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

Investigations of the pathways regulating normal growth of epithelial cells have revealed the existence of two major growth-factor signaling cascades required for proliferation. One pathway is activated by IGF-1 or high insulin concentration. The other is triggered by EGF, TGF alpha, or members of the FGF family, including the recently discovered epithelial-cell-specific growth factor, designated keratinocyte growth factor (KGF). Its expression pattern in vivo suggests that KGF plays an important normal physiologic role as a stromal effector of epithelial cell proliferation. Oncogenes, which represent constitutively activated forms of genes critically involved in growth-factor signaling pathways, specifically abrogate the requirement for mitogens of the EGF pathway. Examples of such genes include the erbB/EGF receptor and erbB-2, which encode structurally related receptor proteins and are often amplified and/or overexpressed in epithelial malignancies. Employing reduced stringency hybridization with v-erbB as a probe, we recently identified a third member of this receptor family, designated erbB-3. cDNA cloning revealed a predicted 148-kD transmembrane polypeptide with structural features similar to those of the EGF receptor. Normal erbB-3 expression in keratinocytes and glandular epithelium suggests its physiologic role in these cell types. Moreover, markedly elevated erbB-3 mRNA levels in certain mammary tumor cell lines suggest that increased erbB-3 expression may also play a role in some human epithelial malignancies.
 ...
PMID:Growth factor-regulated pathways in epithelial cell proliferation. 225 77

Autocrine activation of the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor on keratinocytes has been recognized as an important growth regulatory mechanism involved in epithelial homeostasis, and, possibly, hyperproliferative diseases. Insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1 and insulin have been shown to be paracrine keratinocyte mitogens that bind to the type I IGF receptor which is expressed on actively proliferating keratinocytes in situ. In this report, we demonstrate that IGF-1/insulin induced production of keratinocyte-derived autocrine growth factors that bind to the EGF receptor. Increased steady-state mRNA levels for transforming growth factor alpha (TGF-alpha) and for amphiregulin (AR) were observed upon incubation of keratinocytes with mitogenic concentrations of IGF-1. IGF-1 also induced production and secretion of TGF-alpha and AR proteins as detected by immunoassays. An EGF receptor antagonistic monoclonal antibody abolished the mitogenic effect of IGF-1 on cultured keratinocytes. These results suggest that stimulation of keratinocyte growth of IGF-1 requires activation of an EGF receptor-mediated autocrine loop.
 ...
PMID:Induction of autocrine epidermal growth factor receptor ligands in human keratinocytes by insulin/insulin-like growth factor-1. 770 70

Growth factor-independent proliferation is an essential aspect of the transformation process. To study the influence of c-erbB-2 overexpression on the autonomous growth of human mammary cancer cells, we used a series of non-neoplastic and neoplastic human mammary epithelial cell lines isolated from a patient with intraductal and invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast. The non-neoplastic cell line, H16N-2, which expresses a normal level (single gene copy) of c-erbB-2, was used for comparison with the neoplastic cell lines. Both the metastatic tumor cell lines, 21MT-1 and 21 MT-2, showed equivalent amplification of the c-erbB-2 gene; however, 21MT-1 cells showed a higher level of c-erbB-2 overexpression. Therefore, the H16N-2, 21MT-2, and 21MT-1 cell series forms a distinct gradient of progressively increasing c-erbB-2 gene expression. Furthermore, the overexpression of c-erbB-2 in the 21MT cell lines was concordant with increases in the constitutive tyrosine kinase activity of p185erb-2 measured in the absence of exogenous growth factors in culture. Normal mammary epithelial cells require both insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-l (or supraphysiological concentrations of insulin) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) to proliferate under serum-free conditions in culture. By contrast, 21MT-2 cells showed a reduced requirement for IGF but still required EGF to proliferate. 21MT-1 cells did not require either insulin or EGF to proliferate. Therefore, the progressive increases in constitutive p185erbB-2, tyrosine kinase activity in the 21MT-2 and 21MT-1 cell lines was directly correlated with IGF independence and combined IGF and EGF independence under defined conditions in culture. Experiments using conditioned media and anti-IGF-1 receptor and anti-EGF receptor neutralizing antibodies showed that the growth-factor independence of the tumor cells did not involve detectable IGF- or EGF-like autocrine activity expressed by the 21MT cells. Furthermore, neu differentiation factor/heregulin, a ligand that indirectly activates p185erbB-2 by direct binding to erbB-3 receptors, potently stimulated the proliferation of the growth factor-dependent H16N-2 cells (which expressed c-erbB-2 and c-erbB-3 but not c-erbB-4) in the absence of both IGF and EGF. Thus, HRG-induced mitogenesis mimicked the autonomous growth seen in the 21MT cells that have the highest level of constitutive p185erbB-2 activation. These data support the hypothesis that the constitutive activation of p185erbB-2 in human mammary carcinoma cells causes growth-factor independence by directly activating multiple signal-transduction pathways that substitute for both IGF and EGF during proliferation.
 ...
PMID:Insulin-like growth factor and epidermal growth factor independence in human mammary carcinoma cells with c-erbB-2 gene amplification and progressively elevated levels of tyrosine-phosphorylated p185erbB-2. 859 35

