Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0023418 (leukemia)
 93,477 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Voltage-gated K+ channels have been shown to be required for proliferation of various types of cells. Much evidence indicates that K+-channel activity is required for G1 progression of the cell cycle in different cell backgrounds, suggesting that K+-channel activity is required for early-stage cell proliferation in these cells. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms that underlie this phenomenon. We have shown in human myeloblastic leukemia ML-1 cells that K+ channels are activated by epidermal growth factor (EGF), whereas serum starvation deprivation suppressed their activity. In addition, voltage-gated K+ channels are required for G1/S-phase transition of the cell cycle. We report here that suppression of K+ channels prevented the activation of extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase 2 (ERK-2) in response to EGF and serum. However, blockade of K+ channels did not prevent ERK-2 activation induced by 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol 13-acetate (TPA). Elimination of extracellular Ca2+ did not alter either ERK-2 activation or the effect of K+-channel blockade on ERK-2 activation. Our data demonstrate that the K+ channel is a part of the EGF-mediated mitogenic signal-transduction process and is required for initiation of the EGF-mediated mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways. Our findings may thus explain why an increase in K+-channel activity is associated with cell proliferation in many types of cells, including ML-1 cells.
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PMID:A requirement for K+-channel activity in growth factor-mediated extracellular signal-regulated kinase activation in human myeloblastic leukemia ML-1 cells. 1038 6

A new strategy in anticancer gene therapy uses stress-responsive cellular promoters that offer the advantage of enhanced gene expression in a variety of tumors. Although the feasibility of their selective expression has been demonstrated, functional evidence of their ability to activate therapeutic agents within the tumor environment leading to tumor eradication has not been established. Glucose deprivation, chronic anoxia, and acidic pH known to persist in poorly vascularized solid tumors strongly induce the transcription of the glucose-regulated protein 78 (grp78) gene, which encodes an Mr 78,000 stress-inducible protein. In this report, we tested directly the efficacy of the grp78 promoter in a retroviral system to drive the expression of the herpes simplex virus-thymidine kinase (HSVtk) suicide gene, using a murine fibrosarcoma model, in the context of their syngeneic, immunocompetent hosts. Our results showed that under glucose starvation conditions, the expression of HSVTK was enhanced in tumor cells where the HSVtk gene was driven by the internal grp78 promoter, in contrast to the Moloney murine leukemia virus long terminal repeat, where suppression was observed. We further demonstrated that in vivo, HSVTK expression was elevated to much higher levels inside tumors when driven by the internal grp78 promoter, resulting in complete eradication of sizable tumor mass, with no recurrence of tumor growth. Our study suggests that the glucose starvation-inducible grp78 promoter could be useful for enhanced expression of a variety of therapeutic agents within the solid tumor environment.
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PMID:Use of the glucose starvation-inducible glucose-regulated protein 78 promoter in suicide gene therapy of murine fibrosarcoma. 1039 51

Formation of new blood vessels is a prerequisite for outgrowth of solid tumours and metastasis. Leukaemia and lymphoma are also dependent on angiogenesis. Inhibition of angiogenesis is therefore a promising therapy for all cancer types. Angiogenic factors reduce the expression of tumour endothelial adhesion molecules for leukocytes, which enables tumours to escape the inflammation response. Antiangiogenic factors induce not only starvation of the tumour owing to deprivation of vasculature, but also re-expression of adhesion molecules, resulting in increased leukocyte infiltration. On the basis of de novo design of chemokines with antiangiogenic properties, novel inhibitors of angiogenesis are developed and selected for their ability to induce a tumour inflammatory reaction.
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PMID:[Angiogenesis and the regulation of antitumor defense]. 1044 79

Although our understanding of effects of space flight on human physiology has advanced significantly over the past four decades, the potential contribution of stress at the cellular and gene regulation level is not characterized. The objective of this ground-based study was to evaluate stress gene regulation in cells exposed to altered gravity and environmentally suboptimal conditions. We designed primers to detect message for both the constitutive and inducible forms of the heat shock protein, HSP-70. Applying the reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), we probed for HSP-70 message in human acute T-cell leukemia cells, Jurkat, subjected to three types of environmental stressors: (1) altered gravity achieved by centrifugation (hypergravity) and randomization of the gravity vector in rotating bioreactors, (2) serum starvation by culture in medium containing 0.05% serum, and (3) temperature elevation (42 degrees C). Temperature elevation, as the positive control, significantly increased HSP-70 message, while centrifugation and culture in rotating bioreactors did not upregulate heat shock gene expression. We found a fourfold increase in heat shock message in serum-starved cells. Message for the housekeeping genes, actin and cyclophilin, were constant and comparable to unstressed controls for all treatments. We conclude that gravitational perturbations incurred by centrifugal forces, exceeding those characteristic of a Space Shuttle launch (3g), and culture in rotating bioreactors do not upregulate HSP-70 gene expression. In addition, we found RT-PCR useful for evaluating stress in cultured cells.
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PMID:Regulation of heat shock protein message in Jurkat cells cultured under serum-starved and gravity-altered conditions. 1067 23

