Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:6.3.2.19 (ubiquitin-protein ligase)
 799 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The E6-associated protein (E6-AP) is a dual function protein. It acts as an E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase as well as a steroid hormone receptor coactivator. Considering the influence of steroid hormone receptors and their coactivators in the normal development and tumorigenesis of reproductive organs of both genders, we examined the roles of E6-AP in the tumorigenesis of breast and prostate tissues. We demonstrated that the expression of E6-AP protein is decreased in human invasive breast and prostate carcinomas compared with their adjacent normal tissues, and this down-regulation of E6-AP is accompanied by the up-regulation of estrogen receptor (ER)-alpha in breast and androgen receptor (AR) in prostate carcinomas. Furthermore, our in vivo data from E6-AP-knockout animals indicated that the expression levels of ERalpha and AR are increased in E6-AP-null mammary and prostate glands, respectively, when compared with that of normal control animals, suggesting that E6-AP modulates the protein levels of ERalpha in breast and AR in prostate glands.
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PMID:Decreased expression of e6-associated protein in breast and prostate carcinomas. 1569 96

Steroid hormone receptors (SHR) belong to a large family of ligand-activated transcription factors that perform their biological functions by enhancing the transcription of specific target genes. The transactivation functions of SHRs are regulated by a specialized group of proteins called coactivators. The SHR coactivators represent a growing class of proteins with various enzymatic activities that serve to modify the chromatin to facilitate the transcription of SHR target genes. The ubiquitin-proteasome pathway enzymes have also been added to the growing list of enzymatic activities that are recruited to the SHR target gene promoters during transcription. One such ubiquitin-proteasome pathway enzyme to be identified and characterized as a SHR coactivator was E6-associated protein (E6-AP). E6-AP is a hect (homologous to E6-associated protein carboxy-terminal domain) domain containing E3 ubiquitin ligase that possesses two independent separable functions; a coactivation function and an ubiquitin-protein ligase activity. Being a component of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway, it is postulated that E6-AP may orchestrate the dynamics of steroid hormone receptor-mediated transcription by regulating the degradation of the transcriptional complexes. E6-AP has also been shown to be involved in the regulation of various aspects of reproduction such as prostate and mammary gland development. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that E6-AP expression is down-regulated in breast and prostate tumors and that the expression of E6-AP is inversely associated with that of estrogen and androgen receptors. This review summarizes our current knowledge about the structures, molecular mechanisms, spatiotemporal expression patterns and biological functions of E6-AP.
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PMID:E6-associated protein (E6-AP) is a dual function coactivator of steroid hormone receptors. 1843 13

This study elucidates the role of E6-associated protein, E6-AP (a dual function steroid hormone receptor coactivator and ubiquitin-protein ligase) in the regulation of PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, prostate gland growth and proliferation. Here, we report the generation of transgenic mice and prostate cancer cell line, LNCaP cells that overexpress E6-AP protein. Using these models we show that the levels of total Akt and phosphorylated Akt (active Akt) are increased in E6-AP overexpressing prostate gland and LNCaP cells suggesting that E6-AP regulates the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. The prostate glands in our transgenic mice are ~20% larger and produce preneoplastic lesions at the age of 18 months. Our data also suggest that E6-AP modulates PI3K-Akt signaling pathway by both androgen-independent and -dependent mechanisms. In the androgen-independent mechanism, E6-AP modulates PI3K-Akt signaling by regulating the protein levels of RhoA, a small GTPase, which is a negative regulator of the Akt signaling pathway. Further, we show that E6-AP, a known coactivator of AR, amplifies the androgen-dependent activation of PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. In addition, we show that stable overexpression of E6-AP in prostate cancer cells results in increased cell size and proliferation. Overall our data suggests that E6-AP regulates both the positive and negative modulators of the PI3K-Akt pathway in prostate cells which results in increased prostate cell growth, proliferation and decreased apoptosis.This article is part of a Special Issue entitled The 26S Proteasome: When degradation is just not enough!
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PMID:E3 ubiquitin protein ligase, E6-associated protein (E6-AP) regulates PI3K-Akt signaling and prostate cell growth. 2082 37