Control of the growth of mammary glands is largely exerted in vivo by systemic hormones and locally-produced growth factors, whereas malignant tumours gradually lose the ability to respond to both types of control in vivo. However, the systemic hormones have little direct effect on stimulating the growth of rat or human mammary cell lines in vitro. Estrogens are thought to work by stimulating locally-produced growth factors and/or their receptors, eg transferrin, TGF alpha and IGF-1, and prolactin by a contaminating pituitary mammary growth factor (PMGF). Mammary stem cells intermediate between epithelial and myoepithelial cells are thought to be retained in malignant carcinomas, whereas the TGF alpha and bFGF-producing myoepithelial cells are lost. Hormonal autonomy of carcinomas may develop by overproduction of the locally-produced growth factors, their receptors (including related receptors, eg c-erbB-2) and/or by stem cells differentiating sufficiently to utilise normal control mechanisms, eg refractivity to PMGF and autocrine/paracrine response to bFGF. The failure of the stem cells to differentiate completely to myoepithelial cells in carcinomas greatly reduces the heparan sulphate proteoglycan sink used to sequester to bFGF in normal glands and also removes the possibility of eliminating cells by terminal differentiation, both processes possibly contributing to the uncontrolled growth of the malignant breast cell.
 ...
PMID:Growth factors and their receptors in neoplastic mammary glands. 874 75

Previous attempts to delineate the consequences of Galpha (q) activation in cardiomyocytes relied largely on molecular strategies in cultures or transgenic mice. Modest levels of wild-type Galpha(q) overexpression induce stable cardiac hypertrophy, whereas intense Galpha(q) stimulation induces cardiomyocyte apoptosis. The precise mechanism(s) whereby traditional targets of Galpha (q) subunits that induce hypertrophy also trigger cardiomyocyte apoptosis is not obvious and is explored with recombinant Pasteurella multocida toxin (rPMT, a Galpha(q) agonist). Cells cultured with rPMT display cardiomyocyte enlargement, sarcomeric organization, and increased atrial natriuretic factor expression in association with activation of phospholipase C, novel protein kinase C (PKC) isoforms, extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK), and (to a lesser extent) JNK/p38-MAPK. rPMT stimulates the ERK cascade via epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor transactivation in cardiac fibroblasts, but EGF receptor transactivation plays no role in ERK activation in cardiomyocytes. Surprisingly, rPMT (or novel PKC isoform activation by PMA) decreases basal Akt phosphorylation; rPMT prevents Akt phosphorylation by EGF or IGF-1 and functionally augments cardiomyocyte apoptosis in response to H2O2. These results identify a Galpha(q)-PKC pathway that represses basal Akt phosphorylation and impairs Akt stimulation by survival factors. Because inhibition of Akt enhances cardiomyocyte susceptibility to apoptosis, this pathway is predicted to contribute to the transition from hypertrophy to cardiac decompensation and could be targeted for therapy in heart failure.
 ...
PMID:Dual actions of the Galpha(q) agonist Pasteurella multocida toxin to promote cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and enhance apoptosis susceptibility. 1198 85

