Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.4.21.79 (granzyme B)
 3,301 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The expression of perforin and serine esterase (SE) activities and genes was examined in a murine cytotoxic T lymphocyte line (R8i) that does not require exogenous IL-2 for proliferation. Although perforin (hemolytic) activity was detected in unstimulated R8i, it was induced 2- to 14-fold in the presence of IL-2, IL-3, IL-4, and IL-6, and to a lesser degree (less than 4-fold) by TNF and IFN-gamma. A transient induction was also observed at the mRNA level. Peak perforin protein and mRNA levels were reached within 24 h and started to decline 48 h after stimulation. A trypsinlike SE activity which cleaves the chromogenic substrate N, alpha-benzyloxycarbonyl-L-lysine thiobenzyl ester was also induced 2- to 4-fold in the presence of the various IL tested. At the mRNA level, the message for SE SE1/granzyme A/Hanukah factor was absent from R8i whereas SE2/granzyme B/CTLA-1 increased by greater than 3-fold in the presence of IL-2, IL-3, IL-4, and IL-6 and occurred with the same kinetics and pattern as perforin. The induction response occurred without any enhancement of cell proliferation, suggesting that the cytokines tested may provide a direct differentiation signal to CTL. The induction response was abrogated effectively by inhibitors of protein (cycloheximide or emetine) and RNA (actinomycin D) syntheses. These findings suggest that the various IL may provide both a growth signal and a differentiation signal to CTL, resulting in the direct activation of perforin and SE genes.
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PMID:Induction of perforin and serine esterases in a murine cytotoxic T lymphocyte clone. 240 39

We have cloned the human perforin (P1) gene and sequenced 6.2-kb genomic DNA, containing 1.4-kb 5'-flanking region, the 5' untranslated region, the complete coding region and the beginning of the 3' untranslated region. The P1 gene including at least 95-bp 3' untranslated region is organized in only three exons: the first exon (97 bp) contains all but four nucleotides of the 5' untranslated region and was determined by primer extension and S1 nuclease mapping. This exon is separated by 1.7 kb from the second exon containing the remaining (4 bp) 5' untranslated region, the leader peptide and the N-terminal region of P1 up to--but not including--the C9 homologous region. The third exon is separated by a 1.2-kb intron and contains the remainder of the molecule, including at least 90 bp of the 3' untranslated region. This simple gene organization differs from that of the more complicated C9 gene. Because of the unusual intron in the 5' untranslated sequence the transcription initiation (cap) site is located almost 1.8 kb upstream of the ATG start signal. The more immediate 5' flanking sequence contains a CCAAT and GC box but lacks other known promoter elements. Instead, we find three different sequence repeats. One of them, a hexanucleotide sequence with the consensus GCCCTG of unknown significance occurs 19 times within a stretch of 240 bp. Further upstream we localized sequences homologous to the following enhancer and promoter elements: c-fos proto-oncogene, IFN-gamma and phorbol ester response elements, five cAMP response elements, and three motifs corresponding to general inducer elements. In addition, a sequence conserved in the 5'-flanking region of several T cell genes was identified. The 5' flanking regions of P1. CCP1 (granzyme B) and CCP2 (granzyme C) (kindly provided by Dr. Bleackley) contain as only significant homology cAMP response elements. These findings are consistent with a tight control and regulation of P1, which appears to be distinct from that of granzymes.
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PMID:Structure of the human perforin gene. A simple gene organization with interesting potential regulatory sequences. 248 Mar 91

B7-CD28 costimulation is essential for the activation of CD4+ T helper cells, mainly by regulating IL-2 and other cytokine production. The requirement for this costimulatory pathway in the activation of CD8+ T cells, however, is still poorly understood. Here we analyzed the role of B7-CD28 costimulation in the differentiation of Ag-specific CTL precursor. We found that the activation of not only IL-2 production but also cytotoxic function in CD8 T cells requires B7 costimulation. The costimulatory signal, which cannot be replaced by exogenous IL-2, is directly implicated in the activation of the lytic machinery in CD8 T cells. Moreover, B7-CD28 costimulation appears to play a critical role in the accumulation of mRNA encoding at least one of the granzymes required for cytolytic function, granzyme B or CTLA-1. The production of IFN-gamma by CD8 T cells, however, does not appear to require costimulation.
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PMID:B7 costimulation is necessary for the activation of the lytic function in cytotoxic T lymphocyte precursors. 759 26

