of mitochondrial (mt) RNA present in total RNA extracts of HT-29 human colonic adenocarcinoma cells grown under conditions for rapid growth (25 mM glucose) or differentiation (25 mM trehalose or 5 mM butyrate). Purified mt DNA was fragmented into specific coding regions using restriction endonuclease sites predicted from HeLa cell mt DNA sequence and probed with either 32P-labelled mt DNA or cDNA made from total RNA of HT-29 or HeLa cells. The amounts of probe that hybridized to various gene-encoded mt DNA fragments or RNA were quantified by laser densitometry. Use of 13 restriction endonucleases revealed that most if not all the mt DNA of HT-29 and K562 leukemic cells was comparable in size to that of HeLa cells. Relative levels of mt RNA from rapidly growing HT-29 and HeLa cells were lower than those measured for differentiated HT-29 cells induced by either trehalose or butyrate. In rapidly growing HT-29 cells and HeLa cells, the highest levels of specific mt RNAs were those encoded by mt DNA sequences immediately flanking the nested promoters and the heavy-strand replication origin (OH). Expression patterns of specific mt RNAs from HT-29 cells treated with butyrate and with trehalose were similar, but not identical. In either case, the mt RNAs that increased the most were those coded by mt DNA sequences located downstream from the light-strand replication origin (OL), suggesting a novel pattern of expression not seen before.
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PMID:Mitochondrial RNA abundance in differentiating human colonic epithelial tumor cells estimated through use of a mitochondrial genome map. 769 86

Apoptosis in the androgen-sensitive Dunning R3327 PAP prostatic adenocarcinoma was studied during the post castration period of 14 days and compared with the ventral prostate. The mRNA expression of testosterone repressed prostatic message-2 and tissue-type plasminogen activator in the Dunning tumor and in the ventral prostate was analyzed by Northern blot experiments and immunohistochemical procedures. The degree of endonuclease-degraded genomic DNA was examined by gel electrophoresis. Apoptotic tumor epithelial cells were identified with in situ end labeling. Epithelial cells incorporating bromodeoxyuridine (BrdUrd) after castration in the ventral prostate and the Dunning tumors were localized with immunostaining. Androgen ablation resulted in an induction of testosterone repressed prostatic message-2 and tissue-type plasminogen activator transcripts in the normal prostate with a peak at approximately 2 to 5 days post castration. These transcript levels in the Dunning prostatic tumors did not show any induction during the same period. Immunohistochemical staining for sulfated glycoprotein-2 and tissue-type plasminogen activator confirmed this difference between the tumor tissue and the ventral prostate at the transcriptional level. The determination of DNA integrity showed similar results in that the degree of DNA fragmentation in the tumor was much lower than the initial and marked degradation of DNA in the ventral prostate. The number of in situ end-labeled epithelial tumor cells were not increased by castration. BrdUrd immunodetection showed that castration induced an initial increase in the number of BrdUrd-positive epithelial cells in the ventral prostate. In the tumors, castration resulted in a decrease in BrdUrd-positive epithelial cells. It was concluded that in the androgen-sensitive prostatic Dunning R3327 PAP adenocarcinoma, the biochemical cascade leading to apoptosis is not activated by androgen withdrawal, as in the ventral prostate.
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PMID:Castration induces apoptosis in the ventral prostate but not in an androgen-sensitive prostatic adenocarcinoma in the rat. 801 87

To date, apoptosis has been characterized biochemically by the production of 180-200 bp internucleosomal DNA fragments resulting from the activation of an endonuclease(s). The principal morphological feature of apoptosis is the condensation of chromatin and it has been assumed that this may reflect the oligonucleosomal fragmentation pattern. We have re-examined this dogma by comparing the biochemical and morphological features of cell death in several epithelial cell types (HT-29-I1 colon adenocarcinoma, CC164 mink lung, DU-145 human prostatic carcinoma and MCF-7 human breast adenocarcinoma) and one mesenchymal cell line (H11ras-R3 ras-transformed rat fibroblasts). Cell death was induced either by serum deprivation, TGF-beta 1 or etoposide, or by leaving cells to reach confluence. Cell death was assessed with respect to detachment from monolayers, morphological changes and DNA integrity. The DNA-binding fluorophore Hoechst 33258 revealed chromatin condensation patterns consistent with apoptotic cell death in all cell types except MCF-7 cells. Using field inversion gel electrophoresis in conjunction with conventional 2% agarose gel electrophoresis, cleavage of DNA to 50 kbp fragments was observed in all cases except MCF-7 cells. This preceded the appearance of oligonucleosomal fragments in HT-29-I1, CC164 and H11ras-R3 cells. Although the DNA of DU-145 cells fragmented into 50 kbp units, and although the cells exhibited classical apoptotic morphology, no subsequent internucleosomal cleavage was observed. These results suggest that changes in the integrity of DNA indicative of the release of chromatin loop domains occur before cleavage at internucleosomal sites is initiated and that the latter is not an essential step in the apoptotic process.
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PMID:Apoptotic death in epithelial cells: cleavage of DNA to 300 and/or 50 kb fragments prior to or in the absence of internucleosomal fragmentation. 825 89

