Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0027960 (mole)
 21,279 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

BRAF mutations result in constitutively active BRAF kinase activity and increased extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling and cell proliferation. Initial studies have shown that BRAF mutations occur at a high frequency in melanocytic nevi and metastatic lesions, but recent data have revealed much lower incidence of these mutations in early-stage melanoma, implying that other factors may contribute to melanoma pathogenesis in a wild-type (WT) BRAF context. To identify such contributing factors, we used microarray gene expression profiling to screen for differences in gene expression between a panel of melanocytic and melanoma cell lines with WT BRAF and a group of melanoma cell lines with the V599E BRAF mutation. We found that SPRY2, an inhibitor homologous to SPRY4, which was previously shown to suppress Ras/ERK signaling via direct binding to Raf-1, had reduced expression in WT BRAF cells. Using small interfering RNA-mediated SPRY2 knockdown, we showed that SPRY2 acts as an inhibitor of ERK signaling in melanocytes and WT BRAF melanoma cells, but not in cell lines with the V599E mutation. We also show that SPRY2 and SPRY4 directly bind WT BRAF but not the V599E and other exon 15 BRAF mutants. These data suggest that SPRY2, an inhibitor of ERK signaling, may be bypassed in melanoma cells either by down-regulation of its expression in WT BRAF cells, or by the presence of the BRAF mutation.
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PMID:SPRY2 is an inhibitor of the ras/extracellular signal-regulated kinase pathway in melanocytes and melanoma cells with wild-type BRAF but not with the V599E mutant. 1531 90

Mutations in the BRAF-gene are found in benign and malignant melanocytic lesions, >90% being a V599E mutation. This mutation results in constitutively active kinase function and increased colony formation in vitro. The biological impact of this mutation in vivo is still debated. To address this question, we used our digital epiluminescence image archive and retrospectively selected 49 melanocytic lesions, which did not meet the criteria of melanoma at the initial presentation. Mean 12 months later these lesions were excised because of increased size or changed structure and BRAF(V599E) mutations were analyzed. Among 36 growing lesions, BRAF(V599E) mutations were found in 16 (11 melanomas and 5 nevi). Among 13 lesions with structural changes, BRAF(V599E) mutations were found in 4 (3 melanomas and 1 nevus). Thirty-five randomly selected additional lesions with no changes during follow-up served as controls, all nevi by histology, and two of them showed a BRAF(V599E) mutation. Statistics revealed odds for the presence of the BRAF(V599E) mutation being seven times higher in lesions with structural changes and 13 times higher in growing lesions as compared with lesions without changes. This raises the question if the V599E mutation determines lesions at risk developing into melanoma and if not, what are the mechanisms controlling growth stop in benign lesions?
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PMID:BRAF kinase gene V599E mutation in growing melanocytic lesions. 1537

Atypical mole syndrome is a sporadic or an inherited condition with an increased risk of melanoma. Germline mutations in the CDKN2A, ARF, CDK4 and somatic mutations in the PTEN and BRAF genes have been associated with melanoma. In this study, we evaluated genes associated with familial and sporadic melanoma for mutations in 28 probands with the atypical mole syndrome. No sequence alterations in the coding regions or in the splice junctions of CDKN2A, ARF, CDK4, PTEN or BRAF were identified. These data suggest that genes evaluated in this study are unlikely to be candidate genes for atypical mole syndrome and support the notion that unknown susceptibility gene/s for this disease exist.
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PMID:Evaluation of germline CDKN2A, ARF, CDK4, PTEN, and BRAF alterations in atypical mole syndrome. 1566 8

Melanoma is the most lethal form of skin cancer, and the incidence and mortality rates are rapidly rising. Epidemiologically, high numbers of nevi (moles) are associated with higher risk of melanoma . The majority of melanomas exhibit activating mutations in the serine/threonine kinase BRAF . BRAF mutations may be critical for the initiation of melanoma ; however, the direct role of BRAF in nevi and melanoma has not been tested in an animal model. To directly test the role of activated BRAF in nevus and melanoma development, we have generated transgenic zebrafish expressing the most common BRAF mutant form (V600E) under the control of the melanocyte mitfa promoter. Expression of mutant, but not wild-type, BRAF led to dramatic patches of ectopic melanocytes, which we have termed fish (f)-nevi. Remarkably, in p53-deficient fish, activated BRAF induced formation of melanocyte lesions that rapidly developed into invasive melanomas, which resembled human melanomas and could be serially transplanted. These data provide direct evidence that BRAF activation is sufficient for f-nevus formation, that BRAF activation is among the primary events in melanoma development, and that the p53 and BRAF pathways interact genetically to produce melanoma.
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PMID:BRAF mutations are sufficient to promote nevi formation and cooperate with p53 in the genesis of melanoma. 1569 9

