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

Active, recombinant p68 reverse transcriptase (RT) from human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2), with an NH2-terminal extension containing a hexahistidine sequence was isolated from extracts of Escherichia coli by immobilized metal affinity chromatography. Treatment of the purified p68/p68 homodimer of HIV-2 RT with recombinant HIV-2 protease generates stable, active heterodimer (p68/p58) that is resistant to further hydrolysis. Analysis of this p68/p58 HIV-2 RT heterodimer revealed that while one subunit is intact p68, the p58 subunit is COOH-terminally truncated by cleavage, not at Phe440 as is seen in processing of the p66/p66 HIV-1 RT homodimer by HIV-1 protease, but at Met484. The expected COOH-terminal p10 fragment resulting from hydrolysis of p68 at Met484 is not released intact, but undergoes further cleavage at Asn494, Met503, and Tyr532. Processing of p68/p68 HIV-2 RT with the HIV-1 protease led to cleavage of the Phe440-Tyr441 bond, exactly as is seen with p66/p66 HIV-1 RT, to give the analogous p53 subunit. Studies of a peptide substrate modeled after residues 437-444 in HIV-2 RT showed that while the HIV-1 protease was able to cleave the Phe440 bond, this bond was resistant to cleavage by the HIV-2 enzyme. Our findings provide a rationale for the previous observation that the RT heterodimer isolated from HIV-2 lysates is larger than that from HIV-1. We conclude that the p68/p58 HIV-2 RT heterodimer, containing the Met484 truncated p58 subunit, is a biologically relevant form of the enzyme in vivo.
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PMID:The differential processing of homodimers of reverse transcriptases from human immunodeficiency viruses type 1 and 2 is a consequence of the distinct specificities of the viral proteases. 753 31

HIV-1 protease inhibitor (PI), nelfinavir (NFV) induced growth arrest and apoptosis of NCI-H460 and -H520, A549, EBC-1 and ABC-1 non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells in association with upregulation of p21waf1, p27kip1 and p53, and downregulation of Bcl-2 and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 proteins. We found that NFV blocked Akt signalling in these cells as measured by Akt kinase assay with glycogen synthase kinase-3alpha/beta (GSK-3alpha/beta) as a substrate. To explore the role of Akt signalling in NFV-mediated growth inhibition of NSCLC cells, we blocked this signal pathway by transfection of Akt small interfering RNA (siRNA) in these cells; transient transfection of Akt siRNA in NCI-H460 cells decreased the level of Bcl-2 protein and slowed their proliferation compared to the nonspecific siRNA-transfected cells. Conversely, forced-expression of Akt partially reversed NFV-mediated growth inhibition of these cells, suggesting that Akt may be a molecular target of NFV in NSCLC cells. Also, we found that inhibition of Akt signalling by NFV enhanced the ability of docetaxel to inhibit the growth of NCI-H460 and -H520 cells, as measured by MTT assay. Importantly, NFV slowed the proliferation and induced apoptosis of NCI-H460 cells present as tumour xenografts in nude mice without adverse systemic effects. Taken together, this family of compounds might be useful for the treatment of individuals with NSCLC.
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PMID:NFV, an HIV-1 protease inhibitor, induces growth arrest, reduced Akt signalling, apoptosis and docetaxel sensitisation in NSCLC cell lines. 1713 72