Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P04637 (p53)
77,613 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Chromosomal abnormalities, including mutations, deletions and allelic losses of different oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes have been discovered in the DNA of cancer cells and the application of molecular biological techniques now permits identification of these alterations in tumours. Although it has been possible to detect potentially important genetic alterations in tumour material for some years, it is now evident that many neoplasms shed tumour cells into sputum, urine, bile, pancreatic juice, faeces and blood of infected patients. Mutated DNA has also been detected free in the plasma of patients with cancer, and the DNA alternations in plasma are identical to those in the DNA of the primary cancer cells. Thus, the identification of DNA mutations in plasma, pancreatic juice and faeces might be a useful approach for the early detection and monitoring of patients with pancreatic cancer. The K-ras gene is mutated in over 90% of pancreatic cancer. These mutations are well defined, reliably detected by DNA application in assays and occur early in the genesis of pancreatic cancer. K-ras mutations can be detected in cancer tissue and pancreatic duct secretions. K-ras mutations have also been detected in stool of patients with pancreatic cancer. Invasive techniques for obtaining pancreatic juice or pancreatic tissue are undesirable and would certainly be inappropriate for cancer screening. Similarly, there is a lack of enthusiasm for developing diagnostic techniques that involve faecal extractions. Isolation of plasma DNA from pancreatic patients and detection of K-ras alterations with a PCR assay and subsequent product sequencing showed K-ras mutations in the plasma of 17 out of 21 patients (81%), and in cases in which both plasma and pancreatic tissue were available, DNA mutations were similar in plasma and tissue. Plasma DNA alterations were found 5-14 months before the clinical diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in 4 patients. K-ras mutations are also demonstrated in micro-dissected tissues taken from patients with pancreatic hyperplasia, with or without chronic pancreatitis. This has lead to the suggestion that pancreatic cell hyperplasia may be a premalignant condition although the demonstration of K-ras alterations in some cases of chronic pancreatitis has raised doubts about the sensitivity and specificity of K-ras testing for pancreatic cancer. However, the detection of K-ras mutations in plasma may still identify patients with or at risk of developing pancreatic cancer as it may only be in these patients that sufficient quantities of mutated DNA enter and can be detected in plasma. Thus, this non-invasive approach to early cancer detection may be applicable both to diagnosis of the symptomatic patient and for screening. A combined approach with other tumour markers such as p53 gene might increase the sensitivity of the test.
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PMID:Diagnosis of pancreatico-biliary malignancy: detection of gene mutations in plasma and stool. 1043

A review is presented on the role of conventional and molecular tumour markers (TM) in diagnosis and monitoring of patients with biliopancreatic malignancies. For biliopancreatic malignancy, following CEA as more historical and basic TM of gastrointestinal diseases, the mainstay marker is CA 19-9 as monosialo-ganglioside/glycolipid and sialyl derivative of lacto-N-fucopentaose II (sialyl-Lewis(a), hapten of human Lewis(a) bloodgroup determinant). It is detected in serum of healthy individuals at low concentration < 40 U/ml, with lower and often transitional elevation in benign hepatobiliary diseases and with highest levels in excretory ductal pancreatic adenocarcinoma (s = 70%-95%, sp = 72%-90%), biliary (s = 55%-79%), hepatocellular and cholangiocellular cancer (s = 22%-51%) besides gastric, colorectal and ovarian cancer and occasionally in lung, breast and uterine cancer. Physiologically elevated concentrations in healthy individuals have to be considered in all sorts of secretions (e.g. sputum, saliva, bronchial/gastric secretions, bile juice) of individuals with Lewis(a)-positive secretor status in contrast with low or lacking serum levels of CA 19-9 in patients with Lewis(a-/b-) status (7%-10% of population). In biliopancreatic malignancies, especially pancreatic cancer, CA 19-9 correlates well with clinical course of disease following surgical, chemo- or radiotherapy by a quick normalisation within 2-4 weeks after complete surgery, a transient decrease with successful palliative therapy and an often anticipated increase (lead time up to 6 months) before clinical detection in case of relapse or progressive disease. From CA 19-9 related TM tests some are detecting in addition to sialyl-Lewis(a) (sialyllacto-N-fucopentaose II) also the non-fucosylated precursor sialyl-Lewis(c) (sialyllacto-N-tetraose: CA 50, CA 242, Span-1) solely detected by the DUPAN-2 test and independent of the Lewis(a) secretor status. Some other markers comprise in addition to sialyl-Lewis(a) partially the non-sialylated Lewis(a) antigen (CA 195, CAM 43, CA 494) or are less related (CAM 17.1). The initial phase of screening and early detection is hoped to be better assessed by using molecular markers detecting gene mutations (p53, K-ras), growth factors (EGF, TGF-alpha, TGF-beta, HB-EGF, a/bFGFs, KGF) and growth factor receptor alterations (EGFr, c-erbB2/3/4). From these, K-ras mutations detected in blood, stool and bile juice of patients at risk for pancreatic cancer seem to be more promising than p53 alterations as a more later step in carcinogenesis, although they are neither yet well established nor standardised by reliable assays. In contrast growth factor and growth factor receptor alterations mainly concerning signal transducing systems seem to reflect increased tumour aggressiveness, thus shorter survival and poorer prognosis thereby contributing in the selection of patients for more aggressive therapy.
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PMID:Role of tumour markers, cytogenetics. 1043 9

