Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UNIPROT:O76050 (neu)
 3,969 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The erbB-2 (or HER-2 or neu) gene is amplified and overexpressed in approximately one-third of cancers of the breast, stomach, and ovary. Evidence is accumulating that erbB-2 overexpression is associated with decreased survival of breast cancer patients. In an effort to understand how erbB-2 overexpression might impart a more malignant potential to breast cancer cells, we have searched for evidence of changes in gene expression associated with erbB-2 overexpression. Using differential screening of a complementary DNA library we identified several complementary DNAs that represent mRNAs the expression of which may vary according to erbB-2 level. One complementary DNA was studied in detail. The mRNA encoding the ribosomal protein L19 (1.9 kilobases) was more abundant in breast cancer samples that express high levels of erbB-2 (P < 6 x 10(-7)). The level of L19 mRNA expression varied over a 1- to 64-fold range among the tumor samples. No evidence of gene amplification for L19 was identified. The L19 overexpression in these breast tumor samples was not associated with the increased expression of the mRNAs for other ribosomal proteins (S16 and L26).
 ...
PMID:High-level expression of the ribosomal protein L19 in human breast tumors that overexpress erbB-2. 809 82

A number of approaches have been used to identify genes important in breast cancer. In one approach the genes already shown to be involved in other tumors, such as p53 and Her2neu, were examined. A second approach examined genes detected through genetic screening of families with a high incidence of breast cancer, for example, BRCA-1 and BRCA-2. We used a third approach, subtractive hybridization, to identify and clone genes that were preferentially expressed in breast cancer cells compared to normal mammary epithelium. Instead of analyzing breast cancer cell lines, we examined fresh human breast cancer specimens. By subtracting normal mammary epithelial cDNA from breast cancer cDNA, we were able to clone several genes overexpressed in breast cancer. Two of these genes, L19 and MLN70, were previously reported to be overexpressed in breast cancer. Three of these genes, L19, L34, and MLN70, were localized to a region on chromosome 17 where Her2/neu and BRCA-1 are found. In addition, we isolated a gene we call breast cancer associated gene-1 that was expressed almost exclusively in fresh breast cancer tissue and not in normal mammary epithelium or breast cancer cell lines. We were unable to detect expression of breast cancer associated gene-1 in cell lines from melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, lymphoma, or leukemia. The full-length sequence from two separate breast cancer specimens revealed one amino acid difference compared to the sequence from normal breast epithelial tissue. Further studies are necessary to determine whether these genes contribute to breast cancer development or can be used as therapeutic targets.
 ...
PMID:Isolation of genes overexpressed in freshly isolated breast cancer specimens. 1075 78