The cytologic diagnosis of pancreatic carcinoma is notoriously difficult, particularly in distinguishing benign atypia from well-differentiated adenocarcinoma. Mutation of codon 12 in the K-ras oncogene is frequently found with pancreatic cancers. Detection by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by restriction endonuclease digestion can provide a powerful tool to improve and confirm diagnosis. The authors examined the utility of PCR-based detection in the diagnosis of pancreatic carcinoma using routinely obtained cytology smears that could be collected at most hospitals. Pancreatic cytology smears were collected retrospectively from 60 patients. DNA was extracted from the slides and amplified by PCR using mismatched primers that generated a Bst-N1 recognition site with the wild type codon 12 but not with the mutant allele. Results were compared with clinical follow-up. K-ras codon 12 mutations were observed in 44 of 46 (95.7%) cases of pancreatic cancer, but not in 12 benign cases nor in 2 cases of islet cell tumor. The amplification and digestion steps proved robust and sensitive, capable of detecting mutant K-ras alleles from cytology smears that contained only small foci of suspicious cells. Our results indicate that K-ras mutation analysis can be done reliably within 1 to 2 days from routine cytology slides without special handling, increasing the sensitivity of diagnosis in ambiguous cases while maintaining cost-effective and relatively noninvasive sampling strategy.
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PMID:Polymerase chain reaction-based K-ras mutation detection of pancreatic adenocarcinoma in routine cytology smears. 860 3

DNA fragmentation is a common biochemical hallmark of apoptosis. It is catalyzed by endogenous Ca2+, Mg(2+)-dependent endonuclease(s). Although the exact identity of the apoptotic endonuclease is still a matter of debate, a number of candidate nucleases have been proposed like NUC18, DNase II and DNase I. Relatively large amounts of nucleases are also expressed by mycoplasmas, cell wall-less bacteria of the class Mollicutes, which are found as contaminants in up to 45% of the continuous cell lines in current use. In order to clarify the effect of these pathogens on the investigation of apoptosis in cell culture systems, we looked for biochemical markers (DNA fragmentation, nuclease expression) and morphological changes characteristic of apoptosis (cell shrinkage, chromatin condensation, apoptotic bodies) in Mycoplasma hyorhinis-free and -infected cultures of the human pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell line PaTu 8902 and of mouse NIH 3T3 fibroblasts. For that purpose we employed cells cultured under standard conditions and cells exposed to the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide, which is known to induce apoptosis in various cell systems. After exposure to cycloheximide only the mycoplasma-positive cells exhibited internucleosomal DNA degradation. In contrast, nuclease activities in the molecular range of 47 to 54 kDa were detected in cell homogenates and culture supernatants of infected cultures of both control and cycloheximide-treated cells, whereas mycoplasma-free cultures were nuclease-negative. The expression of the nucleases and the cycloheximide-induced DNA fragmentation were suppressed by the prokaryote-specific protein synthesis inhibitor chloramphenicol. Moreover, partially purified nucleases from supernatants of infected cells were able to cleave the DNA of isolated substrate nuclei at internucleosomal sites. These data indicate that DNA ladder formation in cell culture systems can also be caused by mycoplasmal nucleases which apparently penetrate the host cells after cycloheximide treatment or more generally after cellular stress. Therefore, internucleosomal DNA fragmentation in established cell lines has to be regarded with care, unless mycoplasmal infection can be excluded, or the existence of endogenous endonucleases can be proven. The presence of endonucleolytic activities of about 47 to 54 kDa molecular mass has now to be regarded as highly indicative of contaminations with M. hyorhinis. In contrast, the expression of an apoptotic morphology was not restricted to infected cells; in both mycoplasma-free and -contaminated cultures, cells with condensed chromatin were observed after staining with the DNA binding dye Hoechst 33342. Electron microscopic studies revealed that most of the cells containing compacted DNA were phagocytosed by unaffected fellow cells. Presumably because of the relatively long exposure (72 h) to cycloheximide we also observed secondary necrosis as indicated by the parallel occurrence of morphological characteristics of apoptosis (chromatin condensation) and necrosis (loss of membrane integrity and organelle swelling).
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PMID:Internucleosomal DNA fragmentation in cultured cells under conditions reported to induce apoptosis may be caused by mycoplasma endonucleases. 888 84

