Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UNIPROT:P05231 (interleukin-6)
 23,907 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-related body cavity-based lymphomas (BCBLs) are known to exhibit unusual clinical, immunophenotypic, and genotypic features, and have recently been found to harbor DNA sequences of a new human herpesvirus, designated Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) or human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8). The authors have encountered eight cases of HHV-8-associated BCBL in HIV-infected patients. A literature search revealed an additional 50 reported cases of HIV-related BCBL, as well as reports of several other disorders associated with HHV-8 DNA. Comprehensive analysis of the clinical and pathobiological features of all 58 known cases of HIV-related BCBL shows it to be a unique B-cell neoplasm with a strong propensity for body-cavity involvement without mass lesions and with little or no dissemination, poor prognosis, high grade usually immunoblastic morphology, late B-cell phenotype and genotype, no associated c-myc gene rearrangement, frequent presence of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) genome, and uniform association with HHV-8 DNA. Considering these features in the context of other disorders associated with HHV-8 DNA, HHV-8 appears to play a causal role in BCBL, possibly in concert with EBV, and may induce this lymphoma through dysregulation of cytokines, particularly interleukin-6, or infection of an unusual B-cell subset. The characteristics of HHV-8-associated BCBL suggest a possible role for antiherpes or anticytokine agents in the treatment of this lymphoma.
 ...
PMID:Human herpesvirus-8-associated body cavity-based lymphoma in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients: a unique B-cell neoplasm. 922 48

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a B-cell neoplasm characterized by bone marrow infiltration with malignant plasma cells, which synthesize and secrete monoclonal immunoglobulin (Ig) fragments. Despite the considerable progress in the understanding of MM biology, the molecular basis of the disease remains elusive. The initial transformation is thought to occur in a postgerminal center B-lineage cell, carrying a somatically hypermutated Ig heavy chain (IGH) gene. This plasmablastic precursor cell colonizes the bone marrow, propagates clonally and differentiates into a slowly proliferating myeloma cell population, all under the influence of specific cell adhesion molecules and cytokines. Production of interleukin-6 by stromal cells, osteoblasts and, in some cases, neoplastic cells is an essential element of myeloma cell growth, with the cytokine stimulus being delivered intracellularly via the Jack-STAT and ras signaling pathways. While karyotypic changes have been identified in up to 50% of MM patients, recent molecular cytogenetic techniques have revealed chromosomal abnormalities in the vast majority of examined cases. Translocations mostly involve illegal switch rearrangements of the IGH locus with various partner genes (CCND1, FGFR3, c-maf). Such events have been assigned a critical role in MM development. Mutations in coding and regulatory regions, as well as aberrant expression patterns of several oncogenes (c-myc, ras) and tumor suppressor genes (p16, p15) have been reported. Key regulators of programmed cell death (BCL-2, Fas), tumor expansion (metalloproteinases) and drug responsiveness (topoisomerase II alpha) have also been implicated in the pathogenesis of this hematologic malignancy. A tumorigenic role for human herpesvirus 8 (HHV8) was postulated recently, following the detection of viral sequences in bone marrow dendritic cells of MM patients. However, since several research groups were unable to confirm this observation, the role of HHV8 remains unclear. Translation of the advances in MM molecular biology into novel therapeutic strategies is essential in order to improve disease prognosis.
 ...
PMID:Molecular aspects of multiple myeloma. 1110 9

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a clonal B-cell neoplasm that accounts for 10% of all malignant hematologic neoplasms and that affects terminally differentiated B cells (i.e., plasma cells). It is now well recognized that the cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a major cytokine that promotes the proliferation of malignant plasma cells in MM. The IL-6 gene can be regulated by the NOTCH genes products. We have previously shown that the NOTCH ligand, JAG2, is overexpressed in MM. To investigate the mechanism(s) leading to JAG2 overexpression in MM, we assessed potential epigenetic modifications of the JAG2 promoter. We showed that the JAG2 promoter region is aberrantly acetylated in MM cell lines and patient samples. The acetylation state of histones is regulated by the recruitment of histone deacetylases (HDAC). HDACs are typically recruited to promoter regions through interaction with nuclear corepressors such as SMRT. SMRT levels were therefore investigated. Interestingly, MM cell lines and patient samples presented significantly reduced SMRT levels. The experiments suggest a correlation between constitutive acetylation of the JAG2 core promoter in the MM cell lines and reduced levels of the SMRT corepressor that recruits HDAC to promoter regions. Finally, SMRT function restoration induced JAG2 down-regulation as well as MM cell apoptosis.
 ...
PMID:Loss of the SMRT/NCoR2 corepressor correlates with JAG2 overexpression in multiple myeloma. 1941 36