Gene therapy strategies employing the HSVtk/ganciclovir (GCV) suicide gene offer promising approaches towards the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. These include bystander effects on non-transduced tumor cells, lower systemic toxicity, and the possibility of inducing immunity against the tumor. Previously we have demonstrated the ability of the grp78 stress-inducible promoter to stimulate expression of reporter genes within the tumor microenvironment. However, experimental evidence demonstrating the ability of this promoter to activate therapeutic agents within the breast cancer environment causing tumor eradication is needed prior to clinical trials. In this report, we test the efficacy of the grp78 promoter in a retroviral system to drive the expression of the HSVtk suicide gene in a murine mammary adenocarcinoma cell line (TSA) in syngeneic, immune-competent hosts. Our results show that under glucose-starvation conditions in vitro, the expression of HSVtk and GCV induced cell death are enhanced in tumor cells in which the HSVtk gene is driven by the internal grp78 promoter compared to cells in which the Moloney murine leukemia virus LTR drives HSVtk. In in vivo studies, in tumors in which the HSVtk gene is driven by the grp78 promoter, GCV treatment causes complete tumor eradication, whereas tumors persist when the HSVtk gene is driven by the retroviral LTR. Our study suggests that the grp78 promoter may be useful to enhance the effectivity of therapeutic agents within a breast tumor. In addition, it is shown that immune memory is induced in syngeneic, immune-competent hosts. This new retroviral vector might therefore be useful for breast cancer gene therapy.
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PMID:Eradication of murine mammary adenocarcinoma through HSVtk expression directed by the glucose-starvation inducible grp78 promoter. 1075 83

Though the term apoptosis was originated in pathology and developmental biology as an alternative to necrosis, the tissue necrosis with inflammation is irrelevant to cell culture conditions where apoptosis is mostly studied. Furthermore, no one single morphological feature is either necessary or sufficient to define apoptosis. The emerging biochemical definition, a cell death with caspase activation, allows the distinction of alternative forms of cell death. Thus, inhibition of caspases delays but does not prevent cell death. Slow cell death without caspase activation may nevertheless be associated with DNA fragmentation. Oncogenic Ras, Raf, and mitogen-activated kinases inhibit apoptosis by affecting the cytochrome C/caspase-9 pathway but may arrest growth and cause slow cell death with delayed DNA fragmentation. Such 'slow' cell death without caspase activation is often caused by chemotherapeutic drugs. Whether a cell will undergo apoptosis or slow death depends not only on a chemotherapeutic agent but also on the readiness of cellular caspases. Therefore, one can distinguish apoptosis-prone (eg leukemia) vs apoptosis-resistant cells. Cell susceptibilities to spontaneous, starvation-induced and drug-induced apoptosis are correlated and characterize an apoptosis-prone phenotype. Finally, distinction of slow cell death allows rephrasing of a question regarding the goal of cancer therapy: apoptosis vs slow cell death, or cancer cell-selectivity regardless of the mode of cell death.
Leukemia 2000 Aug
PMID:Cell death beyond apoptosis. 1094 50

Leptin, the product of the ob gene, is a pleiotropic molecule that regulates food intake as well as metabolic and endocrine functions. Leptin also plays a regulatory role in immunity, inflammation, and hematopoiesis. Alterations in immune and inflammatory responses are present in leptin- or leptin-receptor-deficient animals, as well as during starvation and malnutrition, two conditions characterized by low levels of circulating leptin. Both leptin and its receptor share structural and functional similarities with the interleukin-6 family of cytokines. Leptin exerts proliferative and antiapoptotic activities in a variety of cell types, including T lymphocytes, leukemia cells, and hematopoietic progenitors. Leptin also affects cytokine production, the activation of monocytes/macrophages, wound healing, angiogenesis, and hematopoiesis. Moreover, leptin production is acutely increased during infection and inflammation. This review focuses on the role of leptin in the modulation of the innate immune response, inflammation, and hematopoiesis.
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PMID:Leptin in the regulation of immunity, inflammation, and hematopoiesis. 1103 63

