Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.2.1.23 (beta-galactosidase)
 14,648 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Nucleic acid-based vaccines are effective in infectious disease models but have yielded disappointing results in tumor models when tumor-associated self-antigens are used. Incorporation of helper epitopes from foreign antigens into tumor vaccines might enhance the immunogenicity of DNA vaccines without increasing toxicity. However, generation of fusion constructs encoding both tumor and helper antigens may be difficult, and resulting proteins have unpredictable physical and immunologic properties. Furthermore, simultaneous production of equal amounts of highly immunogenic helper and weakly immunogenic tumor antigens in situ could favor development of responses against the helper antigen rather than the antigen of interest. We assessed the ability of 2 helper antigens (beta-galactosidase or fragment C of tetanus toxin) encoded by one plasmid to augment responses to a self-antigen (lymphoma-associated T-cell receptor) encoded by a separate plasmid after codelivery into skin by gene gun. This approach allowed adjustment of the relative ratios of helper and tumor antigen plasmids to optimize helper effects. Incorporation of threshold (minimally immunogenic) amounts of helper antigen plasmid into a DNA vaccine regimen dramatically increased T cell-dependent protective immunity initiated by plasmid-encoded tumor-associated T-cell receptor antigen. This simple strategy can easily be incorporated into future vaccine trials in experimental animals and possibly in humans.
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PMID:Enhancement of DNA tumor vaccine efficacy by gene gun-mediated codelivery of threshold amounts of plasmid-encoded helper antigen. 1883 36

It has been reported that the induction of cellular senescence through p53 activation is an effective strategy in tumor regression. Unfortunately, however, tumors including adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) have disadvantages such as p53 mutations and a lack of p16(INK4a) and/or p14(ARF). In this study we characterized Nutlin-3a-induced cell death in 16 leukemia/lymphoma cell lines. Eight cell lines, including six ATL-related cell lines, had wild-type p53 and Nutlin-3a-activated p53, and the cell lines underwent apoptosis or cell-cycle arrest, whereas eight cell lines with mutated p53 were resistant. Interestingly, senescence-associated-beta-galactosidase (SA-beta-gal) staining revealed that only ATL-related cell lines with wild-type p53 showed cellular senescence, although they lack both p16(INK4a) and p14(ARF). These results indicate that cellular senescence is an important event in p53-dependent cell death in ATL cells and is inducible without p16(INK4a) and p14(ARF). Furthermore, knockdown of Tp53-induced glycolysis and apoptosis regulator (TIGAR), a novel target gene of p53, by small interfering RNA(siRNA) indicated its important role in the induction of cellular senescence. As many patients with ATL carry wild-type p53, our study suggests that p53 activation by Nutlin-3a is a promising strategy in ATL. We also found synergism with a combination of Nutlin-3a and tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL), suggesting the application of Nutlin-3a-based therapy to be broader than expected.
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PMID:Activation of p53 by Nutlin-3a, an antagonist of MDM2, induces apoptosis and cellular senescence in adult T-cell leukemia cells. 1971 Jun 98

The effect of p53-dependent cell-cycle arrest and senescence on Emu-myc-induced B-cell lymphoma development remains controversial. To address this question, we crossed Emu-myc mice with the p53(515C) mutant mouse, encoding the mutant p53R172P protein that retains the ability to activate the cell-cycle inhibitor and senescence activator p21. Importantly, this mutant lacks the ability to activate p53-dependent apoptotic genes. Hence, Emu-myc mice that harbor two p53(515C) alleles are completely defective for p53-dependent apoptosis. Both Emu-myc::p53(515C/515C) and Emu-myc::p53(515C/+) mice survive significantly longer than Emu-myc::p53(+/-) mice, indicating the importance of the p53-dependent non-apoptotic pathways in B-cell lymphomagenesis. In addition, the p53(515C) allele is deleted in several Emu-myc::p53(515C/+) lymphomas, further emphasizing the functionality of p53R172P in tumor inhibition. Lymphomas from both Emu-myc::p53(515C/515C) and Emu-myc::p53(515C/+) mice retain the ability to upregulate p21, resulting in cellular senescence. Senescence-associated beta-galactosidase (SA beta-gal) activity was observed in lymphomas from Emu-myc::p53(+/+), Emu-myc::p53(515C/515C) and Emu-myc::p53(515C /+) mice but not in lymphomas isolated from Emu-myc::p53(+/-) mice. Thus, in the absence of p53-dependent apoptosis, the ability of p53R172P to induce senescence leads to a significant delay in B-cell lymphoma development.
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PMID:p53-dependent senescence delays Emu-myc-induced B-cell lymphomagenesis. 1993


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