Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P05412 (c-Jun)
 11,453 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Obesity is associated with insulin resistance and a state of abnormal inflammatory response. The Toll-like receptor (TLR)4 has an important role in inflammation and immunity, and its expression has been reported in most tissues of the body, including the insulin-sensitive ones. Because it is activated by lipopolysaccharide and saturated fatty acids, which are inducers of insulin resistance, TLR4 may be a candidate for participation in the cross-talk between inflammatory and metabolic signals. Here, we show that C3H/HeJ mice, which have a loss-of-function mutation in TLR4, are protected against the development of diet-induced obesity. In addition, these mice demonstrate decreased adiposity, increased oxygen consumption, a decreased respiratory exchange ratio, improved insulin sensitivity, and enhanced insulin-signaling capacity in adipose tissue, muscle, and liver compared with control mice during high-fat feeding. Moreover, in these tissues, control mice fed a high-fat diet show an increase in IkappaB kinase complex and c-Jun NH(2)-terminal kinase activity, which is prevented in C3H/HeJ mice. In isolated muscles from C3H/HeJ mice, protection from saturated fatty acid-induced insulin resistance is observed. Thus, TLR4 appears to be an important mediator of obesity and insulin resistance and a potential target for the therapy of these highly prevalent medical conditions.
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PMID:Loss-of-function mutation in Toll-like receptor 4 prevents diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance. 2720 24

Arsenic is a widespread environmental toxic agent that has been shown to cause diverse tissue and cell damage and at the same time to be an effective anti-cancer therapeutic agent. The objective of this study is to explore the signaling mechanisms involved in arsenic toxicity. We show that the IkappaB kinase beta (IKKbeta) plays a crucial role in protecting cells from arsenic toxicity. Ikkbeta(-)(/)(-) mouse 3T3 fibroblasts have decreased expression of antioxidant genes, such as metallothionein 1 (Mt1). In contrast to wild type and IKKbeta-reconstituted Ikkbeta(-)(/)(-) cells, IKKbeta-null cells display a marked increase in arsenic-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation, which leads to activation of the MKK4-c-Jun NH(2)-terminal kinase (JNK) pathway, c-Jun phosphorylation, and apoptosis. Pretreatment with the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC) and expression of MT1 in the Ikkbeta(-)(/)(-) cells prevented JNK activation; moreover, NAC pretreatment, MT1 expression, MKK4 ablation, and JNK inhibition all protected cells from death induced by arsenic. Our data show that two signaling pathways appear to be important for modulating arsenic toxicity. First, the IKK-NF-kappaB pathway is crucial for maintaining cellular metallothionein-1 levels to counteract ROS accumulation, and second, when this pathway fails, excessive ROS leads to activation of the MKK4-JNK pathway, resulting in apoptosis.
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PMID:A critical role for IkappaB kinase beta in metallothionein-1 expression and protection against arsenic toxicity. 1752 90