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma involves activation of the Ki-ras oncogene, inactivation of the p53 tumor suppressor gene, and dysregulation of growth factors and perhaps metastasis genes. Ki-ras oncogene point mutations are known to be involved in pancreatic oncogenesis. The p53 tumor suppressor gene product plays a critical role in cell cycle regulation and also functions as a nuclear transcription factor. Point mutations in the p53 gene have been observed in a variety of malignancies. We determined the frequency of p53 protein overexpression and p53 point mutations in the conserved and nonconserved domains in pancreatic cancers as well as the coincidence of Ki-ras mutation in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Genomic DNA was isolated from 20 frozen pancreatic adenocarcinomas (14 primary, six metastases) along with six specimens of control pancreatic tissue and screened by single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis followed by direct genomic sequencing of SSCP variants. SSCP analysis was accomplished by incorporating 32P-dCTP in 12 separate polymerase chain (PCR) amplifications covering the p53 coding exons 2-11. All mobility shifts on SSCP were subjected to direct genomic sequencing by the modified dideoxy method. Immunoperoxidase (IP) staining was also done with a p53 monoclonal antibody. Ki-ras codon 12 mutational analysis was accomplished by incorporating 32P-dCTP by polymerase chain reaction amplification utilizing mismatched primers, which create a BstN1 restriction endonuclease site spanning codon 12; the products were digested by BstN1. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis allowed distinction between wild-type and mutant Ki-ras. p53 mutations were found in 5 of 20 pancreatic cancers (three of 14 primary tumors, two of six metastatic tumors). Point mutations were observed in three of 14 primary tumors, and one of six metastases, while a 2-base pair duplication resulting in a premature stop codon in exon 5 was found in one metastatic tumor. Point mutations were noted in conserved domains (exons 4, 5, 8) and in the nonconserved domain (exon 10). IP staining revealed that eight of 14 of the primary tumors and two of six metastases exhibited moderate to strong nuclear staining (> 30%), while no nuclear staining was evident in the controls. Ki-ras codon 12 mutations were found in 14 of 20 (70%) pancreatic cancers (nine of 14 primary tumors, five of six metastatic tumors) and none of the six controls. Fifty percent of the primary pancreatic tumors demonstrated moderate to strong nuclear staining. Extensive genetic analysis demonstrated mutations in 30% of the pancreatic cancers. One cancer had a nonsense mutation not detected by IP. Seven of 19 (37%) pancreatic cancers exhibited both Ki-ras point mutation and p53 protein overexpression or mutation. Both genetic analysis and IP are required to characterize all p53 mutations in pancreatic cancer. Ki-ras codon 12 mutations and p53 protein overexpression are important steps in pancreatic oncogenesis.
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PMID:Ki-ras and p53 mutations in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. 892 12

The identification of genes whose expression is altered following exposure to a low dose of ionizing radiation (IR) is an important step in understanding the phenomenon of the adaptive response. Using the differential mRNA display method we have identified a gene whose expression is up-regulated following exposure to 0.25 Gy IR. Partial DNA sequence and restriction endonuclease analysis of this gene showed that it is identical to the gene encoding for the human peptide-binding protein 74 (PBP74/mortalin/Grp75), a member of the heat shock 70 protein family. Time-course measurement of the PBP74/mortalin/Grp75 mRNA showed that its level was elevated after a lag of at least 15 min. The maximum induction appears to be at 30 min following gamma-irradiation and there is then a steady decline to control levels within 5 h in the HT29 cell line. On the other hand, the level of the PBP74/mortalin/Grp75 mRNA in the human breast adenocarcinoma cell line MCF-7 is consistently elevated after gamma-irradiation for up to 6 h post-irradiation. Furthermore, a cell line that does not demonstrate the induced radioresistance phenomenon (SW48) shows no induction of the PBP74/mortalin/Grp75 mRNA in contrast with HT29 or MCF-7. Treatment of the HT29 cells with antisense oligonucleotide directed towards the initiation codon of PBP74 sensitized cells to ionizing radiation.
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PMID:Induction of PBP74/mortalin/Grp75, a member of the hsp70 family, by low doses of ionizing radiation: a possible role in induced radioresistance. 941 87

