Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0017636 (glioblastoma)
 18,345 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We have been developing synthetic gene promoters responsive to clinical doses of ionizing radiation (IR) for use in suicide gene therapy vectors. The crucial DNA sequences utilized are units with the consensus motif CC(A/T)(6)GG, known as CArG elements, derived from the IR-responsive Egr1 gene. In this study we have investigated the parameters needed to enhance promoter activation to radiation. A series of plasmid vectors containing different enhancer/promoters were constructed, transiently transfected into tumor cells (MCF-7 breast adenocarcinoma and U-373MG glioblastoma) and expression of a downstream reporter assayed. Results revealed that increasing the number of CArG elements, up to a certain level, increased promoter radiation-response; from a fold-induction of 1.95 +/- 0.17 for four elements to 2.74 +/- 0.17 for nine CArGs of the same sequence (for MCF-7 cells). Specific alteration of the core A/T sequences caused an even greater positive response, with fold-inductions of 1.71 +/- 0.23 for six elements of prototype sequence compared with 2.96 +/- 0.52 for one of the new sequences following irradiation. Alteration of spacing (from six to 18 nucleotides) between elements had little effect, as did the addition of an adjacent Sp1 binding site. Combining the optimum number and sequence of CArG elements in an additional enhancer was found to produce the best IR induction levels. Furthermore, the improved enhancers also performed better than the previously reported prototype when used in in vitro and in vivo experimental GDEPT. We envisage such enhancers will be used to drive suicide gene expression from vectors delivered to a tumor within an irradiated field. The modest, but tight expression described in the present study could be amplified using a molecular 'switch' system as previously described using Cre/LoxP. In combination with targeted delivery, this strategy has great potential for significantly improving the efficacy of cancer treatment in the large number of cases where radiotherapy is currently employed.
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PMID:Optimizing radiation-responsive gene promoters for radiogenetic cancer therapy. 1236 5

The case is reported of a man, aged 68, with a right-sided temporal glioblastoma multiform and a left sided chiasmal anaplastic glioma, as well as an occipital tumor, presumably of glial nature. The patient had a complete prostatectomy of adenocarcinoma a year before. The coincidence of multicentric gliomas and prostate cancer is briefly discussed.
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PMID:Case history: multicentric glioma with involvement of the optic chiasm. 1244 27

Cancer testis (CT) antigens have an expression pattern that is predominantly restricted to testis in normal tissues, yet they are expressed in many different histological types of cancers. One previously described member of the CT antigen family, XAGE-1, was shown to be expressed in Ewing's sarcomas and rhabdomyosarcomas. Here we show that XAGE-1 is also expressed in breast cancer, prostate cancer, and different types of lung cancers, including lung squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, small cell lung carcinoma, and non-small cell lung carcinoma. In addition, XAGE-1 mRNA was present in ovarian cancer, melanoma, glioblastoma, T-cell lymphoma, chronic myelogenous leukemia, and histiocytic lymphoma cell lines. We also characterized the XAGE-1 transcript by primer extension analysis and found that transcription of the XAGE-1 gene is initiated from two distinct start sites, resulting in two overlapping transcripts, XAGE-1a and XAGE-1b. XAGE-1a contains two in-frame ATG translational start codons; whereas XAGE-1b initiates downstream of the first ATG start codon. Our results suggest that XAGE-1b is the dominant transcript, and that translation begins with the second ATG start codon, producing a 9 kDa protein. Because XAGE-1 is expressed in such a diverse range of cancers, it has potential to be used as a target for many cancer immunotherapies.
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PMID:Characterization of overlapping XAGE-1 transcripts encoding a cancer testis antigen expressed in lung, breast, and other types of cancers. 1247 62

The cystatins are physiological cysteine proteinase inhibitors. Here we report the cloning of a novel human cystatin-like molecule (CLM) from human bone marrow stromal cell (BMSC) cDNA library. The putative CLM protein contained 159 residues with a 29-residue signal peptide. CLM protein was highly homologous to family 2 cystatins, especially mouse and human testatin. The CLM gene spanned two exons and was mapped on chromosome 20p11.2, among cystatin superfamily gene clusters. CLM mRNA was barely detected in most tumor cell lines except for breast adenocarcinoma MCF-7 cells and glioblastoma U251 cells, but after LPS or PMA stimulation, CLM expression was increased in myelogenous leukemia cell lines HL-60 and U-937. Northern blot analysis revealed CLM was ubiquitously expressed in normal tissues, which was clearly different from the testis-specific expression pattern of most family 2 cystatins. When overexpressed in 293 cells, GFP-fused CLM targeted extracellularly through secretory pathway by Golgi apparatus. The results indicated that the secreted CLM protein might play roles in hematopoietic differentiation or inflammation.
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PMID:Molecular cloning and characterization of a novel cystatin-like molecule, CLM, from human bone marrow stromal cells. 1253 58