Biliopancreatic malignancy is one of the leading causes of cancer death in the Western world. Defining at risk groups has been difficult. Diabetes mellitus and pancreatitis increase the risk of pancreatic carcinoma, and inflammatory bowel disease and associated sclerosing colangitis increase the risk of biliary tract malignancy. Pancreatic carcinoma has also been described in pedigrees with inherited cancer predisposition. Extensive molecular profiling of pancreatic carcinomas has been accomplished over the past few years, but similar knowledge in other biliopancreatic malignancies is lacking. In almost all pancreas cancers at least one alteration will occur out of a combination of K-ras mutations and inactivation of the tumor suppressor genes p16/MTS1/ink4a, p53 and DPC4/Smad4. Mutations of K-ras and p16 have been described in hyperplastic and dysplastic pancreatic ductal lesions believed to be the non-malignant precursors of pancreatic carcinoma. Detection of K-ras mutations in clinical samples (biliopancreatic secretions, stool, duodenal aspirates, and blood) identical to ones present in primary pancreatic cancers and/or their precursor ductal lesions has been reported in pilot studies. Recently detection of 18q deletions (at the DPC4 locus) in pancreatic secretions from early pancreatic cancers was also reported. These advances raise the possibility that within well defined at risk groups it will be possible to use a combined set of molecular markers to screen clinical samples and detect early pancreatic cancer or even pre-malignant lesions. The fulfillment of this promise will depend on proving the role of molecular screening in decreasing morbidity and mortality, which will require well designed clinical studies.
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PMID:Biliopancreatic malignancy: screening the at risk patient with molecular markers. 1043 11

Carcinoma of the pancreas has a grim prognosis even following surgical resection. Only a relatively small proportion of patients have a resectable tumour at presentation. At the present time it is uncertain whether the use of radical forms of surgery, or adjuvant therapy improve survival. It is however unlikely that either of these approaches will greatly increase the number of long term survivors. Earlier diagnosis particularly in individuals who are at greater risk of developing carcinoma of the pancreas is one way in which results might be improved. Unfortunately current imaging techniques are inadequate for the diagnosis of early disease. New molecular diagnostics techniques that can identify example mutations in oncogenes such as K-ras or deletions of tumour suppressor genes such as P53 or P16 are being developed. These tumour specific abnormalities are also a target for gene therapy. Surgery alone cannot cure any patient with pancreatic cancer but may in the future in conjunction with these new approaches.
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PMID:The future of surgery for pancreatic cancer. 1043 42

The INK4a/ARF locus on human chromosome 9p resides at the nexus of two critical cell cycle regulatory pathways, the p53 pathway and the retinoblastoma (pRb) gene pathway. Through the use of shared coding regions and alternative reading frames two distinct proteins are produced: INK4a is a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor whereas ARF binds the MDM2 proto-oncogene and stabilizes p53. We have examined the expression patterns of the INK4a/ARF locus at the RNA level in normal human and murine tissues to determine if these genes are coordinately regulated. We found that both INK4a and ARF were expressed in most tissues at low levels detectable only by RT-PCR. The pancreas was an exception in that it expressed no detectable ARF mRNA but expressed high levels of INK4a mRNA. Furthermore, human pancreas expressed an additional previously unrecognized splice variant of INK4a, termed p12, through the use of an alternative splice donor site within intron 1. The p12 transcript produced a 12 kD protein composed of INK4a exon 1alpha and a novel intron-derived C-terminus. This novel protein did not interact with cdk4 but was capable of suppressing growth in a pRb-independent manner. The implications of the capacity of the INK4a/ARF locus to encode a third transcript, and for pancreatic cancer, in which the INK4a/ARF locus is nearly always altered, are considered.
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PMID:Tissue-specific alternative splicing in the human INK4a/ARF cell cycle regulatory locus. 1044 44

