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)

Human amphiregulin (AR) is a heparin-binding growth factor which functions by binding to and activating the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor tyrosine kinase. AR contains an EGF-like domain (residues 44-84) and a Lys/Arg-rich NH2-terminal extension (residues 1-43). Synthetic peptides corresponding to residues 8-26, 26-44, and 68-84 of AR were tested for their ability to compete for the binding of AR to immobilized heparin. AR8-26 and AR68-84 had no significant effect on the binding of AR to heparin, whereas AR26-44 bound to heparin and blocked the binding of AR to heparin. Both soluble heparin and heparan sulfate inhibited AR-induced mitogenesis in MCF-10A human mammary epithelial cells with an IC50 of 5 and 2 micrograms/ml, respectively, whereas soluble chondroitin sulfate had only a slight inhibitory effect. When MCF-10A cells were grown in the presence of chlorate, an inhibitor of sulfation, or exposed to the glycosaminoglycan-degrading enzymes heparitinase or heparinase, the ability of AR to evoke mitogenesis in these cells was lost. Chlorate, heparitinase, or heparinase treatment inhibited AR-induced autophosphorylation of tyrosine residues in the EGF receptor. None of these treatments had any significant effect on EGF-triggered mitogenic signaling by the EGF receptor. These results indicate that extracellular heparan sulfate glycosaminoglycan is essential to AR-induced mitogenic signaling by the EGF receptor tyrosine kinase.
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PMID:Heparan sulfate is essential to amphiregulin-induced mitogenic signaling by the epidermal growth factor receptor. 792 59

Serially transplantable rat mammary tumor (RMT) cells are not dependent on exogenous epidermal growth factor (EGF) and insulin-like growth factor-I for continuous growth in serum-free medium. Previously, we found that conditioned medium obtained from these cells contained EGF-like mitogenic activity and stimulated tyrosine phosphorylation of a 185-kDa protein in EGF-dependent mammary epithelial cells. This protein is distinct from the EGF receptor and resembles a 185-kDa tyrosine-phosphorylated protein present in RMT cells themselves. The results of the studies reported here indicate that the tyrosine-phosphorylated p185 detected in growth factor-independent RMT cells and in human mammary epithelial cells exposed to RMT-conditioned medium was activated erbB-2 protein. Partial purification of the activating factor present in RMT-conditioned medium yielded a heparin-binding growth factor with biochemical properties similar to those of neu differentiation factor/heregulin (NDF/HRG). RNA-polymerase chain reaction analysis demonstrated that RMT cells expressed mRNA for NDF/HRG, and western-blot analysis confirmed the presence of the 45-kDa secreted form of NDF/HRG in conditioned medium from the growth factor-independent RMT cells. The biological activity of partially purified rat NDF/HRG was examined and found to be the same as that of the pure growth factor. In addition, we found that RMT-conditioned medium, fractionated on an anion-exchange column and by reverse-phase high-pressure liquid chromatography, contained a potent EGF-like growth factor that was distinct from NDF/HRG. This factor competes with 125I-EGF for binding to EGF receptors and has an apparent molecular mass of 6600 Da. This factor copurifies by high-pressure liquid chromatography with pure transforming growth factor-alpha (TGF-alpha), and the cells are positive for TGF-alpha mRNA. Thus, growth factor-independent RMT cells also synthesize and secrete TGF-alpha. These results indicate that growth factor-independent cells secrete two growth factors with overlapping biological activities and suggest that autocrine loops mediated by these factors are important in the growth factor-independent proliferation of the RMT cells.
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PMID:Growth factor-independent proliferation of rat mammary carcinoma cells by autocrine secretion of neu-differentiation factor/heregulin and transforming growth factor-alpha. 859 80