Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0019204 (hepatocellular carcinoma)
 71,386 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A synergistic increase in the cytotoxic effects of recombinant human tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha), interferons (IFN-alpha, IFN-beta, and IFN-gamma) and heat-stress was demonstrated in vitro. The toxicity of these agents was assessed in the human cervical carcinoma HeLa cell line: the toxic effect was greatly increased when cells pretreated with IFNs or TNF were submitted to a 1-h heat-shock at 45 degrees C. Moreover if the heat-stress followed simultaneous treatment with both cytokines, a synergistic effect between these treatments could be observed. The same observations were made for two other transformed cell lines: the oral epidermoid carcinoma KB cells and the hepatocarcinoma PLC/PRF/5 cells. In contrast, the survival of normal cells (normal foetal lung MRC5 cells and foreskin F 7000 fibroblasts) was only slightly decreased by such treatments. These results suggest that combining a heat-stress with cytokines treatment might be one way of enhancing the sensitivity of cancer cells to the growth inhibitory effects of the individual cytokines.
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PMID:Synergistic cytotoxic effects of recombinant human tumor necrosis factor, interferons, and heat-stress. 247 47

The acute phase cytokines: interleukin 1, tumor necrosis factor alpha (cachectin) and beta (lymphotoxin), hepatocyte stimulating factor and several interferons, all belong to the family of endotoxin-inducible, low molecular weight proteins. Their synthesis in macrophages, fibroblasts, lymphocytes, epithelial and some tumor cells is enhanced by the same cytokines, often in the autocrine manner, and suppressed by dexamethasone. The principal hepatocyte stimulating factor (HSF) regulating synthesis of acute phase proteins is probably identical with IFN-beta 2/BSF-2/IL-6, but other inflammatory cytokines (IL-1, TNF alpha, IFN-gamma) are able to induce distinct sets of acute phase proteins, or to modulate the final response pattern. The effect of hrIFN-gamma on production of acute phase proteins by human hepatoma Hep G2 cells is discussed in detail. It is concluded that the cascades of inflammatory cytokines in different tissues represent amplification and regulatory pathways controlling the development of acute phase response in vivo.
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PMID:The cascade of inflammatory cytokines regulating synthesis of acute phase proteins. 248 65

The influence of histamine (and the related agonists and antagonists) alone or in the presence of recombinant human interleukin 1 alpha (IL-1 alpha) and gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) was studied on the production of complement components C3, C2, factor B, and C4 in vitro with human monocytoid cell line U937, hepatoma-derived cell line HepG2, and mouse hepatocytes. Both U937 and HepG2 cells responded to histamine through H1 and H2 histamine receptors. The effect of histamine on the biosynthesis and gene expression of complement proteins was predominantly enhancing via the H1 histamine receptors and inhibitory through the H2 receptors. The actual predominance of the histamine receptor involved (and the outcome of the ligand interaction) seemed to be greatly affected by the simultaneous activation of the cells by IL-1 or IFN-gamma.
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PMID:Stimulation of histamine receptors of human monocytoid and hepatoma-derived cell lines and mouse hepatocytes modulates the production of the complement components C3, C4, factor B, and C2. 250 66

In this study, we examined the activity of recombinant interferon (IFN)-gamma against Plasmodium berghei exoerythrocytic forms (EEF) grown in vitro within the highly differentiated human hepatoma cell line HEPG2. We assayed the effect of IFN-gamma on parasite growth by DNA hybridization using a P. berghei specific DNA probe. The specific activity of IFN-gamma against EEF is very high, and depends upon the time of lymphokine addition. When IFN-gamma is added to HEPG2 cells containing intracellular EEF, 6 hr after sporozoite invasion, parasite DNA replication is inhibited by approximately 75% at 10(3) U/ml and 50% at 1 U/ml. This treatment can either abolish or greatly reduce the infectivity of EEF for mice. When added earlier, 3 hr after completion of sporozoite invasion, IFN-gamma inhibits parasite replication to an even greater degree. The highest levels of inhibition were obtained when IFN-gamma was added 6 hr prior to sporozoite invasion (100% inhibition at 10(2) U/ml, approximately 55% inhibition at 0.1 U/ml, and 17% inhibition at 0.001 U/ml). We found that HEPG2 cells express approximately 44,000 surface receptors for IFN-gamma. These data are consistent with the view that IFN-gamma exerts its antimalarial activity by binding to surface receptors on hepatocytes and inducing intracellular changes unfavorable for parasite development. Tryptophan starvation does not appear to be involved in this process. These findings also support the idea that IFN-gamma, released from immune T cells upon encountering sporozoite antigen, may be an important effector mechanism in sterile immunity to sporozoite challenge.
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PMID:Interferon-gamma inhibits the intrahepatocytic development of malaria parasites in vitro. 295 45