Somatostatin (SST) analogs inhibit tumor cell growth by exerting direct anti-proliferative effects with cytostatic (growth arrest) or cytotoxic (apoptosis) consequences. The SST analog SMS 201-995 (octreotide, OCT) inhibits growth of MCF-7 human breast adenocarcinoma cells, which express multiple SSTRs. Its action has been reported to result in either apoptosis or growth arrest, but the underlying mechanisms have not been elucidated in this tumor cell model. Here, we report that OCT elicits cytotoxic response in these cells, leading to apoptosis, which is associated with a rapid, time-dependent induction of wild-type p53 and an increase in Bax. There was no G1 cell-cycle arrest in these cells during OCT treatment as suggested by the decrease in G1/S ratio and the lack of induction of pRb and p21. Additionally, we demonstrate that OCT-induced DNA fragmentation in this cell line is due to selective activation of a cation-insensitive acidic endonuclease. Our data provide a rationale for utilizing SST analogs to treat SSTR-positive breast cancer cells expressing wild-type p53.
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PMID:Induction of wild-type p53, Bax, and acidic endonuclease during somatostatin-signaled apoptosis in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells. 953 89

Although molecular alterations involved in the development of squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix have been extensively described, these genetic changes have not been as well characterized in the development of cervical adenocarcinoma. Twenty-seven paraffin-embedded adenocarcinomas of the cervix, including three cases of adenoma malignum, were analyzed for molecular alterations associated with other gynecologic malignancies. The presence of human papillomavirus (HPV) was assessed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using internally nested consensus primers. HPV types were identified by restriction endonuclease digestion of the PCR products, using DNA sequencing to confirm each digestion pattern. The presence of HPV was correlated with immunohistochemical expression of the p53 gene product, the presence of mutations in codon 12 of Ki-ras, and allelic deletion of markers associated with the development of other gynecologic carcinomas. HPV was identified in 16 (59%) of 27 cases, including type 18 in 7 tumors, type 16 in 7 tumors, and type 45 in 2 tumors. HPV types 16 and 45 were always identified in adjacent uninvolved cervical epithelium, but HPV type 18 was absent from the adjacent non-neoplastic epithelium in four of the seven positive cases. HPV was not identified in any of three cases of adenoma malignum. Diffuse immunohistochemical staining of the p53 gene product was present in only one (HPV-negative) tumor. A mutation in codon 12 of Ki-ras was observed in one endocervical adenocarcinoma (with an endometrioid pattern). Loss of heterozygosity was identified only for a marker on chromosome 6p in one mucinous endocervical carcinoma. Most endocervical adenocarcinomas lack molecular alterations characteristic of other histologically similar gynecologic malignancies, as well as those described in cervical squamous cell carcinomas.
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PMID:Analysis of human papillomavirus infection and molecular alterations in adenocarcinoma of the cervix. 1061 75

The fidelity of DNA synthesis associated with uracil-initiated base excision repair was measured in human whole cell extracts. An M13mp2 lacZalpha DNA-based reversion assay was developed to assess the error frequency of DNA repair synthesis at a site-specific uracil residue. All three possible base substitution errors were detected at the uracil target causing reversion of opal codon 14 in the Escherichia coli lacZalpha gene. Using human glioblastoma U251 whole cell extracts, approximately 50% of the heteroduplex uracil-containing DNA substrate was completely repaired, as determined by the insensitivity of form I DNA reaction products to cleavage by a combined treatment of E. coli uracil-DNA glycosylase and endonuclease IV. The majority of repair occurred by the uracil-initiated base excision repair pathway, since the addition of the bacteriophage PBS2 uracil-DNA glycosylase inhibitor protein to extracts significantly blocked this process. In addition, the formation of repaired form I DNA molecules occurred concurrently with limited DNA synthesis, which was largely restricted to the HinfI DNA fragment initially containing the uracil residue and specific to the uracil-containing DNA strand. Based on the reversion frequency of repaired M13mp2 DNA, the fidelity of DNA repair synthesis at the target was determined to be about one misincorporated nucleotide per 1900 repaired uracil residues. The major class of base substitutions propagated transversion mutations, which were distributed almost equally between T to G and T to A changes in the template. A similar mutation frequency was also observed using whole cell extracts from human colon adenocarcinoma LoVo cells, suggesting that mismatch repair did not interfere with the fidelity measurements.
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PMID:Fidelity and mutational specificity of uracil-initiated base excision DNA repair synthesis in human glioblastoma cell extracts. 973 86


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