WNT signals play key roles in carcinogenesis and embryogenesis through the specification of cell fate and polarity. Dishevelled proteins are implicated in the WNT - beta-catenin pathway and the WNT-PCP pathway. DAAM1/KIAA0666 is a Dishevelled-binding protein transducing WNT signals to the PCP pathway. Here, we identified and characterized DAAM2 gene by using bioinformatics. Uncharacterized FLJ34430 and KIAA0381 cDNAs were homologous to DAAM1. FLJ34430 was recombined with URB (XM_087331) in the 3'-region, and KIAA0381 was truncated in the 5'-region. Nucleotide sequence of DAAM2 cDNA was determined in silico by adding nucleotide position 1-793 of FLJ34430 onto the 5'-end of KIAA0381. DAAM2 gene consists of 27 exons, and gives rise to four splicing variants due to alternative splicing of alternative promoter type as well as of cassette exon type. DAAM2 gene was linked to the MOCS1 gene on human chromosome 6p21.3 with an interval less than 1 kb. DAAM2 mRNA was expressed in fetal heart, adult hypothalamus, eye, spinal cord, lung, prostate, kidney, and also in glioblastoma, oligodendroglioma, melanoma, mammary adenocarcinoma and chondrosarcoma. DAAM2 was a 1077-amino-acid protein with Formin-homology FH1 and FH2 domains, which showed 68.9% total-amino-acid identity with DAAM1. Among Formin-homology proteins, FDD (Formin-like, Diaphanous, Daam) domain was conserved in FMNL1/FMNL/KW-13, FMNL2/KIAA1902/FHOD2, DIAPH1, DIAPH2, DAAM1 and DAAM2, but not in Fmn1, Fmn2, FHOD1 and Grid2ip. Therefore, it was concluded that FMNL1, FMNL2, DIAPH1, DIAPH2, DAAM1 and DAAM2 proteins constitute the Formin-homology FDD subfamily.
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PMID:Identification and characterization of human DAAM2 gene in silico. 1263 87

Recently we synthesized new drugs, diazenecarboxamides (shortly diazenes), that were cytotoxic for several tumour cell lines. Because the solubility and biological activity of these drugs was relatively low, new compounds have been synthesized. In the present study we examined the cytotoxic effect of nine compounds: an imidazolidin-2-one (SB-282: methyl 5-benzoyl-3-(2-chloroethyl)-2-oxo-4-phenyl-2,3-dihydro-1H-imidazol-1-ylcarbamate), two diazenecarboxamides (UP-140: N-phenyl-2-(2-quinolinyl)diazenecarboxamide; JK-1090: N-(4-iodophenyl)-2-(2-pyridinyl)diazenecarboxamide), two aminocarbonyl substituted diazenecarboxylates (SB-178: methyl 2-[(cyclohexylamino)carbonyl]diazenecarboxylate; SB-166: methyl 2-[[(2-chloroethyl)amino]carbonyl]diazenecarboxylate) and four diazenedicarboxamides (SB-410: N(1)-(2-chloroethyl)-N(2)-(2-pyridinylmethyl)-1,2-diazenedicarboxamide; SB-472: N(1)-(2-chloroethyl)-N(2)-(4-isopropylphenyl)-1,2-diazenedicarboxamide; SB-503: N(1)-(4-sec-butylphenyl)-N(2)-(2-chloroethyl)-1,2-diazenedicarboxamide; SB-474: N(1)-(4-tert-butylphenyl)-N(2)-(2-chloroethyl)-1,2-diazenedicarboxamide). Using a modified colorimetric MTT assay, their cytotoxicity was determined on eight human cell lines: laryngeal carcinoma parental and two drug-resistant cell lines, glioblastoma parental and drug-resistant cell lines, cervical carcinoma parental and drug-resistant cell lines and breast adenocarcinoma cells. Results show that diazene SB-166 was very effective, reducing significantly the cell survival of all eight examined cell lines, including four drug-resistant cell lines. Compound SB-410 was cytotoxic for all examined cell lines, but mostly only in the highest concentration. Other compounds were not significantly cytotoxic to any of the treated cell lines. Our results, especially those obtained on drug-resistant cells, encourage further research on compound SB-166 as a potential anticancer drug.
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PMID:Methyl 2-(2-chloroethylaminocarbonyl)diazenecarboxylate SB-166 inhibits the growth of different tumour cell lines, including drug-resistant sublines. 1265 Jun 69