The IL-2 pathway is portrayed often as central to allograft rejection. To test this hypothesis, we studied IL-2-deficient mice as allograft recipients. IL-2 gene knockout (KO) mice reject islet allografts and demonstrate a classical mononuclear leukocytic infiltrate, containing CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, surrounding and invading the islet allografts. Moreover, allograft rejection in the IL-2 KO mouse is associated with intragraft expression of certain cytokine and CTL attack molecule genes (e.g. IFN-gamma, IL-4, IL-7, IL-10, and granzyme B). In separate experiments, IL-2 KO mice generated CTLs in response to in vivo challenge with allogeneic tumor cells. Although IL-2 KO mice reject allografts in vivo, spleen cells from immunologically naive IL-2 KO mice exhibit a diminished proliferative response to mitogens in vitro that could be restored largely by exogenous IL-2, IL-4, or IL-7. The paradoxical ability to execute graft rejection in vivo despite near absent T cell proliferative responses in vitro may result from the expression of IL-7 in vivo, but not in vitro. Con A-stimulated bulk spleen cell cultures derived from IL-2 KO mice were essentially devoid not only of IL-2 but also IL-7 gene transcripts. These data indicate that 1) IL-2 is not the sole T cell growth factor capable of supporting allograft rejection and 2) expression of IL-4, but not IL-2, during the allograft response does not lead inevitably to tolerance.
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PMID:IL-2 knockout recipient mice reject islet cell allografts. 760 20

The ability of natural killer cell stimulatory factor/interleukin-12 (IL-12) to induce cytokines other than IFN-gamma from both T and NK cells was studied. Both the direct effect of IL-12 and the cooperation between IL-12 and other cytokine inducers such as IL-2, phorbol diesters, and receptor antibodies were evaluated. It was found that IL-12 induces mRNA accumulation and production of GM-CSF and TNF-alpha from both T and NK cells and, as tested on NK cells only, induces M-CSF mRNA accumulation. Compared with cytokine inducers, IL-12 ability to induce IFN-gamma production was severalfold higher than its ability to induce GM-CSF or TNF-alpha. Likewise, the synergistic effect of IL-12 with the other stimuli to induce IFN-gamma was stronger than that observed in the case of GM-CSF or TNF-alpha. The IL-12-mediated enhancement of NK cytotoxicity is accompanied by an increased accumulation of mRNA for at least two genes encoding cytotoxic cell granule-associated proteins, the serine esterase granzyme B and the pore-forming protein perforin. IL-12 induction of perforin mRNA accumulation was not synergistic with either IL-2 or anti-CD16 stimulation, whereas granzyme B mRNA accumulation, induced by IL-2 or anti-CD16 stimulation, was slightly potentiated by IL-12. Thus, although IFN-gamma production is probably one of the most physiologically relevant effects of IL-12, induction of other cytokines by IL-12 in the presence of other inflammatory or immune stimuli may have a role in the in vivo functions of IL-12. The observation that both the IL-12-mediated enhancement of NK cell-mediated cytotoxicity and the increased expression of genes encoding cytotoxic cell granule-associated proteins were not cooperative with the effect of other NK cell activators suggests that the effect of IL-12 on cytotoxic cells is in part independent from that of other stimuli regulating the functions of these cells.
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PMID:Cooperation of natural killer cell stimulatory factor/interleukin-12 with other stimuli in the induction of cytokines and cytotoxic cell-associated molecules in human T and NK cells. 791 99