There have been some observations that low body weight and a low level of some hormones (e.g. IGF-1) during the first half of life are predictors of longer life in mice. However, contradictions in the available data on the biomarkers of aging and predictors of longevity have shown that the research in these fields has become a controversial pursuit. In our study we addressed the following questions: (i) Can particular physiological parameters (body weight, food intake, estrus function, body temperature, incidence of chromosome aberrations in bone marrow cells) measured at the age of 3 and 12 months be a predictor of longevity and the rate of tumor development in five strains of mice? (ii) Can a heavy body weight at the age of 3 and 12 months be a predictor of longevity and high tumor risk in five strains of mice? Mice of five strains-CBA, SHR, SAMR, SAMP and transgenic HER-2/neu (FVB/N)-were under observation from the age of 2-3 months until natural death. Body weight and temperature, food consumption, and estrous cycle were longitudinally studied in all animals. Tumors discovered at autopsy were studied morphologically. We calculated the life span's parameters (mean, maximum, mortality rate, mortality rate doubling time) as well as their correlation with other parameters studied. The longest living CBA mice have the lowest body weight at the ages of 3 and 12 months, the lowest food consumption, body temperature, incidence of chromosome aberrations and spontaneous tumor incidence. In comparison with all other mouse strains they also have the latest disturbances in estrus function and highest body weight gain. The shortest living transgenic HER-2/neu mice have the lowest weight at the ages of 12 months, the lowest body weight gain, maximal body temperature, the most rapid disturbances in estrus function and the highest incidence of chromosome aberrations and tumor incidence in comparison to all other mouse strains. Our findings have shown that heavier body weight at the age of 12 months is a predictor of longevity in female CBA and SAMP mice but not in SHR, SAMR and HER-2/neu mice. Excessive body weight at the ages of 3 or 12 months is not a predictor of increased tumor risk in the strains studied. In general, the existence and direction of a significant correlation between body weight and life span depends upon the animals' age and genotype.
 ...
PMID:Body weight is not always a good predictor of longevity in mice. 1503 90

Overexpression and enhanced activation of the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor are frequent events in human cancers that correlate with poor prognosis. Anti-phosphotyrosine and anti-EGFr affinity chromatography, isotope-coded muLC-MS/MS, and immunoblot methods were combined to describe and measure signaling networks associated with EGF receptor activation and pharmacological inhibition. The squamous carcinoma cell line HN5, which overexpresses EGF receptor and displays sustained receptor kinase activation, was used as a model system, where pharmacological inhibition of EGF receptor kinase by erlotinib markedly reduced auto and substrate phosphorylation, Src family phosphorylation at EGFR Y845, while increasing total EGF receptor protein. Diverse sets of known and poorly described functional protein classes were unequivocally identified by affinity selection, comprising either proteins tyrosine phosphorylated or complexed therewith, predominantly through EGF receptor and Src family kinases, principally 1) immediate EGF receptor signaling complexes (18%); 2) complexes involved in adhesion and cell-cell contacts (34%); and 3) receptor internalization and degradation signals. Novel and known phosphorylation sites could be located despite the complexity of the peptide mixtures. In addition to interactions with multiple signaling adaptors Grb2, SHC, SCK, and NSP2, EGF receptors in HN5 cells were shown to form direct or indirect physical interactions with additional kinases including ACK1, focal adhesion kinase (FAK), Pyk2, Yes, EphA2, and EphB4. Pharmacological inhibition of EGF receptor kinase activity by erlotinib resulted in reduced phosphorylation of downstream signaling, for example through Cbl/Cbl-B, phospholipase Cgamma (PLCgamma), Erk1/2, PI-3 kinase, and STAT3/5. Focal adhesion proteins, FAK, Pyk2, paxillin, ARF/GIT1, and plakophillin were down-regulated by transient EGF stimulation suggesting a complex balance between growth factor induced kinase and phosphatase activities in the control of cell adhesion complexes. The functional interactions between IGF-1 receptor, lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) signaling, and EGF receptor were observed, both direct and/or indirectly on phospho-Akt, phospho-Erk1/2, and phospho-ribosomal S6.
 ...
PMID:Phosphotyrosine signaling networks in epidermal growth factor receptor overexpressing squamous carcinoma cells. 1565 67

