Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0027651 (tumor)
 685,946 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Accelerated cellular repopulation has been described as a response of tumors to fractionated irradiation in both normal tissue and tumor systems. To identify the mechanisms by which cells enhance their proliferative rate in response to clinically used doses of ionizing radiation (IR) we have studied human mammary and squamous carcinoma cells which are autocrine growth regulated by the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and its ligands, transforming growth factor-alpha and EGF. Both EGF and IR induced EGFR autophosphorylation, comparable levels of phospholipase C gamma activation as measured by inositol-1,4,5-triphosphate production, and as a consequence oscillations in cytosolic [Ca2+]. Activities of Raf-1 and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) were also stimulated by EGF and IR by Ca(2+)-dependent mechanisms. All these responses to EGF and IR were dependent upon activation of EGFR as judged by the use of the specific inhibitor of EGFR autophosphorylation, tyrphostin AG1478. Importantly, IR-induced proliferation of A431 cells was also inhibited by AG1478. This is the first report which demonstrates a link between IR-induced activation of proliferative signal transduction pathways and enhanced proliferation. We propose that accelerated repopulation of tumors whose growth is regulated by EGFR is initiated by an IR-induced EGFR activation mechanism that mimics the effects of growth factors.
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PMID:Radiation-induced proliferation of the human A431 squamous carcinoma cells is dependent on EGFR tyrosine phosphorylation. 929 12

We have studied the effects of olomoucine, a selective inhibitor of cdk2, cdc2 and MAP kinase, on the rate of proliferation and the cell cycle progression in human cancer cells in culture. Olomoucine inhibited the growth of the KB 3-1, MDA-MB-231 and Evsa-T cell lines in a concentration-dependent manner, with EC50 values of 45, 75 and 85 microM, respectively. Incubation of exponentially growing KB 3-1 cells in the presence of olomoucine led to an increased proportion of cells in G1 phase after 24 h or more of incubation. Olomoucine failed to rapidly affect the phosphorylation of the Rb tumor-supressor gene product. However, [3H]thymidine incorporation into the cell DNA was rapidly inhibited. We show that this inhibition is due, at least in part, to the diminution of thymidine entry into the cells. Surprisingly, all these cell lines, when synchronized at the G1/S interface and relaxed in the presence of olomoucine, progressed unhindered through the S phase. Under these conditions, the G2 phase transit was markedly retarded but not prevented. Insufficient permeability of the cell membrane to olomoucine may explain the low activity of the drug.
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PMID:Effects of olomoucine, a selective inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinases, on cell cycle progression in human cancer cell lines. 930 May 78

The human insulin receptor substrate-1 (hIRS-1) is a key intracellular protein involved in various cytokine signaling pathways associated with cell growth. We have previously demonstrated that stable transfection and overexpression of hIRS-1 in human hepatoblastoma cells in vitro leads to the constitutive activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade. In this setting, hIRS-1 acts as a dominant oncogene and will induce neoplastic transformation of NIH 3T3 cells. In the present study, the biologic effects of hIRS-1 overexpression in the liver was analyzed using both clinical tumor samples and a newly developed transgenic mouse model. We have found that approximately 40% of 22 human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumors had enhanced (>200%) hIRS-1 gene expression compared with adjacent non-involved liver tissue. There was a significant relationship between the level of hIRS-1 overexpression and the tumor size; this finding suggests a possible role for hIRS-1 in tumor progression. To determine if downstream signal transduction cascades were activated by overexpression of hIRS-1 in hepatocytes, we established a transgenic mouse model using an hIRS-1 construct driven by an albumin promoter/enhancer element to direct liver specific expression. The overexpressed hIRS-1 protein was found to be tyrosyl phosphorylated and interacted with downstream SH2-containing molecules such as the p85 subunit of phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K), Grb2 adaptor, and SHP2 phosphatase proteins. The functional consequences of hIRS-1 overexpression were reflected by constitutive activation of both the MAPK and PI3K signal transduction cascades. More important, overexpression of hIRS-1 in the transgenic liver led to increased hepatocyte DNA synthesis. Our findings indicate that hIRS-1 overexpression induces downstream signaling molecules associated with hepatocyte growth and may potentially enhance tumor progression of HCC.
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PMID:Biological effects of human insulin receptor substrate-1 overexpression in hepatocytes. 930 88

