Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P04626 (erbB-2)
 5,251 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Many newly defined tumour antigens are 'self' proteins. Immunizing cancer patients against these antigens may be difficult due to tolerance. The HER-2/neu oncogenic protein is such a 'self' tumour antigen. Rat neu is homologous with human HER-2/neu and provides a model system for studying vaccination strategies. Rats are tolerant to rat neu. Vaccination with this 'self' protein elicits no detectable immune response. The current studies evaluated whether tolerance to rat neu can be circumvented by immunizing with the highly homologous foreign human HER-2/neu protein. Rats were immunized with human HER-2/neu intracellular domain (hICD) protein that is 92% homologous to rat neu ICD. Animals immunized with hICD developed significant antibody and T-cell responses that were specific for both human HER-2/neu and rat neu. Neu-specific antibodies were present in titres of greater than 1:200,000. Analysis of the specificity of the antibody response using synthetic peptides demonstrated substantial reactivity to an epitope with 100% homology between rat and human protein. Significant T-cell responses (stimulation index > 10) to hICD and rat neu protein (stimulation index > 4) were detected. The T cells also responded to both human and rat ICD. The results imply that immunization with foreign proteins, which are highly homologous to 'self' tumour antigens, may be an effective vaccine strategy for 'self' tumour antigens.
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PMID:Human HER-2/neu protein immunization circumvents tolerance to rat neu: a vaccine strategy for 'self' tumour antigens. 961 68

Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) of the breast shows unpredictable association with invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). Comedo DCIS (CDCIS) is more frequently associated with IDC than noncomedo DCIS (NCDCIS). We studied prognostic variables in 64 cases of DCIS to identify predictors of invasion. These factors included DCIS type and nuclear grade and two counts of the AgNOR silver staining technique for identification of ploidy and proliferative activity (PA) using two counts: mAgNOR for ploidy and pAgNOR for PA. The other factors included immunostaining of the lesions for epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR), cathepsin-D (C-D), and the c-erbB-2 oncogene. The 34 cases associated with ICD had pAgNOR ranging from 3% to 36% (median 11%), whereas cases not associated with IDC had a pAgNOR range of 0% to 25% (median 5%; P=0.0001). The correlation between mAgNOR and the development of IDC was less statistically significant. The DCIS type and staining pattern for EGFR, C-D, and c-erbB-2 showed no statistical correlation of individual variables with the development of IDC. A scoring system adding the values of the seven variables was used. A score of 1-2 was given to each variable, depending on whether it was positive or negative. Lesions associated with IDC had a median total score of 8 (+/- 1.35 SD), whereas those lesions not associated with invasion had a median score of 4 (+/- 1.45 SD; P=0.0002). We conclude that proliferative activity analysis may play a significant role in predicting the invasive potential of DCIS. The use of a scoring system adding the sum of single prognostic indicators may provide more useful information regarding the prediction of invasive potential of DCIS than single indicators.
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PMID:Predictors of invasion in ductal carcinoma in Situ of the breast: The value of a scoring system. 1735 95