Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0079731 (B-cell lymphoma)
 16,671 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The t(14;18) translocation is found in the majority follicular lymphomas and some high grade B-cell lymphomas. This is results in deregulation of the BCL-2 gene and appears to play a role in oncogenesis. Various numbers of cells from a cell line derived spontaneously from a patient with B-cell lymphoma bearing the t(14;18) translocation and negative for the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) were injected by IP, IV, and SC routes into SCID mice. The mice developed lymphoma bearing the t(14;18) translocation with as few as 5 x 10(6) cells within 28 days. This was determined by histological examination. The higher the cell inoculation the more rapidly the lymphoma developed. Engraftment of the tumour cells was determined by PCR for the t(14;18) breakpoint region on peripheral blood samples and could be detected prior to development of overt lymphoma. Having established a lymphoma model the cells were treated with antisense oligonucleotides to the first open reading frame of the BCL-2 gene prior to inoculation of the SCID mice. Control treatments with sense and nonsense oligonucleotides was also performed. At 28 days the sense, nonsense and untreated cell SCID mice had developed lymphoma, however, the antisense treated group failed to develop lymphoma. The findings demonstrate the modelling of B-cell lymphoma bearing the t(14;18) translocation and the ability to modify the lymphoma process with the use of antisense oligonucleotides to the BCL-2 gene. Reduction of the BCL2 protein suppresses the oncogenic potential of these lymphoma cells confirming that it plays an essential role in the development of malignancy.
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PMID:Antisense oligonucleotides suppress B-cell lymphoma growth in a SCID-hu mouse model. 808 13

B cell dysfunction associated with HIV infection includes polyclonal B cell activation and hypergammaglobulinemia. There is also an elevated frequency of B cell malignancies, especially non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, in HIV infection. It is believed that chronic polyclonal activation of B cells might increase the chances for the occurrence of a genetic accident, resulting in tumorigenesis. Long-term zidovudine use in people with HIV infection has been reported to be associated with a particularly high incidence of B cell lymphoma. This may be due to an increase in life span associated with antiretroviral treatment, placing treated individuals at risk for developing lymphoma for a greater period of time. However, zidovudine could be directly contributing to lymphoma-genesis in HIV-infected individuals, perhaps by enhancing B cell activation, since B cell hyperactivation and elevated levels of IL-6, a B cell stimulatory cytokine, are seen in HIV infection. Also, people treated with zidovudine may inherently be at higher risk for developing lymphoma because of the relatively greater degree of immune impairment seen in those that receive treatment with this drug. To examine if exposure to zidovudine resulted in enhanced B cell activation, we determined whether or not the presence of zidovudine enhanced B cell activation or IL-6 production in vitro or in vivo. Exposure to zidovudine in vitro did not enhance spontaneous immunoglobulin or IL-6 secretion by cells from HIV-infected (or uninfected) subjects and did not enhance B cell activation induced by EBV or affect the ability of T cells to regulate EBV-activated B cells. Neither serum immunoglobulin or IL-6 levels, nor the expression of cell surface activation markers on circulating B cells, were seen to increase following zidovudine treatment. These results indicate that zidovudine does not induce B cell activation in vivo or in vitro, suggesting that zidovudine treatment does not contribute to lymphomagenesis by enhancing B cell hyperstimulation.
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PMID:Effects of zidovudine on B lymphocyte activation. 808 61

Programmed cell death (PCD) or apoptosis is a common form of cellular demise during embryogenesis, tumorigenesis and clonal selection in the immune system. The bcl-2 proto-oncogene has been recently implicated as a potential physiological regulator of the PCD pathway. Gene transfer studies have shown that overexpression of bcl-2 blocks apoptosis mediated by several stimuli in cultured cell lines and promotes the survival of B and T lymphocytes in transgenic mice. However, it remains unclear whether under normal conditions bcl-2 is responsible for controlling cell death. We have investigated the role of bcl-2 in the antimembrane IgM (mIgM)-induced apoptotic death of WEHI-231 B cell lymphoma, a model that mimics clonal deletion of immature B cells by antigen. Signalling of mIgM receptors triggered downregulation of both bcl-2 RNA and protein, and induced apoptosis in WEHI-231 B cells. This effect appeared to be specific since (i) the levels of beta 2-microglobulin and beta-actin RNA remain unchanged and (ii) signalling of the apoptosis-resistant B cell lymphoma line BAL-17 with anti-mu was not associated with downregulation of bcl-2 RNA. However, stable expression of bcl-2 by transfection did not rescue WEHI-231 B cells from apoptosis, yet WEHI-231 cells overexpressing bcl-2 were more resistant to programmed cell death induced by heat-shock.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Programmed cell death by bcl-2-dependent and independent mechanisms in B lymphoma cells. 846 5

