Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:5.99.1.2 (topoisomerase)
 9,166 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A tumor-suppressor gene, p16(INK4), which is deleted or mutated in tumors, regulates cell-cycle progression through a G(1)-S restriction point by inhibiting CDK4(CDK6)/cyclin-D-mediated phosphorylation of pRb. We have found that ectopic p16(INK4) expression increased cellular sensitivity of human non-small-cell-lung-cancer (NSCLC) A549 cells to a selective growth-inhibitory effect induced by the topoisomerase-I inhibitor 11, 7-ethyl-10-[4-(1-piperidino)-1-piperidino] carbonyloxy camptothecin (CPT-11) in vitro. In this study, we observed enhanced apoptosis characterized by DNA fragmentation in A549 cells transfected with p16(INK4) cDNA (A549/p16-1) and treated with CPT-11. This apoptosis was suppressed by the inhibitor of interleukin-1beta-converting enzyme (ICE/caspase-1) or ICE-like proteases, Z-Asp-CH2-DCB, as determined by DNA fragmentation and proteolytic cleavage of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase, a natural substrate for CPP32/caspase-3. In A549/p16-1 cells, cytosolic peptidase activities that cleaved Z-DEVD-7-amino-4-trifluoromethylcoumarin increased during CPT-11-induced apoptosis and were suppressed by a highly specific caspase-3 and caspase-3-like inhibitor, Z-DEVD-fluoromethylketone. These findings indicate that p16(INK) is positively involved in the activation pathway of the caspase-3 induced by CPT-11. The increased delay in S-phase progression and subsequent induction of apoptosis were observed in CPT-11-treated A549/p16-1 cells on the basis of DNA histograms. Specific down-regulation of the cyclin-A protein level in A549/p16-1 cells was observed after CPT-11-treatment, whereas cyclin B, cdk2, and cdc2 protein levels were unaffected. These results suggest that ectopic p16(INK4) expression inappropriately decreases cyclin A and thereby terminates CPT-11-induced G(2)/M accumulation, which is followed by increased apoptosis in p16(INK4)-expressing A549 cells.
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PMID:Ectopic p16(ink4) expression enhances CPT-11-induced apoptosis through increased delay in S-phase progression in human non-small-cell-lung-cancer cells. 1073 46

The vaccinia-related kinase (VRK) proteins are a new family with three members in the human kinome. The VRK1 protein phosphorylates several transcription factors and has been postulated to be involved in regulation of cell proliferation. In normal squamous epithelium, VRK1 is expressed in the proliferation area. Because VRK1 can stabilize p53, the expression of the VRK1 protein was analyzed in the context of the p53 pathway and the proliferation phenotype in a series of 73 head and neck squamous cell carcinomas. VRK1 protein level positively correlated with p53 response proteins, particularly hdm2 and p21. The VRK1 protein also correlated positively with several proteins associated with proliferation, such as cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2), CDK6, cdc2, cyclins B1 and A, topoisomerase II, survivin, and Ki67. The level of VRK1 protein behaves like a proliferation marker in this series of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas. To identify a possible regulatory role for VRK1 and because it regulates gene transcription, the promoters of two genes were studied, CDK2 and SURVIVIN, whose proteins correlated positively with VRK1. VRK1 increases the activity of both the CDK2 and SURVIVIN gene promoters. The expression of VRK1 was analyzed in the context of regulators of the G1-S transition. VRK1 protein levels increase in response to E2F1 and are reduced by retinoblastoma and p16. These data suggest that VRK1 might play a role in cell cycle regulation and is likely to represent the beginning of a new control mechanism of cell cycle, particularly late in the G1-S phase.
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PMID:VRK1 signaling pathway in the context of the proliferation phenotype in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. 1654 55

Irinotecan has been used in the first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. However, no clear predictive marker of irinotecan efficacy has been identified. It is controversial whether the response to irinotecan could be predicted by the expression level of topoisomerase-I, a direct target of irinotecan. The present study aimed to identify a feasible predictive marker of irinotecan efficacy. We hypothesized that the efficacy of SN38 (an active metabolite of irinotecan) is related to the cell proliferation and the phosphorylation status of RB in colorectal cancer cells. Indeed, the IC50 of SN38 was positively correlated with the doubling time of each cell line (R2=0.9315). Moreover, the phosphorylation level of RB was related to SN38 sensitivity. Consistent with the in vitro data, colorectal cancer tissues of irinotecan responders showed a significantly higher rate of phosphorylated RB (serine 780) expression using immunohistochemistry (P=0.0006), although a generally used proliferative marker, Ki-67, showed no significance. Finally, we investigated whether the phosphorylation of RB plays a crucial role in the efficacy of irinotecan. To suppress the expression of phosphorylated RB, we performed the knockdown of CDKs, which are known to phosphorylate RB. Intriguingly, the knockdown of both CDK4 and CDK6, but not CDK2, allowed RB to become the most hypophosphorylated form and converted the SN38-sensitive cells to a resistant state. Taking together the above findings from in vitro and clinical research, the immunohistochemistry of phosphorylated RB protein might be feasible to predict the irinotecan efficacy of colorectal cancer in clinical practice.
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PMID:Phosphorylated retinoblastoma protein is a potential predictive marker of irinotecan efficacy for colorectal cancer. 2678 96