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

Attainment of cell type-specific cytotoxicity with minimal side effects is the ultimate goal of cancer therapy. By employing the prostate-specific antigen promoter (PSAP), we investigated (1) whether PSAP-driven antisense genetic constructs targeting DNA polymerase-alpha and topoisomerase II alpha (Top II alpha), designated PSAP-antipol and PSAP-antitop respectively, could induce death of prostate cancer cells, and (2) whether the cytotoxicity is restricted to cells of prostate origin. A PSAP-driven beta-galactosidase gene, PSAP-LacZ, was also used to estimate the expression of the PSAP-driven transcripts. Lipofection-mediated gene transfers were performed with these 3 constructs and a control plasmid, pCDNA3, in 3 human prostate cancer cell lines (LNCaP, DU-145, PC-3) and 5 other cell lines (Cos-1 [monkey kidney], HL-60 [human myeloid leukemia], Hep G2 [human hepatoma], NCI H460 [human lung cancer] and SW 480 [human colon cancer]). On transfection with PSAP-LacZ, LNCaP, DU-145, and PC-3 showed a 10.8, 1.8, and 1.6 fold increase in beta-galactosidase activity, respectively. The remaining 5 cell lines showed no changes after transfection. Corresponding to the levels of the induced beta-galactosidase activity, LNCaP showed the strongest growth inhibition by the antisense constructs: 36% by PSAP-antipol, 39% by PSAP-antitop and 80% by PSAP-antipol+PSAP-antitop. DU-145 and PC-3 had minimal growth inhibition with PSAP-antipol alone or PSAP-antitop alone. However, when cotransfected with PSAP-antipol and PSAP-antitop, DU-145 and PC-3 displayed 42% and 55% growth inhibition, respectively. In contrast, no cytotoxicity was observed in the remaining 5 cell lines when transfected with PSAP-antipol, PSAP-antitop or both. Therefore, PSAP-driven antisense gene therapy targeting DNA polymerase-alpha and Top II alpha inhibits the growth of human prostate cancer cells and the cytotoxic effect is restricted in cells of prostate origin.
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PMID:Prostate-specific antigen promoter driven gene therapy targeting DNA polymerase-alpha and topoisomerase II alpha in prostate cancer. 871 4

An androgen-repressed human prostate cancer cell line, ARCaP, was established and characterized. This cell line was derived from the ascites fluid of a patient with advanced metastatic disease. In contrast to the behavior of androgen-dependent LNCaP and its androgen-independent C4-2 subline, androgen and estrogen suppress the growth of ARCaP cells in a dose-dependent manner in vivo and in vitro. ARCaP is tumorigenic and highly metastatic. It metastasizes to the lymph node, lung, pancreas, liver, kidney, and bone, and forms ascites fluid in athymic hosts. ARCaP cells express low levels of androgen receptor mRNA and prostate-specific antigen mRNA and protein. Immunohistochemical staining shows that ARCaP cells stain intensely for epidermal growth factor receptor, c-erb B2/neu, and c-erb B3. Staining is negative for chromogranin A and positive for bombesin, serotonin, neuron-specific enolase, and the c-met protooncogene (a hepatic growth factor/scatter factor receptor). ARCaP cells also secrete high levels of gelatinase A and B and some stromelysin, which suggests that this cell line may contain markers representing invasive adenocarcinoma with selective neuronendocrine phenotypes. Along with its repression of growth, androgen is also found to repress the expression of prostate-specific antigen in ARCaP cells as detected by a prostate-specific antigen promoter-beta-galactosidase reporter assay. Our results suggest that the androgen-repressed state may be central to prostate cancer progression and that advanced prostate cancer can progress from an androgen-independent to an androgen-repressed state.
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PMID:Androgen-repressed phenotype in human prostate cancer. 898 79

The activity and expression of transgene beta-galactosidase (lacZ) by replication-deficient adenoviral vectors (Ad-lacZ) containing prostate-specific promoters were compared using an in vivo canine model. The prostate tissue-specific promoters were prostate-specific antigen, probasin, and mouse mammary tumor virus long-terminal repeat, which were fused separately to an Escherichia coli lacZ gene. Dogs underwent laparotomy, and adenoviral vectors were delivered by direct intraprostatic injection. At 72 hours postinjection, the prostate and various other organs were harvested to evaluate the degree of prostate expression and dissemination of adenoviral vectors. Expression of lacZ in tissues was determined by 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl beta-D-galactoside staining, beta-galactosidase assay, and E. coli lacZ reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The presence of adenoviral DNA sequences in canine tissues was determined by PCR using primers specific for the type 5 adenoviral genome. All three of the prostate-specific adenoviruses tested effectively expressed the lacZ gene in the canine prostate, but expression levels were lower than that of the control viral vector AdRSVlacZ following intraprostatic injection. By PCR, adenoviral vector DNA was detected in other organs and tissues, including the bladder and vas deferens. However, reverse transcriptase-PCR analysis revealed that prostate-specific Ad-lacZ vectors only transcribed lacZ mRNA in the prostate and not in nonprostatic tissues. Thus, these novel prostate-specific adenoviral vectors each have equal in vivo expression exclusively in the prostate and may potentially be used for prostate cancer gene therapy.
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PMID:In vivo expression of prostate-specific adenoviral vectors in a canine model. 1050 56