We recently found that the 120-kD protein product of the c-cbl oncogene is tyrosine phosphorylated in tumor cells generated by bcr-abl or v-abl and that p120cbl will associate with these proteins in vivo. We also found an oncogenic form of cbl protein in the 70Z/3 pre-B cell lymphoma which exhibits deregulated tyrosine phosphorylation. These findings have led us to broaden our study of cbl's involvement in abl-mediated tumorigenesis. Here we show by immunodepletion that cbl is the major 120-kD tyrosine phosphorylated protein in cells which express activated forms of the abl oncogene. We also demonstrate that tyrosine phosphorylation of pl20cbl in bcr-abl transformed cells does not alter its subcellular localization. In addition we show that the oncogenic 7OZ/3 form of cbl exhibits enhanced tyrosine phosphorylation in v-abl infected cells and that cbl is heavily tyrosine phosphorylated in hemopoietic cells transformed by v-src. Finally this study identifies two sites that are essential for the tyrosine phosphorylation of cbl in abl-transformed cells. These sites conform to the preferred abl kinase substrate sequence of YXXP and we show that following phosphorylation they mediate an association with the crkL SH2 domain.
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PMID:The two major sites of cbl tyrosine phosphorylation in abl-transformed cells select the crkL SH2 domain. 864 59

The product of the retinoblastoma tumor-suppressor gene (pRB), a nuclear phosphoprotein that regulates transcription factors such as E2F, is involved in cell cycle control and differentiation. Its activity is regulated by phosphorylation; the underphosphorylated form inhibits transcription whereas the highly phosphorylated form is inactive. Cyclin D1 and its associated kinase (CDK 4/6) phosphorylate pRB in vitro, and therefore are thought to contribute to the regulation of pRB function. To examine the effect of cyclin D1 overexpression on pRB in primary tumor tissue, we studied pRB expression in low-grade B-cell neoplasms, with particular regard to mantle cell lymphoma, which is characterized by cyclin D1 (bcl-1) overexpression. pRB expression was studied by immunostaining with a well-characterized anti-pRB antibody; the phosphorylation status of pRB was examined by immunoblots; and the functional binding capacity of pRB was examined by in vitro binding to adenovirus E1A protein. We studied 3 reactive lymph nodes, 28 low grade B-cell lymphomas, 4 cases of hairy cell leukemia (HCL) and 3 plasmacytomas. Reactive lymph nodes showed intense pRB staining of germinal centers, with strongest (2+) staining in the large cells (centroblasts) of the proliferating (dark) zone and weak or no staining of small lymphocytes, including those of the mantle zone. In B-chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) (4 cases), follicular lymphoma (3 cases) and mucosa-associated (MALT) lymphoma (3 cases) strong (2+) pRB staining was limited to centroblasts in reactive and neoplastic follicles and occasional proliferation centers, with only faint staining of small lymphoid cells. In contrast, 15 of 16 cases of mantle cell lymphoma showed strong (1-2+) staining of most cells; one blastoid mantle cell lymphoma showed only faint pRB staining. All cases of (HCL) and plasmacytoma showed strong pRB staining. Although most lymphomas with strong pRB expression were cyclin D1(+), three cyclin D1(+) cases showed only weak pRB expression (1 B-CLL, 1 blastoid mantle cell, 1 unclassifiable low grade B-cell lymphoma). Conversely, of the 4 pRB(+) HCLs and 3 pRB(+) plasmacytomas, only 1 of each was cyclin D1(+). pRB appeared to exist primarily in the underphosphorylated (fastest migrating) form on Western blot, despite the fact that cyclin D1 was complexed to CDK4, a form in which it normally phosphorylates pRB. In addition, pRB appeared to be unmutated, because it bound normally to the adenovirus E1A protein and showed nuclear localization by immunostaining. We conclude that most cases of mantle cell lymphoma, HCL, and plasmacytoma show high levels of pRB in contrast to follicle center lymphoma and small lymphocytic lymphoma; however, pRB expression does not appear to be consistently related to cyclin D1 overexpression. The pRB appears to be unmutated and underphosphorylated, and therefore should be in its active form. Our data from primary lymphoma tissue suggests that overexpression of cyclin D1, whereas tumorigenic, does not lead to pRB loss or hyperphosporylation. Thus, the mechanism by which cyclin D1 contributes to tumorigenesis and the significance of the restricted expression of pRB in low-grade lymphoid neoplasms remain to be determined.
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PMID:Expression of the retinoblastoma protein in low-grade B-cell lymphoma: relationship to cyclin D1. 870 83