Human bone marrow transplantation is becoming more common in the treatment of certain forms of cancer despite the scarcity of HLA matched donors. Because human umbilical cord blood (HUCB) has been used as a source for stem cells in bone marrow transplantation, and because NK cells appear to be important in graft versus leukemia response, we investigated the lytic activity of freshly isolated HUCB NK cells (HUCB-NK) against tumor targets and their ability to differentiate into LAK cells following stimulation with various cytokines. Although cytotoxicity mediated by fresh HUCB-NK was low compared to that of adult peripheral blood lymphocyte-derived NK cells (PBL-NK), the ability of HUCB-NK to bind to K562 target cells (TC) was similar to PBL-NK. In addition, the PBL-NK cytotoxicity of postpartum mothers was also low compared to that of normal adult PBL-NK. When we incubated HUCB for 18 hr in either IL-2 or IL-12, we boosted the level of HUCB-NK cytotoxicity to approximately the level observed in PBL-NK and increased the level of perforin, granzyme A, and granzyme B mRNA expression. In addition, when we incubated HUCB in IL-2, IL-4, IL-7, IL-12, TNF-alpha, IFN-alpha, IFN-gamma, or TGF-beta for 5 days, we observed that HUCB was capable of generating LAK cells only when incubated with either IL-2 or IL-12. In contrast, IL-2, IL-7, IL-12, TNF-alpha, and IFN-gamma all generated LAK cells from adult PBL. When we added to the medium low-dose IL-2 and irradiated K562 as feeder cells (mini-LAK), we were unable to generate LAK activity from HUCB-NK, whereas we could generate it with PBL-NK cells under the same conditions. Addition of serum derived from HUCB in a 4-hr 51Cr release assay with PBL-NK as the effector cells (EC) and K562 as the TC resulted in a 42% decrease in PBL-NK-mediated cytotoxicity. Although we detected no TGF-beta in HUCB serum, we did detect high concentrations of soluble class I MHC (sHLA). To our knowledge, sHLA has not previously been shown to inhibit NK cytotoxicity, although the expression of class I HLA on the surface of TC has been shown to inhibit NK cytotoxicity. To study further the effect of sHLA on cell-mediated cytotoxicity, we added various concentrations of sHLA to EC mediating NK, ADCC, and CTL activities. All were inhibited in a dose-dependent manner.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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PMID:The lack of NK cytotoxicity associated with fresh HUCB may be due to the presence of soluble HLA in the serum. 799 57

Rapamycin (RPM) treatment prevents accelerated rejection of cardiac allografts in sensitized rats. The prominent feature of this brisk 24-h rejection, which includes a panoply of both cellular and humoral host immune responses, is a massive infiltration of rejecting grafts with neutrophils. In this study we tested the hypothesis that RPM-mediated therapeutic effects on accelerated rejection may be linked to decreased expression of protein encoded by gro/melanoma-growth stimulatory activity gene (KC) and macrophage inflammatory protein-2 (MIP-2) genes, the operational rat homologues of the human intercrine-alpha cytokines with proinflammatory IL-8-like neutrophil activation/chemotactic properties. The induction of these genes was then correlated with mRNA profiles encoding for Th1-selective IFN-gamma and CTL-specific granzyme B proteins. Northern blot analysis of RNA from cardiac allografts of sensitized untreated recipients, revealed maximal levels of KC and MIP-2 mRNA at 3 to 6 h after transplantation. In contrast, IFN-gamma mRNA, which was at most very weakly expressed at 3 h, peaked between 6 to 12 h. As with IFN-gamma, granzyme B transcripts were undetectable at 3 h, but peaked around the time of actual graft rejection at 24 h. RPM therapy abrogated accelerated rejection and prolonged cardiac allograft survival to ca. 46 days. This effect was associated with markedly reduced expression of KC and MIP-2 mRNA in the first 24 h as well as at 7 and 34 days after transplantation. Moreover, RPM completely blocked intragraft appearance of granzyme B and IFN-gamma mRNA in long term cardiac allografts. Immunohistologic analysis has revealed that accelerated rejection was associated with extensive neutrophil infiltration, which peaked at 18 to 24 h. At this time, leukocytes and endothelium were intensely stained for IL-8 and IFN-gamma antibodies. In contrast, the allografts from RPM-treated hosts showed essentially no neutrophil infiltration and minor, focal staining for IL-8 and IFN-gamma. This study demonstrates an association between the early expression of genes for proinflammatory IL-8-dependent neutrophil chemotactic activity, and later expression of genes associated with activation/effector activity of CTL and NK cells. It also documents a novel effect of RPM in vivo, which results in the suppression of intragraft IL-8-like and CTL-dependent mRNA/protein production and diminished neutrophil infiltration; these may contribute to the striking efficacy of RPM therapy in sensitized graft recipients.
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PMID:Rapamycin treatment depresses intragraft expression of KC/MIP-2, granzyme B, and IFN-gamma in rat recipients of cardiac allografts. 833 97