GTI-2040 is a 20-mer oligonucleotide that is complementary to a coding region in the mRNA of the R2 small subunit component of human ribonucleotide reductase. In vitro studies using a number of human tumor cell lines have demonstrated that GTI-2040 decreases mRNA and protein levels of R2 in a sequence- and target-specific manner. In vivo studies have shown that GTI-2040 significantly inhibits growth of human colon tumors (adenocarcinoma), pancreatic tumors (adenocarcinoma), liver tumors, lung tumors, breast tumors (adenocarcinoma), renal tumors, ovarian tumors (adenocarcinoma), melanoma, brain glioblastoma-astrocytoma, prostatic tumors, and cervical tumors in nude and/or severe combined immunodeficient mice. Antitumor effects were not observed with an oligonucleotide containing four mismatches to the R2 sequence or with a scrambled sequence containing the same base content but not complementary to R2. This suggests that an antisense mechanism is responsible for the in vivo observations. In addition to tumor growth assays, GTI-2040 was tested in a murine model of human lymphoma. Treatment of severe combined immunodeficient mice bearing Burkitt's lymphoma with GTI-2040, but not control oligonucleotides, greatly extended the survival of mice, and survival extended well beyond the treatment period. Finally, GTI-2040 specifically inhibits metastasis of human melanoma cells to the lungs in nude mice. Taken together, the results of these studies indicate that GTI-2040 can act as a selective and specific anticancer agent against a broad range of human tumors.
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PMID:GTI-2040, an antisense agent targeting the small subunit component (R2) of human ribonucleotide reductase, shows potent antitumor activity against a variety of tumors. 1278 85

Eight lichens were extracted successively with n-hexane, diethyl ether and methanol using a Soxhlet process. The cytotoxic activity of the 24 lichen extracts was evaluated in vitro using two murine (the L1210: lymphocytic leukaemia, and the 3LL: Lewis lung carcinoma) and four human (the K-562: chronic myelogenous leukaemia, the U251: glioblastoma, the DU145: prostate carcinoma, and the MCF7: breast adenocarcinoma) cancer cell lines and non-cancerous cells, the Vero cell line (African green monkey kidney cell line). The MTT assay revealed significant cytotoxicity (IC50 < or = 20 microg/ml) on one of the tested cancer cell lines for at least one extract of each lichen species. Some extracts of Cladonia convoluta, Cladonia rangiformis, Parmelia caperata, Platismatia glauca and Ramalina cuspidata demonstrated interesting activities particularly on human cancer cell lines as good selectivity indices were recorded (SI > 3).
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PMID:Cytotoxic activity of some lichen extracts on murine and human cancer cell lines. 1367 34

Chemical modifiers (radiosensitizers) are used in order to increase the efficacy of radiotherapy. The use of Photodynamic Therapy for tumor treatment, especially with Photofrin II, is also known. At present, no chemical modifier has been found to act as a selective radiosensitizer. Experiments using several series of cell lines were performed; human bladder cancer cell line (RT4), colon adenocarcinoma cells (HT-29), and the glioblastoma cells (U-373 MG) were investigated, with and without incubation with Photofrin II, before irradiation. The irradiation was performed using doses ranging from 0 to 8Gy. Colony forming tests were applied to determine the efficiency of Photofrin II as a radiation sensitizer in comparison to irradiation alone. Two of the cell lines tested, cultures of the RT4 and U-373 MG, treated with Photofrin II prior to radiation, showed cell survival lower than cultures untreated with Photofrin II but irradiated under identical conditions. For the HT-29 cells, the results did not differ between the two groups (with and without Photofrin). The results of this study showed that Photofrin II can act, under certain conditions as a tumor radiosensitizer.
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PMID:Photofrin as a radiosensitizer in an in vitro cell survival assay. 1457

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is currently used for cancer treatment. It is shown that sublethal PDT of human WiDr adenocarcinoma cells and D54Mg glioblastoma cells with 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA), disulfonated tetraphenylporphyrine (TPPS(2a)), or MitoTracker Red (MTR) inhibits their trypsin-induced detachment from a plastic substratum. TPPS(2a) was bound selectively to the plasma membrane, whereas MTR was found in mitochondria. Both granular and diffuse fluorescence of ALA-derived protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) was observed in the perinuclear cytoplasm but not in the plasma membrane of WiDr cells stained for 2 h with 1 mM ALA. In D54Mg cells, PpIX fluorescence was observed not only in the cytoplasm but also in the plasma membrane. Fluorescence measurements showed a progressive accumulation of PpIX in the WiDr cells during incubation with ALA and a PpIX efflux into the medium after 1 h or longer incubation. PpIX retained in the plasma membrane during efflux may be responsible for PDT-induced impairment of cell adhesion. On the other hand, MTR-PDT or ALA-PDT after 15-min incubation, when the newly synthesized PpIX should remain in mitochondria, also inhibited enzymatic cell detachment. Therefore, photodynamic targeting of mitochondria, remote from the cell surface where adhesion occurs, may disturb cell adhesion. Photodynamic inhibition of enzymatic cell detachment may be related to PDT-induced inhibition of tumour metastasis.
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PMID:Photodynamic inhibition of enzymatic detachment of human cancer cells from a substratum. 1472 36


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