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus encodes numerous regulatory proteins capable of modulating viral and cellular gene expression and affecting host cell functions. K-bZIP, a leucine zipper-containing transcription factor encoded by ORFK8, is one such protein. During infection, transcription of the ORFK8 early gene is turned on by the immediate-early replication and transcription factor activator (RTA). One described function of the K-bZIP nuclear protein is to interact with and repress RTA-mediated transactivation of viral promoters, including that of the K8 gene. In the present work, we provide evidence that the expression of K-bZIP results in the activation of the ifn-beta gene. Of interest, ifn-beta gene activation by K-bZIP is independent of interferon (IFN)-responsive factor 3 (IRF-3) and nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB) activation. Using a DNA binding affinity assay and electromobility shift assay, we report that K-bZIP binds efficiently to the PRDIII-I region of the beta IFN (IFN-beta) promoter, and, in doing so, it prevents the attachment of activated IRF-3 but not that of NF-kappaB or ATF2/c-Jun to the IFN-beta promoter sequence. As a consequence, ifn-beta gene activation in response to IFN inducers such as Sendai virus infection or expression of retinoic acid-inducible gene I, mitochondrial antiviral signaling protein, or TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK-1) is severely impaired (>90%) by the presence of K-bZIP. K-bZIP also prevents the activation of RANTES and CXCL11, whose promoters are also regulated by IRF-3. Lysine 158 (target for SUMO conjugation), threonine 111, and serine 167 (targets for phosphorylation) mutants of K-bZIP were equally effective as wild-type K-bZIP in mediating the repression of TBK-1-activated ifn-beta gene expression. Lastly, the overexpression of CREB binding protein could not reverse the K-bZIP repression of TBK-1-activated ifn-beta gene expression. In all, our results indicate that K-bZIP binds directly to the PRDIII-I region of the IFN-beta promoter and, as a consequence, causes a low level of ifn-beta gene transcription. In doing so, K-bZIP prevents IRF-3 from binding to the IFN-beta promoter and precludes the formation of the enhanceosome, which is required for maximal ifn-beta gene transcription. A new role for K-bZIP as a protein involved in immune evasion is therefore uncovered.
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PMID:Binding of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus K-bZIP to interferon-responsive factor 3 elements modulates antiviral gene expression. 1765 96

Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha) activates the nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappa B) pathway in various cell types, leading to expression of cell survival and inflammatory proteins. One mechanism of cell survival brought about by NF-kappa B is the inhibition of Activator Protein-1 (AP-1), which when activated, could lead to cell death. However, TNFalpha can also induce the AP-1 pathway, and the mechanisms by which these two pathways are regulated in response to TNF alpha are poorly understood. We proposed that Inhibitor of kappa B Kinase gamma (IKK gamma) (which is also known as NF-kappa B essential modulator, NEMO) plays a key role in integrating and coordinating these two pathways. Our results showed that IKK gamma activates the AP-1 pathway, via a mechanism that is dependent on the first leucine zipper (LZ) domain of IKK gamma, by interacting with two proteins of the AP-1 complex, c-Jun and c-Fos, and changing the phosphorylation status of c-Jun. Even though IKK gamma is required for the activation of NF-kappa B, we found that it reduced the activity of NF-kappa B when it was overexpressed. In summary, we demonstrated that transfected IKK gamma, while inhibiting the NF-kappa B pathway, directly interacts with the AP-1 proteins and activates the AP-1 pathway independent of its effects on NF-kappa B. Our results indicate that IKK gamma regulates TNF alpha signaling by coordinating cell responses mediated by the AP-1 and NF-kappa B pathways.
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PMID:IKK gamma (NEMO) is involved in the coordination of the AP-1 and NF-kappa B pathways. 1808 Aug 3

Sulfur mustard (SM) is a strong vesicant that has been used as a chemical warfare agent. To understand the molecular mechanisms that underlie the inflammatory skin reaction in response to SM, we analyzed the activation pattern of the NF-kappaB and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways. Keratinocytes responded with an induction of the canonical NF-kappaB pathway, including activation of IkappaB kinase 2, followed by phosphorylation and degradation of IkappaBalpha and of the transactivating subunit RelA at Ser536. The biphasic NF-kappaB response was strictly dependent on the transactivating subunit RelA, as demonstrated by keratinocytes lacking RelA. Parallel to NF-kappaB activation, we observed an induction of the Raf-1/MEK1/2/ERK1/2/MSK1 and MKK3/6/p38/MSK1 pathways. Although mitogen and stress-activated kinase 1 has been described as a RelA kinase with Ser276 as its target, this site remained unphosphorylated in response to SM. A further MAPK pathway induced by SM was the MKK4/7/JNK1/2 pathway, which resulted in phosphorylation of the transcription factor activating transcription factor-2, but not c-Jun. Our results indicate that SM induces a complex cellular response in keratinocytes, with the activation of three MAPK pathways and the NF-kappaB pathway.
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PMID:Role of NF-kappaB/RelA and MAPK pathways in keratinocytes in response to sulfur mustard. 1820 59

Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is reported to be one of the early-response gene products induced by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA). However, the relevance of COX-2 in TPA-induced cell transformation and the underlying mechanisms remains to be explored. Initially, we verified COX-2 induction after TPA treatment in mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF) and mouse epidermal cells Cl 41. More importantly, introduction of COX-2 small interfering RNA in MEFs or Cl 41 cells suppressed the cell transformation caused by TPA treatment. This inhibition could be reversed by overexpression of human full-length COX-2, indicating that COX-2 is at least one of the critical molecules involved in TPA-induced cell transformation. We further showed that TPA-promoted cell cycle progression was partially suppressed by COX-2 small interfering RNA, indicating that COX-2 also participated in TPA-associated cell cycle progression. Investigation of the upstream signaling pathways revealed that c-Jun-NH(2)-kinase 1 (JNK1), but not JNK2, played important roles in COX-2 induction, because knockout of JNK1 gene rather than JNK2 gene markedly impaired COX-2 induction. Furthermore, inhibition of c-Jun/activator protein 1 pathway or JNKs/c-Jun pathway by overexpression of dominant negative mutants of c-Jun, or MKK4 and MKK7 together, resulted in impairment of COX-2 induction, suggesting that JNK1/c-Jun/activator protein 1 pathway is involved in TPA-associated COX-2 induction. In contrast, IKK/p65 nuclear factor-kappaB pathway was not implicated because knockout of IKKalpha, IKKbeta, or p65 gene did not affect COX-2 induction although nuclear factor-kappaB was activated by TPA. In addition, the TPA-promoted cell cycle progression was found impaired in JNK1-deficient, but not in JNK2-deficient, MEFs. Our results show that JNK1-associated COX-2 induction is implicated in TPA-associated cell transformation and cell cycle progression.
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PMID:A JNK1/AP-1-dependent, COX-2 induction is implicated in 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate-induced cell transformation through regulating cell cycle progression. 1823 71

Premature activation of the inflammatory processes that mediate human parturition leads to preterm birth, a major clinical problem associated with neonatal morbidity and mortality. Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) are currently in clinical trials for the treatment of inflammatory disorders. Recent evidence suggests that there may be a therapeutic use for HDACi in the management of preterm birth, with administration of HDACi to pregnant mice shown to delay delivery. Because NF-kappaB is a key orchestrator of the inflammatory response and plays a pivotal role in parturition, it is important to understand how administration of HDACi might affect NF-kappaB activity in human uterine tissues. We show here that the effects of HDACi on nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) in human myometrial cells are time-dependent. Short-term exposure to HDACi enhanced interleukin (IL)-1beta-induced NF-kappaB activity as a result of potentiating IkappaB kinase (IKK)beta activity, thereby leading to persistent turnover of IkappaBalpha/epsilon proteins and prolonging NF-kappaB phosphorylation, nuclear localization, and DNA binding. Conversely, long-term HDACi treatments resulted in repression of NF-kappaB DNA binding. Nevertheless, both short- and long-term HDACi treatments inhibited the expression of four labor-associated proinflammatory genes (COX-2, IL-8, IL-6, and RANTES), and this was associated with repression of the proinflammatory transcription factor c-Jun. Together, our data indicate that HDACi exert anti-inflammatory effects in human myometrium and may thus be useful in achieving a myometrial gene expression profile that favors uterine quiescence. However, coadministration of an IKKbeta inhibitor may be both necessary and sufficient to circumvent potential induction of labor-associated pathways that could result from HDACi-induced augmentation of NF-kappaB activity.
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PMID:Histone deacetylase inhibitors exert time-dependent effects on nuclear factor-kappaB but consistently suppress the expression of proinflammatory genes in human myometrial cells. 1837 36