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) induce a partially overlapping set of genes, including the genes for interferon regulatory factor 1 (IRF-1), intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1), and the acute-phase protein alpha 2-macroglobulin. We report here that the rat alpha 2-macroglobulin promoter is activated by IFN-gamma in human hepatoma (HepG2) cells and that the IFN-gamma response element maps to the same site previously defined as the acute-phase response element (APRE), which binds the IL-6-activated transcription factor APRF (acute-phase response factor). As was reported for fibroblasts, the IFN-gamma-regulated transcription factor GAF is phosphorylated at tyrosine after IFN-gamma treatment of HepG2 cells. IFN-gamma posttranslationally activates a protein which specifically binds to the alpha 2-macroglobulin APRE. This protein is shown to be identical or closely related to GAF. Although APRF and GAF are shown to represent different proteins, their binding sequence specificities are very similar. APRF and GAF bind equally well to the APRE sequences of various acute-phase protein genes as well as to the IFN-gamma response elements of the IRF-1, ICAM-1, and other IFN-gamma-inducible genes. Transient transfection analysis revealed that the IFN-gamma response elements of the IRF-1 and ICAM-1 promoters are able to confer responsiveness to both IFN-gamma and IL-6 onto a heterologous promoter. Therefore, APRF and GAF are likely to be involved in the transcriptional induction of these immediate-early genes by IL-6 and IFN-gamma, respectively. Taken together, these results demonstrate that two functionally distinct hormones, IL-6 and IFN-gamma, act through common regulatory elements to which different transcription factors sharing almost the same sequence specificity bind.
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PMID:The signalling pathways of interleukin-6 and gamma interferon converge by the activation of different transcription factors which bind to common responsive DNA elements. 750 45

The hepatitis delta virus (HDV) genome consists of circular ssRNA which has extensive intramolecular complementarity and can form a dsRNA rod-like structure. If such RNA species were to exist in an unmasked form in cells, they would be expected to induce interferon (IFN) expression and activate two IFN-inducible dsRNA-dependent enzymes with anti-viral activity, namely the dsRNA-dependent protein kinase (PKR) and 2',5' oligoadenylate (2',5' A) synthetase. Since the virus replicates to high copy number for prolonged periods in infected cells it is apparently able to evade these antiviral mechanisms. The RNA genome may be masked and fail to induce or activate the antiviral response, or the virus may inhibit such a response. Treatment of a hepatoma cell line, Huh7, and a fibrosarcoma cell line, HT1080, stably transfected with a trimeric HDV cDNA construct, with IFN-alpha or IFN-gamma for up to seven days failed to influence the level of expression of genomic or antigenomic HDV RNA, or delta antigen (Ag). This is consistent with either failure of activation or inhibition of the IFN response. However the induction of several IFN-responsive genes, including PKR, 2',5' A synthetase and class I MHC is normal and cotransfection of a construct expressing delta Ag did not affect expression from an IFN-inducible chloramphenicol acetyltransferase construct. In addition, the activation of PKR is not inhibited in HDV-expressing cells and antiviral assays suggest that the ability of these cells to mount an antiviral response to at least two cytopathic viruses is unaffected. IFN-beta is inducible normally by dsRNA in cells transfected with the delta cDNA trimer. We conclude that HDV replication is not inhibited by IFN-alpha or IFN-gamma, even though the responses of cells expressing HDV RNA and antigen to IFN and dsRNA are intact.
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PMID:Hepatitis delta virus replication in vitro is not affected by interferon-alpha or -gamma despite intact cellular responses to interferon and dsRNA. 791 7

