Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0027819 (neuroblastoma)
 27,800 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The amounts of messenger RNA for three enzymes, namely guanosine triphosphate (GTP) cyclohydrolase 1,6-pyruvoyltetrahydropterin synthase, and sepiapterin reductase, all of which are involved in the de novo biosynthesis of (6R)-L-erythrodihydroxypropyl-2-amino-4-hydroxy-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro pteridine (BH4) from GTP, were measured quantitatively in murine neuroblastoma cell line N1E-115 by the competitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique after reverse transcription using a heterologous DNA fragment as an internal standard. Twenty-four hour activation of this cell line with 1 microg/ml lipopolysaccharide resulted in statistically significant increases in the amounts of the messages of all three enzymes. Our data suggest that lipopolysaccharide can activate the intrinsic pathway resulting in the enhanced gene expression of these three enzymes in neuron-derived cells such as N1E-115.
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PMID:Effect of lipopolysaccharide on the gene expression of the enzymes involved in tetrahydrobiopterin de novo biosynthesis in murine neuroblastoma cell line N1E-115. 946 45

Abnormal accumulation of alpha-synuclein in Lewy bodies is a neuropathological hallmark of both sporadic and familial Parkinson's disease (PD). Although mutations in alpha-synuclein have been identified in autosomal dominant PD, the mechanism by which dopaminergic cell death occurs remains unknown. We investigated transcriptional changes in neuroblastoma cell lines transfected with either normal or mutant (A30P or A53T) alpha-synuclein using microarrays, with confirmation of selected genes by quantitative RT-PCR. Gene products whose expression was found to be significantly altered included members of diverse functional groups such as stress response, transcription regulators, apoptosis-inducing molecules, transcription factors and membrane-bound proteins. We also found evidence of altered expression of dihydropteridine reductase, which indirectly regulates the synthesis of dopamine. Because of the importance of dopamine in PD, we investigated the expression of all the known genes in dopamine synthesis. We found co-ordinated downregulation of mRNA for GTP cyclohydrolase, sepiapterin reductase (SR), tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and aromatic acid decarboxylase by wild-type but not mutant alpha-synuclein. These were confirmed at the protein level for SR and TH. Reduced expression of the orphan nuclear receptor Nurr1 was also noted, suggesting that the co-ordinate regulation of dopamine synthesis is regulated through this transcription factor.
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PMID:Co-ordinate transcriptional regulation of dopamine synthesis genes by alpha-synuclein in human neuroblastoma cell lines. 1271 27

Neuroblastoma (NB) is a tumor arising from the sympathetic nervous system during infancy and early childhood. High-risk patients who relapse often fail to respond to further therapy, which results in 5-year survival rate for this patient group below 5%. Therefore, there continues to be an urgent need for innovative treatments. Recently, we found that sulfasalazine (SSZ), an FDA-approved drug for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and ulcerative colitis induces anti-proliferative effects in NB tumor cells. SSZ was recently shown to inhibit sepiapterin reductase (SPR), a key enzyme that produces tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) in the nitric oxide (NO) pathway. Here we tested SSZ against purified SPR in vitro, measured the anti-proliferative effect of SSZ on a panel of MYCN amplified and MYCN non-amplified NB cell lines, and assessed the anti-tumor effect of SSZ in NB tumor-xenografted mice. We found that the expression of both SPR mRNA and SPR protein was significantly higher in cell lines without MYCN amplification. SSZ inhibited SPR enzyme activity in vitro and exhibits anti-proliferative activity in a large number of NB cell lines derived from high-risk tumors. Importantly, oral/intraperitoneal (i.p.) SSZ co-administration resulted in measureable anti-tumor effects in vivo. The FDA-approved drug SSZ, a well-tolerated drug in clinical use, could be repositioned to inhibit tumor growth in NB.
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PMID:Anti-tumor effect of sulfasalazine in neuroblastoma. 3063 62