Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.4.23.5 (cathepsin D)
 4,130 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

One hundred and nine primary breast cancers were analyzed to assess the presence of the HER-2/neu gene product (p185), the oestrogen (ER) and the progesterone (PR) receptors, and the total cathepsin D status. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA kit, Oncogene Science Inc.) was used for the evaluation of p185 in pellets obtained after a 100,000 x g centrifugation, ER and PR were measured by enzyme immunoassay (EIA kit, Abbott Laboratories), and the total cathepsin D content was evaluated by immunoradiometric assay (IRMA kit, CIS Biointernational). We showed that the ELISA kit is feasible to quantify the p185 present in breast cancer cell membranes, and that the detector antibody recognises a protein of apprroximatly M(r) 185,000. The detected antigen was inversely related to both ER and PR, but it did not correlate to total cathepsin D. No significant differences were found in the expression of p185, ER, PR, cathepsin D between infiltrating ductal carcinomas without special features (NOS) and non-ductal (non-NOS) carcinomas. Nevertheless, in NOS carcinomas, a trend was observed in the p185 levels expressed by the tumours with different histological grades, in that p185 concentration was higher in the poorly differentiated grade 3 with respect to grade 2 and grade 1.
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PMID:Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay of HER-2/neu gene product (p185) in breast cancer: its correlation with sex steroid receptors, cathepsin D and histologic grades. 790 96

In the natural history of post-menopausal patients with primary breast cancer, high estrogen receptor levels (ER) have been associated with a poor recurrence-free survival. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there are any biological intratumoral characteristics to support this puzzling clinical observation. In a population of 542 post-menopausal, primary-breast-cancer patients, 3 normal distributions fitted into the frequency distribution curve of the logarithmically transformed ER-EIA values. The biological profiles of the low ER group, and of the intermediate and high ER groups identified in the ER-positive population were compared. Parameters correlated with ER functional aspect (progesterone receptors and PS2), receptors of epidermal growth factor (EGFR), protease cathepsin D and tumor proliferation (deduced from thymidine kinase activity) were analyzed. As previously reported, the levels of progesterone receptors and PS2 increased significantly from the low to the high ER groups. The highest levels of cathepsin D and thymidine kinase which have been previously related to a poor prognosis in breast cancer were found in the low ER group, but high levels were, surprisingly, also found in the high ER group. This study indicates that the ER-positive post-menopausal population is biologically heterogeneous. The high levels of thymidine kinase found in the high ER group suggest that overexpression of ER may be associated with proliferation enhancement, partly explaining the poor spontaneous prognosis related to this subset.
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PMID:Biological heterogeneity of ER-positive breast cancers in the post-menopausal population. 792 97