The potential mechanisms involving the genesis and growth of androgen-independent prostate cancer include super-expression of the androgen receptor (AR), in an attempt to compensate for the low androgenic plasma levels and mutations of this specific receptor, which could determine resistance to anti-androgenic therapy. However, most advanced prostate tumors have no mutations or amplifications of the AR, suggesting a potential role of non-androgenic growth factors, including epidermal growth factor (EGF), transforming growth factor alpha, insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) and fibroblast growth factor. More specifically, these factors, and their receptors like EGFR (HER-1) and HER-2/neu, through paracrine and autocrine mechanisms, may contribute to the proliferation and growth of prostate cancer.
 ...
PMID:Molecular oncogenesis of prostate adenocarcinoma: role of the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2/neu). 2130 6

The objective of this study was to describe a familial screening for AIP mutations in the context of aggressive prolactinoma in childhood. A 12-year-old boy, presented headaches and bilateral hemianopsia. He had adequate height and weight for his age (50(th) percentile), Tanner stage G1 P1. His bone age was 10 years. Prolactin was 10.560 ng/mL (3-25), FSH and LH were undetectable, IGF-1, TSH, Free T4, ACTH, and cortisol were within normal ranges. MRI showed a pituitary macroadenoma, 5.3 X 4.0 X 3.5 cm with compression of the optic chiasm, bilateral cavernous sinus invasion, encasement of carotids, and extension to clivus. Surgical debulking was performed. Resistance to cabergoline was characterized and he was submitted to two surgeries and radiotherapy. Immunohistochemical evaluation included prolactin, ACTH, GH, FSH, LH,AIP, c-erb B2, Ki-67, and p53. Genomic DNA was isolated from the index case and 48 relatives, PCR and sequencing were performed.A germline A195V mutation in AIP was identified in the index case and in five asymptomatic relatives. Germline mutations in the AIP gene may be involved in the predisposition to pituitary adenoma formation, as cause or co-factor in pathogenesis of aggressive tumors in young patients.
 ...
PMID:Aggressive prolactinoma in a child related to germline mutation in the ARYL hydrocarbon receptor interacting protein (AIP) gene. 2134 Jan 66

Insulin resistance and hypertension have been implicated in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease; however, little is known about the roles of insulin and mechanical force in vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) remodeling. We investigated the contribution of mechanical stretch to insulin-induced VSMC proliferation. Thymidine incorporation was stimulated by insulin in stretched VSMCs, but not in un-stretched VSMCs. Insulin increased 2-deoxy-glucose incorporation in both stretched and un-stretched VSMCs. Mechanical stretch augmented insulin-induced extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and Akt phosphorylation. Inhibitors of epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor tyrosine kinase and Src attenuated insulin-induced ERK and Akt phosphorylation, as well as thymidine incorporation, whereas 2-deoxy-glucose incorporation was not affected by these inhibitors. Moreover, stretch augmented insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1 receptor expression, although it did not alter the expression of insulin receptor and insulin receptor substrate-1. Insulin-induced ERK and Akt activation, and thymidine incorporation were inhibited by siRNA for the IGF-1 receptor. Mechanical stretch augments insulin-induced VSMC proliferation via upregulation of IGF-1 receptor, and downstream Src/EGF receptor-mediated ERK and Akt activation. Similar to in vitro experiment, IGF-1 receptor expression was also augmented in hypertensive rats. These results provide a basis for clarifying the molecular mechanisms of vascular remodeling in hypertensive patients with hyperinsulinemia.
 ...
PMID:Mechanical stretch augments insulin-induced vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation by insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor. 2185 69


1 2 Next >>