Most virally based vectors for gene therapy contain viral promoters that are tissue-nonspecific. Consequently, unintended expression of toxic therapeutic genes in normal tissues may potentially occur. We have constructed adenoviruses that contain a bacterial beta-galactosidase (beta-gal) gene (lacZ) under the control of three different prostate-specific promoters: prostate-specific antigen (PSA), probasin, and the mouse mammary-tumor-virus long terminal repeat (MMTV; prostate-specific Ad-lacZ). In general, these prostate-specific Ad-lacZ can effectively transduce and express beta-gal in prostate cells and display weak, if any, expression of beta-gal in nonprostate cells in vitro. In vivo, these adenoviruses showed a high level of beta-gal expression in canine prostate but also disseminated to tissues other than prostate after intraprostatic (i.p.) injection. However, none of the prostate-specific Ad-lacZ expressed beta-gal in these nonprostate tissues. Furthermore, prostate-specific Ad-lacZ expressed beta-gal only in xenograft tumors grown in nude mice, derived from human prostate-cancer cells DU145 and PPC-1, but showed no beta-gal expression in tumors derived from human bladder-cancer cells RT4. These results indicate that adenoviruses containing prostate-specific promoters may express intended transgenes specifically in prostate in vivo.
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PMID:Transcriptionally regulated adenoviruses for prostate-specific gene therapy. 1085 43

The ability to target specific tissues is important in many applications of gene therapy. In this respect, a disadvantage of adenoviral vectors is the relative lack of specificity with which they transduce cells. One approach to overcome this is to express the therapeutic gene under the control of a tissue-specific promoter. However, the specificity and activity of these promoters may be altered by adenoviral sequences in the vector backbone. In contrast, helper-dependent adenoviral (HDAd) vectors [Parks, R.J., Chen, L., Anton, M., Sankar, U., Rudnicki, M.A., and Graham, F.L. (1996). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 93, 13565-13570] are almost completely devoid of adenovirus sequences, and this may preserve the specificity of these heterologous promoters. We have compared HDAd and first-generation adenoviral (FGAd) vectors with respect to tissue-specific expression from prostate-specific antigen (PSA) or tyrosinase promoters/enhancers. A PSA-positive cell line (LNCaP) and a panel of PSA-negative cell lines were infected with HDAd vectors expressing luciferase under the control of three different kinds of PSA promoter/enhancer constructs. The results showed that these PSA promoter/enhancer cassettes in HDAd vectors maintained strict tissue-specific expression, but lost specificity when expressed from FGAd vectors. Similar results were observed with tyrosinase promoter-carrying vectors, except that the tyrosinase promoter retained a small degree of tissue specificity in FGAd vectors. Insertion of a murine cytomegalovirus immediate-early gene promoter-beta-galactosidase (MCMV-lacZ)-expressing cassette into a second site in the HDAd vector backbone significantly impaired the tissue specificity of the PSA and tyrosinase promoters. These results indicate that HDAd vectors are superior to FGAd vectors in their ability to maintain high levels of tissue-specific expression from PSA and tyrosinase promoters/enhancers. They also suggest that tissue-specific expression can be influenced not only by Ad sequences, but also by other viral and/or strong constitutive promoter/enhancers (such as the MCMV promoter) in the vector backbone.
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PMID:Superior tissue-specific expression from tyrosinase and prostate-specific antigen promoters/enhancers in helper-dependent compared with first-generation adenoviral vectors. 1181 78

A large number of different proteins or protein domains have been investigated as possible scaffolds to engineer antibody-like molecules. We have previously shown that the TEM-1 beta-lactamase can accommodate insertions of random sequences in two loops surrounding its active site without compromising its activity. From the libraries that were generated, active enzymes binding with high affinities to monoclonal antibodies raised against prostate-specific antigen, a protein unrelated to beta-lactamase, could be isolated. Antibody binding was shown to affect markedly the enzyme activity. As a consequence, these enzymes have the potential to be used as signaling molecules in direct or competitive homogeneous immunoassay. Preliminary results showed that beta-lactamase clones binding to streptavidin could also be isolated, indicating that some enzymes in the libraries have the ability to recognize proteins other than antibodies. In this paper, we show that, in addition to beta-lactamases binding to streptavidin, beta-lactamase clones binding to horse spleen ferritin and beta-galactosidase could be isolated. Affinity maturation of a clone binding to ferritin allowed obtaining beta-lactamases with affinities comprised between 10 and 20 nM (Kd) for the protein. Contrary to what was observed for beta-lactamases issued from selections on antibodies, enzyme complexation induced only a modest effect on enzyme activity, in the three cases studied. This kind of enzyme could prove useful in replacement of enzyme-conjugated antibodies in enzyme-linked immunosorbant assays (ELISA) or in other applications that use antibodies conjugated to an enzyme.
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PMID:TEM-1 beta-lactamase as a scaffold for protein recognition and assay. 1202 49