Inhibitor of NF-kappaB (IkappaB) kinase (IKK) and c-Jun NH(2)-terminal kinase (JNK) are stress inducible kinases that critically regulate numerous physiological and pathological processes. Transient activation of the downstream transcription factors NF-kappaB and AP-1, allows for stress inducible, inflammatory and innate immune gene expression programs. However, elevated chronic activity is associated with cancer and chronic inflammatory disease. Despite its relevance to human health, little is known about the molecular mechanisms that control constitutive activity of IKK and JNK. Here, we demonstrate that the serine/threonine kinase PKN1 plays a critical role in regulating constitutive IKK/JNK activity in unstimulated cells and report on the molecular mechanism. We identify TRAF1 as a substrate of PKN1 kinase activity in vitro and in vivo, and show that this phosphorylation event is required for attenuating downstream kinase activities. Furthermore, this silencing was dependent on TNFR2. Mutagenesis of the phospho-acceptor residue in TRAF1 abrogated PKN1-dependent recruitment to TNFR2. Our results suggest a model by which the stoichiometric ratio of TRAF1 and TRAF2 heteromeric complexes associated with TNFR2 control the tonic activity of JNK and IKK. TRAF1 phosphorylation by the ubiquitously expressed kinase PKN1 thereby plays a critical role in the negative regulation of tonic activity of the two central inflammatory signaling pathways.
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PMID:Negative regulation of constitutive NF-kappaB and JNK signaling by PKN1-mediated phosphorylation of TRAF1. 1842 22

Resveratrol, a phytoalexin present in grapes, has been reported to inhibit multistage mouse skin carcinogenesis. Recent studies showed that topically applied resveratrol significantly inhibited cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression and activation of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) induced by tumor promoter 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) in mouse epidermis. The aim of the present study was to further explore the effect of resveratrol on TPA-induced signaling pathways in mouse epidermis and to compare with its dimethylether, pterostilbene. Resveratrol and pterostilbene significantly reduced activator protein 1 (AP-1) and NF-kappaB activation. In the case of AP-1, the binding of c-Jun subunit was particularly affected, while only slight effect on c-Fos binding to TPA-responsive element (AP-1 binding consensus sequence) (TRE) site was observed. Both stilbenes inhibited the activation of NF-kappaB by blocking the translocation of p65 to the nucleus and increasing the retention of IkappaBa in the cytosol. The latter might be related to decreased activity of IkappaB kinase and/or proteasome 20S. Reduced activation of transcription factors decreased the expression and activity of COX-2 and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS). In most assays, pterostilbene was either equally or significantly more potent than resveratrol. Pterostilbene might show higher biological activity due to its possible better bioavailability, since substitution of hydroxy with methoxy group increases lipophilicity.
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PMID:Pterostilbene is equally potent as resveratrol in inhibiting 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate activated NFkappaB, AP-1, COX-2, and iNOS in mouse epidermis. 1855 58

Activation of c-Jun amino-terminal kinase (JNK) facilitates tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-induced cell death. The p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway is induced by TNF stimulation, but it has not been implicated in TNF-induced cell death. Here, we show that hepatocyte-specific ablation of p38alpha in mice results in excessive activation of JNK in the liver after in vivo challenge with bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Despite increased JNK activity, p38alpha-deficient hepatocytes were not sensitive to LPS/TNF toxicity showing that JNK activation was not sufficient to mediate TNF-induced liver damage. By contrast, LPS injection caused liver failure in mice lacking both p38alpha and IkappaB kinase 2 (IKK2) in hepatocytes. Therefore, when combined with partial nuclear factor-kappaB inhibition, p38alpha deficiency sensitizes the liver to cytokine-induced damage. Collectively, these results reveal a new function of p38alpha in collaborating with IKK2 to protect the liver from LPS/TNF-induced failure by controlling JNK activation.
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PMID:p38 alpha MAPK inhibits JNK activation and collaborates with IkappaB kinase 2 to prevent endotoxin-induced liver failure. 1870 19


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