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) latency C promoter drives expression of a family of viral proteins commonly targeted by CD8 cytotoxic T cells. These proteins are not generally expressed in African Burkitt's lymphoma and in EBV-associated Hodgkin's disease. The failure to express these proteins is almost certainly an important factor in the evasion of immunosurveillance by EBV-associated tumors. In a previous study, we have shown that transcriptional activation of the C promoter is inhibited by methylation of a particular CpG site upstream of the promoter that prevents binding of a cellular protein (CBF2), and we have shown that this and adjacent CpG sites are methylated in a Burkitt's lymphoma cell line. In the present study, we show that CpG sites in the CBF2 binding region are predominantly methylated in African Burkitt's lymphoma and in EBV-associated Hodgkin's disease. In addition, we present the first direct evidence that the C promoter is transcriptionally silent in Burkitt's lymphoma. In contrast, we show a complete absence of methylation in the CBF2 binding region in a case of reversible EBV-associated B-cell lymphoma arising in an immunocompromised patient whose tumor shows C promoter transcriptional activity. By inhibiting expression of highly antigenic viral proteins, methylation of transcriptional control sequences may veil the presence of virus in tumor tissue from CD8(+) cytotoxic T-cell immune surveillance and thus facilitate viral tumorigenesis.
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PMID:CpG methylation of the major Epstein-Barr virus latency promoter in Burkitt's lymphoma and Hodgkin's disease. 887 13

myc oncogenes are transcription factors regulating the level of expression of other genes. Using a subtraction/coexpression strategy, a murine genetic target for Myc regulation was isolated. To further characterize this target gene, named ECA39, we have recently isolated the human, nematode and budding yeast homologs of the mouse gene. The recognition site for Myc binding, located 3' to the start site of transcription in the mouse gene, is conserved in the human homolog. Transfection experiments demonstrated that the Myc binding site of the human gene, mediates activation of a reporter gene in response to over-expression of c-myc. The activation was better executed when the c-Myc binding element was positioned downstream to the promoter, which is the usual position of the c-Myc DNA binding element in its genetic targets. The tissue specific expression of human ECA39 during embryogenesis is similar to that of the mouse homolog. Moreover, ECA39 is expressed in c-myc induced human tumors. It is expressed in Burkitt's lymphoma (where c-myc is translocated and activated) but not in non Burkitt's B-cell lymphoma or in T-cell lymphoma. Thus, it seems that ECA39 is a target for c-myc oncogenesis in humans. In yeast, where c-myc is absent, the ECA39 sequences lack the c-Myc binding element. However, the promoter region of the yeast ECA39 harbors several Gcn4 binding elements. Moreover, ECA39 is markedly down regulated in cells deleted for gcn4, and deletion of Gcn4 binding elements down regulated the transcription from ECA39 promoter. We thus suggest that ECA39 is a target for c-Myc regulation in mammals, while in yeast the regulator is not c-Myc but the c-Jun/c-Fos homolog - Gcn4.
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PMID:ECA39 is regulated by c-Myc in human and by a Jun/Fos homolog, Gcn4, in yeast. 893 31