Pancreatic cancer has one of the worst prognoses of all human malignancies and the molecular mechanisms underlying this aggressive disease have been extensively investigated in the past years. Tyrosine kinase growth factor receptors and their ligands act to influence tumor cell growth, differentiation, invasion, metastasis, and angiogenesis. In pancreatic cancer a variety of these growth factor receptors and ligands are expressed at increased levels and this overexpression influences the clinical course of the disease. For example, the concomitant presence of the EGF receptor and its ligands EGF, TGF-alpha, and/or amphiregulin is associated with enhanced tumor aggressiveness and shorter survival periods following tumor resection. Furthermore, the growth inhibitory effects of the TGF-beta superfamily of serine-threonine kinase receptors and their ligands are often blocked in pancreatic cancer cells. In addition to these alterations, mutations of the p53 tumor-suppressor gene, the K-ras proto-oncogene, and the Smad4 gene are frequently present in these tumors. Taken together, the abundance of growth-promoting factors, the disturbance of growth inhibitory pathways, and the presence of gene mutations combine to give pancreatic cancer cells a distinct growth advantage which clinically results in rapid tumor progression and poor survival.
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PMID:Molecular aspects of pancreatic cancer and future perspectives. 1044 72

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a most potent angiogenic molecule. In this article, we demonstrated that VEGF is participated in the tumor angiogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma, esophageal cancer, and pancreatic cancer. Furthermore, we revealed that VEGF is one of the molecules which are responsible for metastasis and prognosis in esophageal cancer and colon cancer. Although the mechanism on the induction of VEGF gene is still unclear in human cancer tissue, we obtained the informative evidence indicating that p53 mutation is involved in VEGF expression of esophageal cancer. Our experimental study with stable transfectant of VEGF gene provided the confirmative results showing that VEGF gene induces neovascularization in and around tumor and that VEGF augment metastastic potential by accelerating proliferative activity after reaching the target organ.
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PMID:Implication of vascular endothelial growth factor in the development and metastasis of human cancers. 1045 2

Okadaic acid (OA), a toxin from the black sponge Halicondria okadai, is a specific inhibitor of serine/threonine protein phosphatases 1 (PP1) and 2A (PP2A). OA is a tumor promoter but also induces apoptosis in some tumor cell lines. In this study, we determined whether ras mutation and/or p53 status are characteristics associated with the cell's sensitivity to the induction of apoptosis by OA. Several cell lines that differed in ras and p53 mutations were treated with OA (10-100 nM). At 24 to 48 h after treatment, the percentage of cells undergoing apoptosis was quantitated. The cell lines with mutations in either H-ras (human bladder carcinoma cell line T24 and mouse keratinocyte cell line 308), or K-ras (human colon carcinoma cell lines DLD-1 and HCT116; human prostate cancer cell lines LNCaP and PC-3; human lung cancer cell lines Calu-6 and SKLU-1; and human pancreatic cancer cell line MIAPaCa2) were more sensitive to OA-induced apoptosis (3- to 10-fold) than the cell lines that lacked the ras mutation (mouse epidermal cell lines C50 and JB6; murine fibroblast cell line NIH3T3; human colon cancer cell line HT29; human kidney epithelial cell line Hs715.K; and human pancreatic cancer cell line Bx-PC3). Similarly, using isogenic cell lines we found that overexpression of mutated H-ras in NIH3T3 and in SV40 immortalized human uroepithelial cells (SVHUC) enhanced their sensitivity to undergo apoptosis in response to OA treatment. The T24, DLD-1, SKLU-1, Calu-6, and MIAPaCa2 cell lines express mutated p53. The SVHUC as well as their ras-transfected counterparts have inactive p53 due to complex formation between large "T" antigen and p53. Taken together, these results imply that OA-induced apoptosis may involve a p53-independent pathway. The transfectants (NIH3T3-ras and SVHUC-ras), which express mutated H-ras, have up-regulated PP2A activity. OA treatment inhibited in vivo the levels of PP1 and PP2A activity, and induced apoptosis in SVHUC-ras and other cell lines. We conclude that OA-induced cell death pathway in ras-activated cell lines may involve a cross talk between PP1 and PP2A and ras signaling pathways. In light of the present results, the current theory that OA promotes mouse skin tumor formation by selective expansion of initiated cells that harbor ras mutations needs reevaluation.
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PMID:Ras mutation, irrespective of cell type and p53 status, determines a cell's destiny to undergo apoptosis by okadaic acid, an inhibitor of protein phosphatase 1 and 2A. 1046 39