Recent experiments suggest an interconnection between cell proliferation and programmed cell death (apoptosis), although the detailed molecular mechanisms remain unclear. We have hypothesized that expression of some apoptosis regulators is cell cycle-dependent, which in turn influences tumor cell chemosensitivity in a cell cycle-dependent fashion. To test these hypotheses, we synchronized human leukemia Jurkat T, Neo (using aphidicolin), breast cancer MCF-7, normal fibroblast, and simian virus 40-transformed cells (by aphidicolin or serum starvation), and measured levels of several Bcl-2 family proteins. The highest expression of Bcl-2 protein was found in the G(1) phase of all the five cell lines tested. In contrast, levels of Bax protein remained relatively unchanged in four of the cell lines, and levels of Bcl-X(L), Bcl-X(S), and Bak proteins showed little or no cell cycle-dependent changes in Jurkat T cells. Similar to the changes in Bcl-2 protein levels, its mRNA expression was also G(1) phase-specific, whereas the level of a Bcl-2 cleavage activity remained constitutive. When treated with an anticancer drug (etoposide or cisplatin) or the kinase inhibitor staurosporin, the cells containing a high G(1) population and a high Bcl-2 protein level were much more resistant to the induced apoptosis than the cells containing a high S phase population and a low Bcl-2 protein level. Constitutive overexpression of Bcl-2 protein in Jurkat T cells completely blocked the S phase-associated sensitivity to these apoptosis stimuli. The cell cycle-dependent Bcl-2 protein expression seems to contribute to the regulation of chemosensitivity and apoptotic commitment of human tumor cells.
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PMID:G(1) phase-dependent expression of bcl-2 mRNA and protein correlates with chemoresistance of human cancer cells. 1104 47

Extracellular ATP suppressed the growth of HL-60 leukemia cells and induced their differentiation as revealed by N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine-induced beta-glucuronidase release. ATP degraded to ADP, AMP, and adenosine, and the effect of ATP on cell growth was mimicked by these metabolites added to the cultures. The stable analog alpha,beta-methylene ATP, however, had only a weak inhibitory effect on cell growth. Adenine nucleotide-induced growth suppression was reversed by uridine, suggesting the involvement of intracellular pyrimidine starvation secondary to adenosine accumulation. Consistent with this, ATP induced intracellular starvation of pyrimidine nucleotides, and this effect was also prevented by pretreatment of cells with uridine. The order of effectiveness of ATP-induced differentiation of HL-60 cells, unlike that for growth suppression, was ATP > ADP > AMP, and adenosine had no effect. Furthermore, uridine had no effect and the stable analog, alpha,beta-methylene ATP also induced HL-60 cell differentiation, suggesting that differentiation was due to ATP per se. We tested the hypothesis that ATP-induced differentiation arises from activation of adenylyl cyclase by the novel P2Y(11) receptor using the cell-permeable inhibitor of protein kinase A, Rp-CPT-cAMPS (8-(4-chlorophenylthio)adenosine-3',5'-cyclic monophosphorothioate, Rp isomer). Rp-CPT-cAMPS (1-100 microM) prevented ATP-induced differentiation of HL-60 cells as assessed by fMLP-induced beta-glucuronidase release. However, Rp-CPT-cAMPS did not prevent ATP-induced growth suppression. Taken together, the data indicate that extracellular ATP suppresses HL-60 growth and induces their differentiation by distinct mechanisms. Growth suppression arises from adenosine generation and consequent pyrimidine starvation. Differentiation arises, at least in part, from a distinct mechanism involving the activation of cell surface P2 receptors coupled to cAMP generation and activation of protein kinase A.
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PMID:Extracellular ATP-dependent suppression of proliferation and induction of differentiation of human HL-60 leukemia cells by distinct mechanisms. 1107 40

Influx of Ca(2+) represents an important regulatory signal in the process of cell proliferation. However, little is known about how Ca(2+) entry changes during the cell-cycle. Patch-clamp experiments and microfluorimetry show that store-operated Ca(2+) entry was substantially reduced in rat basophilic leukaemia cells cultured for 24h under serum-free conditions. Likewise, retinoic acid treatment blocked Ca(2+) influx activated by store depletion via inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate. Both procedures are known to arrest cells at the G0/G1 boundary of the cell-cycle and induced a reduction in 5-bromo 2'-deoxyuridine incorporation into DNA. Ca(2+) release from the stores remained unaltered and two types of K(+) currents were not affected in cells after serum starvation. The specific reduction in Ca(2+) entry was not detected when using aphidicolin, 5-fluorouracil or thymidine to synchronise the cell-cycle. These data suggest that store-operated Ca(2+) influx changed during cell-cycle progression which might have important implications for cell growth.
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PMID:Reduced store-operated Ca(2+) currents in rat basophilic leukaemia cells cultured under serum-free conditions. 1144 Apr 71


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