Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0598934 (tumor growth)
 58,965 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Expression of carboxypeptidase E (CPE), a prohormone processing enzyme in different cancer types, was analyzed from data in the GEO profile database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/) and experimentally in pheochromocytomas. Analysis of microarray data demonstrated that significantly elevated levels of CPE mRNA was found in many metastatic non-endocrine cancers: cervical, colon rectal, renal cancers, Ewing sarcomas (bone cancer), and various types of astrocytomas and oligodendrogliomas, whereas expression of CPE mRNA was virtually absent in their respective counterpart normal tissues. Moreover, there was higher CPE mRNA expression in cells from the metastatic tumor compared to those from the primary tumor in colorectal cancer. Elevated CPE mRNA expression was found in neuroendocrine tumors in lung and pituitary adenomas, although the significance is unclear since endocrine and neuroendocrine cells normally express CPE. However, studies of neuroendocrine tumors, pheochromocytomas, revealed expression of not only wild-type CPE, but a variant which was correlated with tumor behavior. Extremely high CPE mRNA copy numbers of the variant were found in very large or invasive tumors, both of which usually indicate poor prognosis. Thus, collectively the data suggest that CPE may play a role in promoting tumor growth and invasion. CPE could potentially serve as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for metastasis in different cancer types.
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PMID:Carboxypeptidase E: elevated expression correlated with tumor growth and metastasis in pheochromocytomas and other cancers. 3225 41

Carboxypeptidase E (CPE) or carboxypeptidase H was first discovered in 1982 as an enkephalin-convertase that cleaved a C-terminal basic residue from enkephalin precursors to generate enkephalin. Since then, CPE has been shown to be a multifunctional protein that subserves many essential nonenzymatic roles in the endocrine and nervous systems. Here, we review the phylogeny, structure, and function of CPE in hormone and neuropeptide sorting and vesicle transport for secretion, alternative splicing of the CPE transcript, and single nucleotide polymorphisms in humans. With this and the analysis of mutant and knockout mice, the data collectively support important roles for CPE in the modulation of metabolic and glucose homeostasis, bone remodeling, obesity, fertility, neuroprotection, stress, sexual behavior, mood and emotional responses, learning, and memory. Recently, a splice variant form of CPE has been found to be an inducer of tumor growth and metastasis and a prognostic biomarker for metastasis in endocrine and nonendocrine tumors.
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PMID:New roles of carboxypeptidase E in endocrine and neural function and cancer. 2240 94