RAS controls at least two signaling pathways, one regulating extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) activation and the other controlling membrane ruffling formation. Activating RAS mutations are commonly found in human tumors, making RAS and its downstream signaling pathways important targets for tumor therapeutics. We have developed a reporter-gene based assay system, utilizing transformation sensitive alpha-actin promoter, to identify compounds that inhibit the transforming activity of RAS either directly or indirectly. SCH51344 is a pyrazolo-quinoline derivative, identified based on its ability to depreprses alpha-actin promoter in RAS-transformed cells and shown to be a potent inhibitor of RAS-transformation. However, this compound had very little effect on the activities of the proteins in the ERK pathway, suggesting that it inhibits RAS-transformation by a novel mechanism and acts on a signaling pathway distinct from ERK pathway. Recently, in collaboration with Dr. Dafna Bar-Sagi's group, we have shown that SCH51344 inhibits membrane ruffling induced by activated forms of H-RAS, K-RAS, N-RAS and RAC. Treatment of fibroblast cells with this compound had very little effect on RAS-mediated activation of ERK and Jun kinase activities. Our results indicate that SCH51344 inhibits a critical component of the membrane ruffling pathway downstream from RAC and suggest that targeting the membrane ruffling pathway may be an effective approach to inhibit transformation by RAS.
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PMID:[Inhibition of RAS-transformation by SCH51344]. 930 48

Many of the actions of serine/threonine kinase receptors for the transforming growth factor-beta (TGFbeta) are mediated by DPC4, a human MAD-related protein identified as a tumor suppressor gene in pancreatic carcinoma. Overexpression of DPC4 is sufficient to induce the activation of gene expression and cell cycle arrest, characteristic of the TGFbeta response. The stress-activated protein kinase/c-Jun N-terminal kinase (SAPK/JNK) is also one of the downstream targets required for TGFbeta-mediated signaling. Here we report that expression of the dominant-interfering mutant of various components of the SAPK/JNK cascade specifically blocked both TGFbeta and DPC4-induced gene expression. These dominant-interfering mutants also inhibited TGFbeta-stimulated DPC4 transcriptional activity. Moreover, we find that overexpression of DPC4 causes transfected cells to undergo the morphological changes typical of apoptosis. These findings define a mechanism whereby TGFbeta signals mediated by DPC4 and SAPK/JNK cascade are integrated in the nucleus to activate gene expression and identify a new cellular function for DPC4.
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PMID:Induction of apoptosis by DPC4, a transcriptional factor regulated by transforming growth factor-beta through stress-activated protein kinase/c-Jun N-terminal kinase (SAPK/JNK) signaling pathway. 931 63

Mitogen-activated protein kinases function in signal transduction pathways that are involved in controlling key cellular processes in many organisms. A mammalian member of this kinase family, MKK4/JNKK1/SEK1, has been reported to link upstream MEKK1 to downstream stress-activated protein kinase/JNK1 and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase. This mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway has been implicated in the signal transduction of cytokine- and stress-induced apoptosis in a variety of cell types. Here, we report that two human tumor cell lines, derived from pancreatic carcinoma and lung carcinoma, harbor homozygous deletions that eliminate coding portions of the MKK4 locus at 17p, located approximately 10 cM centromeric of p53. In addition, in a set of 88 human cancer cell lines prescreened for loss of heterozygosity, we detected two nonsense and three missense sequence variants of MKK4 in cancer cell lines derived from human pancreatic, breast, colon, and testis cells. In vitro biochemical assays revealed that, when stimulated by MEKK1, four of the five altered MKK4 proteins lacked the ability to phosphorylate stress-activated protein kinase. Thus, the incidence of coding mutations of MKK4 in the set of cell lines is 6 of 213 (approximately 3%). These findings suggest that MKK4 may function as a suppressor of tumorigenesis or metastasis in certain types of cells.
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PMID:Human mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 4 as a candidate tumor suppressor. 933 Oct 70

Tumor angiogenesis, the development of new blood vessels, is a highly regulated process that is controlled genetically by alterations in oncogene and tumor suppressor gene expression and physiologically by the tumor microenvironment. Previous studies indicate that the angiogenic switch in Ras-transformed cells may be physiologically promoted by the tumor microenvironment through the induction of the angiogenic mitogen, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). In this report, we show Ras-transformed cells do not use the downstream effectors c-Raf-1 or mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPK) in signaling VEGF induction by hypoxia as overexpression of kinase-defective alleles of these genes does not inhibit VEGF induction under low oxygen conditions. In contrast to the c-Raf-1/MAP kinase pathway, hypoxia increases phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase) activity in a Ras-dependent manner, and inhibition of PI 3-kinase activity genetically and pharmacologically results in inhibition of VEGF induction. We propose that hypoxia modulates VEGF induction in Ras-transformed cells through the activation of a stress inducible PI 3-kinase/Akt pathway and the hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) transcriptional response element.
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PMID:Induction of vascular endothelial growth factor by hypoxia is modulated by a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt signaling pathway in Ha-ras-transformed cells through a hypoxia inducible factor-1 transcriptional element. 934 14

