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)

Patients with primary brain tumors have bleak prognoses and there is an urgent desire to identify new markers for sensitive diagnosis and new therapeutic targets for effective treatment. A family of proteins, the disintegrin and metalloproteinases (ADAMs or adamalysins), are cell surface and extracellular multidomain proteins implicated in cell-cell signaling, cell adhesion, and cell migration. Their putative biological and pathological roles make them candidates for promoting tumor growth and malignancy. We investigated the expression levels of 12 cerebrally expressed ADAM genes in human primary brain tumors (astrocytoma WHO grade I-III, glioblastoma WHO grade IV, oligoastrocytoma WHO grade II and III, oligodendroglioma WHO grade II and III, ependymoma WHO grade II and III, and primitive neuroectodermal tumor WHO grade IV) using real-time PCR. The mRNAs of the five ADAMs 8, 12, 15, 17, and 19 were significantly upregulated. The ADAM8 and ADAM19 proteins were mainly located in tumor cells and in some tumors in endothelia of blood vessels. In brain tumor tissue, ADAM8 and ADAM19 undergo activation by prodomain removal resulting in active proteases. By using specific peptide substrates for ADAM8 and ADAM19, respectively, we demonstrated that the proteases exert enhanced proteolytic activity in those tumor specimens with the highest expression levels. In addition, expression levels and the protease activities of ADAM8 and ADAM19 correlated with invasive activity of glioma cells, indicating that ADAM8 and ADAM19 may play a significant role in tumor invasion that may be detrimental to patients survival.
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PMID:Metalloproteinase disintegrins ADAM8 and ADAM19 are highly regulated in human primary brain tumors and their expression levels and activities are associated with invasiveness. 1677 75

A disintegrin and metalloproteinase 19 (ADAM19, or adamalysin 19) is a cell surface glycoprotein with a signal sequence, a prodomain, a metalloproteinase domain, a disintegrin domain, a cysteine-rich domain, a epidermal growth factor-like domain, a transmembrane domain, and a cytoplasmic domain. It is an endopeptidase that cleaves extracellular matrix proteins and sheds growth factors and cytokines such as neuregulins, heparin-binding epidermal growth factor, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, and TNF-related activation-induced cytokine. The ADAM19 gene was cloned from human, monkey, and mouse. It is expressed in multiple organs and tissues including heart, lung, bones, brain, spleen, liver, skeletal muscle, kidney, and testes. ADAM19 plays essential roles in embryo implantation, cardiovascular morphogenesis, neurogenesis, and other developmental processes. It has constitutive alpha-secretase activity associated with processing Alzheimer's disease amyloid precursor protein (APP) to non-amyloidogenic fragments; thus, it is neuroprotective. Those observations indicate that inhibition of ADAM19 activity is undesirable during embryo development and morphogenesis, and during the development of Alzheimer's disease. On the contrary, in adults, ADAM19 is upregulated in human brain tumors such as astrocytoma and glioblastoma and is correlated with the invasiveness of glioma. It is also over-expressed by many human cancerous cell lines including cancers of the colon, ovary, lung, and brain. Abnormally high expression of ADAM19 is also linked to inflammation and fibrosis of the lung and kidney. Targeted inhibition of ADAM19 may be crucial for the treatment of certain types of tumors and inflammatory diseases.
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PMID:ADAM19/adamalysin 19 structure, function, and role as a putative target in tumors and inflammatory diseases. 1960 35

RNA modifications play critical roles in important biological processes. However, the functions of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) mRNA modification in cancer biology and cancer stem cells remain largely unknown. Here, we show that m6A mRNA modification is critical for glioblastoma stem cell (GSC) self-renewal and tumorigenesis. Knockdown of METTL3 or METTL14, key components of the RNA methyltransferase complex, dramatically promotes human GSC growth, self-renewal, and tumorigenesis. In contrast, overexpression of METTL3 or inhibition of the RNA demethylase FTO suppresses GSC growth and self-renewal. Moreover, inhibition of FTO suppresses tumor progression and prolongs lifespan of GSC-grafted mice substantially. m6A sequencing reveals that knockdown of METTL3 or METTL14 induced changes in mRNA m6A enrichment and altered mRNA expression of genes (e.g., ADAM19) with critical biological functions in GSCs. In summary, this study identifies the m6A mRNA methylation machinery as promising therapeutic targets for glioblastoma.
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PMID:m6A RNA Methylation Regulates the Self-Renewal and Tumorigenesis of Glioblastoma Stem Cells. 2829 67