Evidence for a relationship between overexpression of wild-type p53 and telomerase activity remains controversial. We investigated whether p53 gene transduction could cause telomerase inhibition in pancreatic cancer cell lines, focusing on the relation of transduction to growth arrest, cell cycle arrest, and apoptotic cell death. The cells were infected with recombinant adenovirus expressing wild-type p53 or p21WAF1 at a multiplicity of infection of 100 or were continuously exposed to 10 microM VP-16, which is well known to induce apoptosis. Adenovirus-mediated p53 gene transduction caused G1 cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, and resultant growth inhibition in MIA PaCa-2 cells; the cell number 2 days after infection was 50% of preinfection value, and 13% of the cells were dead. Moreover, the transduction resulted in complete depression of telomerase activity through down-regulation of hTERT mRNA expression. In contrast, p21WAF1 gene transduction only arrested cell growth and cell cycle at G1 phase, and VP-16 treatment inhibited cell growth with G2-M arrest and apoptosis; after treatment, the cell number was 73% of pretreatment, and 12% of the cells were dead. Neither p21WAF1 gene transduction nor VP-16 treatment caused telomerase inhibition. Similar results were obtained in two other pancreatic cancer cell lines, SUIT-2 and AsPC-1. Thus, our results demonstrate that the p53 gene transduction directly inhibits telomerase activity, independent of its effects on cell growth arrest, cell cycle arrest, and apoptosis.
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PMID:Adenovirus-mediated p53 gene transduction inhibits telomerase activity independent of its effects on cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in human pancreatic cancer cells. 1047 98

Pancreatic cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer related deaths in the United States. Despite many recent advances in the treatment modalities, the mortality rate still remains very high. Paclitaxel (Taxol) and Caffeine have been used for the treatment of this disease, however the molecular mechanisms of these agents are not fully understood, which may be partly responsible for the failure of these agents in the treatment of pancreatic cancer. Human pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell lines, HPAC and PANC-1 containing wild-type and mutant p53 respectively, were used to investigate the effects of Taxol and Caffeine on cell growth, and their effects on the modulation of cell cycle and apoptosis related genes. Protein extracts from these cells treated with 100 nM of Taxol or 4 mM of Caffeine were subjected to Western blot analysis for this study. Drug treated cells were also analyzed to calculate the number of cells undergoing apoptosis. Dose and time dependent growth inhibition was observed in both PANC-1 and HPAC cells when treated with either Taxol or Caffeine. Western blot analysis showed an up-regulation of p21WAF1 in both cell lines treated with either Taxol or Caffeine. Furthermore, down-regulation of cyclin B and cdk1 was observed in Taxol and Caffeine treated HPAC cells. However, the results were drastically different in PANC-1 cells where cyclin B was down regulated only by Caffeine treatment and the level of cdk1 protein was undetectable in this cell line. Moreover, up-regulation of p53 and down-regulation of Bcl-2 was observed only in HPAC cells treated with Taxol. Apoptotic cell death analysis showed increasing number of cells undergoing apoptosis between 24 and 48 h of Caffeine treatment, however only Taxol showed greater than 50% cells under-going apoptosis only in HPAC cells. The up-regulation of p21WAF1 and down-regulation of cyclin B and cdk1 suggest their possible roles in G2/M cell cycle arrest caused by both Taxol and Caffeine as reported earlier. From these results we conclude that the differential molecular changes observed in this study may determine the cellular effects of these agents on pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells and that the effects of chemotherapeutic agents may be determined by the endogenous status of p53 mutation and, in turn, may determine the therapeutic effects of these agents in the treatment of pancreatic cancer.
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PMID:Molecular effects of taxol and caffeine on pancreatic cancer cells. 1053 72


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