Mutation or loss of function of the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumor suppressor gene is regularly found in sporadic renal cell carcinomas (RCC), well vascularized malignant tumors that characteristically overexpress vascular permeability factor/vascular endothelial growth factor (VPF/VEGF). The wild-type VHL (wt-VHL) gene product acts to suppress VPF/VEGF expression, which is overexpressed when wt-VHL is inactive. The present study investigated the pathways by which VHL regulates VPF/VEGF expression. We found that inhibition of protein kinase C (PKC) represses VPF/VEGF expression in RCC cells that regularly overexpress VPF/VEGF. The wt-VHL expressed by stably transfected RCC cells forms cytoplasmic complexes with two specific PKC isoforms, zeta and delta, and prevents their translocation to the cell membrane where they otherwise would engage in signaling steps that lead to VPF/VEGF overexpression. Other experiments implicated mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) phosphorylation as a downstream step in PKC regulation of VPF/VEGF expression. Taken together, these data demonstrate that wt-VHL, by neutralizing PKC isoforms zeta and delta and thereby inhibiting MAPK activation, plays an important role in preventing aberrant VPF/VEGF overexpression and the angiogenesis that results from such overexpression.
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PMID:The von Hippel-Lindau gene product inhibits vascular permeability factor/vascular endothelial growth factor expression in renal cell carcinoma by blocking protein kinase C pathways. 934 79

The exact mechanisms for the selective toxicity of chemotherapeutic drugs against tumor cells are not fully understood. We designed a series of experiments to test the possibility that the positive proliferative signal initiated by oncogenes might change the sensitivity for apoptosis induction by the anticancer drug etoposide (VP16), an inhibitor of topoisomerase II (Topo II). Treatment with VP16 induced significantly increased apoptosis in NIH3T3 cells transformed by oncogenic src, ras or raf, compared with the normal 3T3 cells. Apopototic changes involved nuclear DNA fragmentation, morphological alterations and decreased viability. Furthermore it was shown that stress-activated protein kinase (SAPK) was activated much more strongly in all three transformed lines compared to untransformed cells by VP16 treatment, while slight activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK1) was observed in all four cell lines. In addition, the transformed cells displayed arrest in mid-S-phase following the treatment, whereas NIH3T3 cells were primarily arrested in late S and G2/M phase. Finally, the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21 WAF1 was induced in all four cell lines, although induction of p53 was not detected in any of these cell lines. Taken together our results demonstrated that oncogenic transformation can sensitize the cells to apoptosis induction, stress kinase activation and cell cycle arrest in response to VP16 treatment. These results may have important implications for understanding the selective toxicity of anti-cancer drugs in tumor cells.
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PMID:Oncogenic transformation potentiates apoptosis, S-phase arrest and stress-kinase activation by etoposide. 934 97

Ribonucleotide reductase is a highly regulated, cell cycle-controlled activity that plays an important role in DNA synthesis and repair. Recent studies have shown that elevated expression of the rate-limiting R2 component of ribonucleotide reductase increases Raf-1 protein activation and mitogen-activated protein kinase activity and acts as a novel malignancy determinant in cooperation with activated oncogenes like H-ras. We show that hydroxyurea-resistant mouse L cells with elevated R2 gene expression and increased ribonucleotide reductase activity exhibit significantly decreased sensitivities to the chemotherapeutic compounds N-(phosphonacetyl)-L-aspartate (PALA) and methotrexate (MTX). Furthermore, BALB/c 3T3 cells containing a retroviral expression vector encoding the R2 sequence also showed decreased sensitivity to PALA and MTX when compared to cells containing the same vector but without the R2 coding region. Colonies that developed in the presence of PALA or MTX contained amplifications of the CAD or dihydrofolate reductase genes and exhibited wild-type p53 function as determined in sequence-specific p53 binding activity assays. NIH-3T3 cells containing the R2 retroviral expression vector also showed significantly decreased sensitivity to hydroxyurea and MTX but not to PALA. Furthermore, NIH-3T3 cells transfected with a vector containing the R2 sequence in antisense orientation exhibited increased sensitivity to hydroxyurea, PALA, and MTX. Similarly, mouse 10T1/2 cells that are highly transformed and drug resistant due to alterations in H-ras and a mutant oncogenic form of p53 exhibited significant increases in sensitivity to hydroxyurea, PALA, and MTX when transfected with a vector containing the R2 sequence in antisense orientation and compared to cells containing the same vector without the antisense sequence. These results indicate that altered expression of the R2 component is capable of significantly modifying drug sensitivity properties of tumor cells. We hypothesize that this occurs, at least in part, through a mechanism of increased genetic instability that is independent of direct p53 mutation or loss and involves R2 stimulation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase signal pathway.
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PMID:Ribonucleotide reductase R2 gene expression and changes in drug sensitivity and genome stability. 935 52


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