Polymerase chain reaction-assisted reverse transcription was used to study the temporal course of rejection in unmodified recipients of murine pancreatic islet cell allografts (DBA/2-->B6AF1) by using syngeneic tissues as controls. The histologic appearance of the grafts was analyzed in parallel. Preproinsulin and constant region of the TCR-beta chain transcripts were studied as markers of graft integrity and infiltrating T cell mass, respectively. The participation of certain cytokines and CTL were analyzed by the detection of IL-2, IFN-gamma, IL-4, and CTL-specific serine protease (granzyme B) transcripts. The time-related disappearance of intragraft preproinsulin transcripts correlated with graft destruction, whereas the intensity of intragraft TCR-beta chain transcript levels correlated with the magnitude of mononuclear leukocyte infiltration in allografts. In unmodified allografts, the magnitude of IL-2 and IFN-gamma intragraft mRNA levels correlated with the intense mononuclear leukocyte infiltrate found on histologic examination at day 8. Only after stable IL-2 gene transcription on day 8 does evidence of graft destruction become apparent, indicating that IL-2 gene activation is closely related to and probably required for expression of alloimmune cytopathic processes. In contrast, IL-4 transcripts were absent or detected in low copy number throughout this time course. Intragraft expression of granzyme B mRNA, a CTL-specific transcript, peaked from day 8 to day 12 in allografts compared with syngeneic grafts or normal tissue. In syngeneic grafts IL-2 and/or IL-4 mRNA was essentially not detected. Although IFN-gamma and granzyme B transcripts were detected in syngeneic grafts, after 4 days the levels of detected transcripts were far less than those noted in allografts. In vivo detection of intragraft IL-2 transcripts in the relative absence of detectable IL-4 transcripts strongly suggests IL-2-dependent immune effector mechanisms are associated with, and perhaps responsible, for allograft rejection. Apparently IL-4-dependent effector mechanisms are not necessary for allograft rejection.
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PMID:Unmodified pancreatic islet allograft rejection results in the preferential expression of certain T cell activation transcripts. 842 34

The cellular and molecular mechanisms of IL-12-mediated anti-tumor activity have been examined. BALB/c mice bearing established s.c. RENCA or CT26 tumors that were treated daily with IL-12 showed essentially complete tumor regression while tumors in untreated animals grew progressively. Examination of inflammatory gene expression in tumor tissue from treated vs untreated mice revealed the selective expression of IFN-gamma and the IFN-gamma-inducible CXC chemokine IP-10. Immunohistologic analysis demonstrated that tumors from treated mice were heavily infiltrated with CD8+ T cells and Mac-1+ mononuclear cells. Tumor regression in IL-12-treated mice was associated with expression of the lytic effector molecules perforin and granzyme B. These findings support the hypothesis that the anti-tumor function of IL-12 treatment depends upon the induced expression of IFN-gamma by T cells and/or NK cells, the amplification of the immune response mediated by IFN-gamma-induced expression of chemoattractant cytokines, and the IL-12-dependent potentiation of the cytolytic effector function of recruited CD8+ T cells.
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PMID:Cytokine and chemokine expression in tumors of mice receiving systemic therapy with IL-12. 854 22

To determine the immune processes involved in chronic liver allograft rejection (CR) we examined in situ cytokine production in tissue from 15 patients with both clinical and histopathological diagnoses of CR. Total RNA was isolated from liver samples, reverse-transcribed and analyzed by RT-PCR for the production of proinflammatory cytokines and immunoregulatory mediators. Transcripts for the Th1-like cytokines IL-2 and IFN-gamma were detected in 53.3% and 46.7% of CR grafts, while they were detected in only 16% and 0% of stable grafts, respectively. The cytotoxic T cell mediator granzyme B was expressed in the majority of liver grafts undergoing CR, but was expressed only in a minority of stable grafts (80% vs. 16%, P < 0.05). The T cell product IL-5 was also significantly upregulated in CR as compared with stable livers (80% vs. 16%, P < 0.01). Other Th2 cytokines--IL-4 and IL-10--and macrophage products--IL-1 beta, IL-6, IL-8, TGF-beta, and TNF-alpha--were not substantially upregulated in CR grafts as compared with stable grafts. PDGF-beta transcripts were detected in the majority of the CR grafts, but were not detected in stable liver grafts (73% vs. 0, P < 0.05). By immunohistochemical staining, we observed that CD3+CD4+, and CD3+CD4- T cells were detected in CR grafts along with CD20+ B cells and CD68+ macrophages. There was, however, a predominant infiltration of CD3+CD4+ lymphocytes. Taken together, these data suggest that infiltrating cells produce proinflammatory and immunoregulatory cytokines that have a role in mediating graft damage in CR.
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PMID:Expression of cytokines and immune mediators during chronic liver allograft rejection. 854 86


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