The protein product of the proto-oncogene bcl-2, originally discovered by virtue of its chromosomal translocation in human follicular centre B cell lymphoma, is a physiological inhibitor of programmed cell death, apoptosis. Initial studies in transgenic mice overexpressing Bcl-2 in B or T lymphocytes demonstrated that Bcl-2 can potently antagonise cell death induced by multiple independent signal transduction routes and can contribute to oncogenesis, particularly in combination with other oncogenes, like c-myc, that promote cell proliferation. Further investigations using crosses between bcl-2 transgenic mice and T cell receptor or immunoglobulin transgenic mice or mutant mice deficient in proper antigen receptor gene rearrangement demonstrated that Bcl-2 can only block death of cells that failed to receive a positive stimulus, "death by neglect', but not activation induced apoptosis. Collectively, these results provide evidence that distinct signalling pathways for apoptosis converge upon a common effector machinery where Bcl-2 acts as an antagonist, but that there also exists a mechanism that can either bypass the Bcl-2 checkpoint or override its protective function. These experimental data are reviewed here and discussed in context of current knowledge of lymphocyte differentiation, tumorigenesis and cell death regulation.
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PMID:Lessons from bcl-2 transgenic mice for immunology, cancer biology and cell death research. 895 Apr 69

Neoplastic disease, especially malignant lymphomas, are often observed in cats infected with feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV). In order to clarify the characteristics of lymphoma cells and to investigate the pathogenesis in FIV-infected cats, we examined the lymphoma tissues developed in five cats naturally infected with FIV by Southern blot analyses using feline immunoglobulin (Ig), T-cell receptors (TCR) and FIV probes. All of the five cases were serologically positive for anti-FIV antibody and negative for feline leukemia virus antigen. Of these five lymphoma samples, two displayed rearrangement of the Ig heavy chain gene and deletion of the Ig light (kappa) chain gene, indicating that the tumor cells were committed to B-cell development. One tumor sample was identified as a T-cell lymphoma because of the presence of a rearranged TCR beta-chain gene. The other two cases were considered to be non-T non-B cell lymphoma because they did not show any rearrangement of the Ig and TCR genes. Therefore, no consistent tumor type was found in lymphoma cases infected with FIV. Clonal integration of FIV provirus was not detected in any of the five lymphoma samples obtained from FIV-infected cats using Southern blot analysis, although FIV proviral genome was detected in the genomic DNA of all the lymphoma samples by using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR). These results indicated that FIV might not play a direct role in tumorigenesis of lymphoma in cats.
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PMID:Molecular characteristics of malignant lymphomas in cats naturally infected with feline immunodeficiency virus. 926 55

Cholangiocarcinoma is a malignant neoplasm originating from cholangiocytes. The mechanisms responsible for oncogenesis of cholangiocytes are unknown. Resistance to apoptosis, especially by altered expression of B-cell lymphoma/leukemia 2 (Bcl-2) family members, has been implicated as a mechanism contributing to malignant transformation. Thus, our aim was to test the hypothesis that altered expression of Bcl-2 family members by cholangiocarcinoma cells renders them resistant to apoptosis. We compared the apoptotic threshold and expression of the Bcl-2 protein family members, Bcl-2, Bcl-XL, and Bax, in two human cell lines: 1) nonmalignant human cholangiocytes immortalized by transfection with the simian virus 40 (SV 40) large T antigen; and 2) a malignant human cholangiocarcinoma cell line. Apoptosis was induced pharmacologically using beauvericin. Bcl-2, Bcl-x long, and Bax protein expression were evaluated by immunoblot analysis, and Bcl-2 expression was modulated using antisense technology. The cholangiocyte and malignant/nonmaligant phenotype of both cell lines was verified using both in vitro and in vivo approaches. Beauvericin induced apoptosis of nonmalignant cholangiocytes in a concentration- (0 to 25 micromol/L) and time- (0 to 6 hours) dependent manner. In contrast, malignant cholangiocytes were resistant to apoptosis. Although expression of Bcl-x long and Bax protein were similiar in the two cell lines, Bcl-2 protein expression was 15-fold greater in malignant than in nonmalignant cholangiocytes. An 18 mer bcl-2 antisense oligonucleotide reduced expression of Bcl-2 protein by 50% and increased the rate of beauvericin-induced apoptosis more than threefold in the malignant cells. Our results support the hypothesis that resistance to apoptosis by overexpression of Bcl-2 may be a feature of cholangiocarcinoma.
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PMID:Bcl-2 is overexpressed and alters the threshold for apoptosis in a cholangiocarcinoma cell line. 932 9


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