Somatic mutations of BRAF have been identified in both melanoma tumors and benign nevi. Germ line mutations in BRAF have not been identified as causal in families predisposed to melanoma. However, a recent study suggested that a BRAF haplotype was associated with risk of sporadic melanoma in men. Polymorphisms or other variants in the BRAF gene may therefore act as candidate low-penetrance genes for nevus/melanoma susceptibility. We hypothesized that promoter variants would be the most likely candidates for determinants of risk. Using denaturing high-pressure liquid chromatography and sequencing, we screened peripheral blood DNA from 184 familial melanoma cases for BRAF promoter variants. We identified a promoter insertion/deletion in linkage disequilibrium with the previously described BRAF polymorphism in intron 11 (rs1639679) reported to be associated with melanoma susceptibility in males. We therefore investigated the contribution of this BRAF polymorphism to melanoma susceptibility in 581 consecutively recruited incident cases, 258 incident cases in a study of late relapse, 673 female general practitioner controls, and the 184 familial cases. We found no statistically significant difference in either genotype or allele frequencies between cases and controls overall or between male and female cases for the BRAF polymorphism in the two incident case series. Our results therefore suggest that the BRAF polymorphism is not significantly associated with melanoma and the promoter insertion/deletion linked with the polymorphism is not a causal variant. In addition, we found that there was no association between the BRAF genotype and mean total number of banal or atypical nevi in either the cases or controls.
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PMID:No Evidence for BRAF as a melanoma/nevus susceptibility gene. 1582 63

An activating mutation in codon 599 of BRAF has been identified in approximately 60% of human cutaneous nevi and melanomas, but not melanomas of mucosal origin. The purpose of this study was to determine if BRAF mutations occur in canine oral malignant melanomas. The canine BRAF gene was first cloned from normal canine testicular cDNA, and a novel previously unreported splice variant involving exon 5 was identified during this process. To screen canine melanoma samples for BRAF mutation in codon 599, cDNA and genomic DNA were isolated from canine malignant melanoma cell lines and primary tumor samples respectively, all from cases seen at the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at the University of California, Davis. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed for exon 15 using primers based at the 5' end of exon 15 and the 5' end of intron 15 and the resultant products were directly sequenced. No mutations in codon 599 or exon 15 were identified in any of the 17 samples evaluated. However, all of the melanoma cell lines expressed BRAF and demonstrated high levels of basal ERK phosphorylation suggesting that dysregulation of this pathway is present. Therefore, similar to the case with human mucosal melanomas, canine oral malignant melanomas do not possess codon 599 BRAF mutations commonly identified in human cutaneous melanomas. This finding supports the notion that melanomas arising from non-sun-exposed sites exhibit distinct mechanisms of molecular transformation.
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PMID:Exon 15 BRAF mutations are uncommon in canine oral malignant melanomas. 1583 38

Somatic mutations of the BRAF gene are common in melanomas and nevi but the contribution of polymorphisms in this gene to melanoma or nevus susceptibility remains unclear. An Australian melanoma case-control sample was typed for 16 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) within the BRAF gene, and five SNP in three neighboring genes. The sample comprised 755 melanoma cases from 740 families stratified by family history of melanoma and controls from 635 unselected twin families (2,239 individuals). Ancestry of the cases and controls was recorded, and the twins had undergone skin examination to assess total body nevus count, degree of freckling, and pigmentation phenotype. Genotyping was carried out via primer extension followed by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry. SNP in the BRAF gene were found to be weakly associated with melanoma status but not with development of nevi or freckles. The estimated proportion of attributable risk of melanoma due to variants in BRAF is 1.6%. This study shows that BRAF polymorphisms predispose to melanoma but the causal variant has yet to be determined. The burden of disease associated with this variant is greater than that associated with the major melanoma susceptibility locus CDKN2A, which has an estimated attributable risk of 0.2%.
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PMID:BRAF polymorphisms and risk of melanocytic neoplasia. 1635 96

The mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) extracellular signal-regulated kinase signaling pathway can be activated through mutations of V-RAF murine sarcoma viral oncogene homolog B1 (BRAF) oncogene, frequently found in melanoma (60%), common nevi (CN) (73-82%), and atypical nevi (AN) (52-80%). MAPK activation has been reported between 0 and 22% in nevi, and 86% of primary melanoma, without any knowledge of BRAF mutational status. We studied the correlation of MAPK activation status, BRAF mutation, and B-Raf expression in CN, AN, and melanoma. Using immunohistochemistry, phosphorylated (active) MAPK and B-Raf expression was studied in 24 CN, 21 AN, and 26 primary cutaneous melanomas (PM). BRAF mutations at codon 600 were assessed by PCR-RFLP. Active MAPK was detected in 29% of CN, 48% of AN, and 85% of PM. BRAF mutation was found in 67% of CN, 62% of AN, and 58% of PM. In all, 23% of CN, 54% of AN, and 93% of PM with BRAF mutation have activated MAPK. All lesions expressed B-Raf. BRAF mutation does not seem to be sufficient to produce MAPK activation in melanocytic nevi, and it is suggested that other events are needed to induce MAPK activation, that is, B-Raf overexpression, inhibition of MAPK phosphatases, or suppression of RAF kinase inhibitors.
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PMID:Lack of association between BRAF mutation and MAPK ERK activation in melanocytic nevi. 1641 32

To investigate whether the frequency of the BRAF(V600E) (V-raf murine sarcoma virus oncogene homolog B1) mutation in melanocytic nevi is associated with sun exposure patterns, we examined 120 acquired melanocytic nevi excised from various anatomic sites, including glabrous skin, as well as 62 congenital nevi. We used a new mutation detection system based on the shifted termination assay, called Mutector, which was able to detect only 5% of heterozygous mutant cells within the samples. We detected the mutation in 105/120 (87.5%) acquired nevi and 43/62 (69.4%) congenital nevi. Notably, we found the mutation in 35/43 (81.4%) acquired nevi excised from glabrous skin and genitalia. These results strongly suggest that UV light is not necessarily required for the acquisition of the BRAF(V600E) mutation, and suggest that non-mutagenic effects of UV light to melanocytes may be more important in the nevogenesis. Additionally, we showed heterogeneous distribution of BRAF-mutated cells within the lesions of small congenital nevi by a combination of laser microdissection and direct sequencing. Finally, we found low frequency of BRAF(V600E) mutation (6/20, 30.0%) in medium-sized congenital nevi. Most of these nevi with wild-type BRAF had neroblastoma ras viral oncogene homolog mutations (9/14, 64.3%), suggesting different pathogenesis of medium-sized congenital nevi from acquired nevi and small congenital nevi.
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PMID:High frequency of BRAFV600E mutation in acquired nevi and small congenital nevi, but low frequency of mutation in medium-sized congenital nevi. 1669 Nov 93

In the last decade, significant progress has been made in our understanding of the genetic alterations in melanocytic tumors. The most exciting finding is the discovery of oncogenic BRAF mutations in both malignant melanoma and melanocytic nevi. This finding indicates that activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway may be a critical initiating step of melanocytic neoplasia, and that the fundamental difference between melanoma and nevi may lie in the inhibitory machinery for this oncogenic signaling. In addition, different genetic alterations identified in melanomas at different sites and with different levels of sun exposure have been shown, indicating that there are several distinct genetic pathways in the development of melanoma. Different patterns of genetic alterations have also been identified among different kinds of melanocytic nevi. While acquired nevi and small congenital nevi show a high frequency of BRAF mutations regardless of their anatomic localization, the mutations were rare in medium-sized congenital nevi and giant congenital nevi. Spitz nevi show no BRAF mutations, while a subset of cases show HRAS mutations, often associated with a copy number increase of chromosome 11p. The clear differences in genetic aberration patterns have significant clinical implications in the diagnosis and treatment of melanocytic tumors.
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PMID:Genetic alterations in melanocytic tumors. 1675 Jun 12


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