Interleukin-6 (IL-6), leukemia inhibitory factor, oncostatin M, IL-11, and ciliary neurotropic factor are a family of cytokines and neuronal differentiation factors which bind to composite plasma membrane receptors sharing the signal transducing subunit gp130. We have shown recently that IL-6 and leukemia inhibitory factor rapidly activate a latent cytoplasmic transcription factor, acute-phase response factor (APRF), by tyrosine phosphorylation, which then binds to IL-6 response elements of various IL-6 target genes. Here we demonstrate that APRF is activated by all cytokines acting through gp130 and is detected in a wide variety of cell types, indicating a central role of this transcription factor in gp130-mediated signaling. APRF activation is also observed in vitro upon addition of IL-6 to cell homogenates. Protein tyrosine kinase inhibitors block both the tyrosine phosphorylation and DNA binding of APRF. The factor was purified to homogeneity from rat liver and shown to consist of a single 87-kDa polypeptide, while two forms (89 and 87 kDa) are isolated from human hepatoma cells. As reported earlier, the binding sequence specificity of APRF is shared by gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) activation factor, which is formed by the Stat91 protein. Partial amino acid sequence obtained from purified rat APRF demonstrated that it is likely to be related to Stat91. In fact, an antiserum raised against the amino-terminal portion of Stat91 cross-reacted with APRF, suggesting the relatedness of APRF and Stat91. Altogether, these data indicate that APRF belongs to a growing family of Stat-related proteins and that IFN-gamma and IL-6 use similar signaling pathways to activate IFN-gamma activation factor and APRF, respectively.
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PMID:The interleukin-6-activated acute-phase response factor is antigenically and functionally related to members of the signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) family. 816 74

In patients with the anemia of chronic diseases, the plasma level of EPO is often low in relation to the blood hemoglobin concentration. Because infectious and inflammatory processes cause activation of cytokine-producing macrophages and lymphocytes, we investigated whether isolated inflammatory cytokines influence the synthesis of EPO in vitro. IL-1 and TNF-alpha were shown to inhibit EPO mRNA levels and EPO formation in the human hepatoma cell cultures HepG2 and Hep3B, and to lower EPO formation in isolated perfused rat kidneys. IFN-alpha and IFN-beta also induced some inhibition of EPO production in HepG2 cultures. IL-3, TGF-beta 2, and IFN-gamma did not inhibit. IL-6 stimulated the production of EPO in Hep3B cells but was ineffective in HepG2 cells and lowered EPO production in isolated perfused rat kidneys. IL-1, TNF-alpha, and possibly other cytokines could contribute to defective EPO production in renal and nonrenal immune responses.
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PMID:Inhibition of erythropoietin production by cytokines. Implications for the anemia involved in inflammatory states. 818 37

It is well known that interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma; type II) potentiates various responses of human tumor necrosis factor (TNF) in a wide variety of cells and that this potentiation is accompanied by the up-regulation of TNF receptor synthesis. In the present studies we examined the regulation of TNF receptors by type I and type II IFNs in a hepatocellular carcinoma cell line, HEP G2. Exposure of these cells to IFN-gamma led to a decrease in TNF receptor number (4029 vs. 2719 sites/cell) without any change in the receptor affinity (0.96 nM vs. 1.1 nM). The effect was time and dose-dependent. Like IFN-gamma, IFN-alpha and IFN-beta (type I) down-modulated the TNF receptors on these cells. The effect of IFNs on the TNF receptors was inhibited by staurosporin, a protein kinase C (PK-C) inhibitor. Furthermore, by the use of receptor-specific antibodies, we found that the IFN-dependent decrease was primarily due to the p60 form of the TNF receptor. Our results presented are the first to demonstrate that IFNs can also down-modulate TNF receptors in certain cells and that this effect is mediated through PK-C.
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PMID:Both type I and type II interferons down-regulate human tumor necrosis factor receptors in human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line Hep G2. Role of protein kinase C. 827 22

The 5' flanking region of the human gene for the second component of complement was sequenced and analyzed functionally. RNase protection demonstrated a cluster of four initiation sites in the 5' flanking region utilized in the hepatoma cell line, HepG2. Utilization of all four initiation sites increased in response to gamma-interferon (IFN-gamma). Transient transfection analysis was used to examine cis-acting sequence motifs controlling transcription from the 5'-flanking region. We identified a 228-bp minimal promoter fragment which was able to direct basal and IFN-gamma inducible transcription from authentic initiation sites. Sequence motifs outside of this region may modulate the transcriptional regulation of the second component of complement. Although complement components are not coordinately regulated, we identified four regions of significant homology with the promoters of multiple other complement components. Three of these regions were within the minimal promoter fragment.
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PMID:Transcriptional regulation of the gene for the second component of human complement: promoter analysis. 829 89


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