Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UNIPROT:P16104 (H2AX)
 3,930 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Decitabine (DAC) and 5-azacitidine have recently been approved for the treatment of myelodysplastic syndrome. The pharmacodynamic effects of DAC and 5-azacitidine outside their known activity as inhibitors of DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) require further investigation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of DAC on the expression of p21(WAF1/CIP1), a gene with a putative CpG island surrounding its promoter region. Promoter methylation analysis of p21(WAF1/CIP1) in leukemia cells revealed the absence of CpG methylation. However, DAC upregulated p21(WAF1/CIP1) expression in a dose-dependent manner (ED(50)=103.34 nM) and induced G2/M cell cycle arrest in leukemia cells. Sequential application of DAC followed by different histone deacetylase inhibitors induced expression of p21(WAF1/CIP1) synergistically. Upregulation of p21(WAF1/CIP1) paralleled DAC-induced apoptosis (ED(50)=153 nM). Low doses of DAC induced gamma-H2AX expression (ED(50)=16.5 nM) and upregulated p21(WAF1/CIP1) in congenic HCT 116 colon cancer cells in a DNMT-independent and p53-dependent fashion. Inhibition of p53 transactivation by pifithrin-alpha or the kinase activity of ATM by either the specific ATM inhibitor KU-5593 or caffeine abrogated p21(WAF1/CIP1) upregulation, indicating that DAC upregulation of p21(WAF1/CIP1) was p53- and ATM-dependent in leukemia cells. In conclusion, DAC upregulates p21(WAF1/CIP1) in DNMT-independent manner via the DNA damage/ATM/p53 axis.
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PMID:p21(WAF1/CIP1) induction by 5-azacytosine nucleosides requires DNA damage. 1822 91

5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (DAC) is approved for the treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes, but resistance to this agent is common. In search for mechanisms of resistance, we measured the half maximal (50%) inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) of DAC and found it differed 1000-fold among a panel of cancer cell lines. The IC(50) was correlated with the doses of DAC that induced the most hypomethylation of long interspersed nuclear elements (LINE; R = 0.94, P < .001), but not with LINE methylation or DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1), 3a, and 3b expression at baseline. Sensitivity to DAC showed a low correlation (R = 0.44, P = .11) to that of 5-azacytidine (AZA), but a good correlation to that of cytarabine (Ara-C; R = 0.89, P < .001). The 5 cell lines most resistant to DAC had a combination of low dCK, hENT1, and 2 transporters, and high cytosine deaminase. In an HL60 clone, resistance to DAC could be rapidly induced by drug exposure and was related to a switch from heterozygous to homozygous mutation of DCK. Transfection of wild-type DCK restored DAC sensitivity. DAC induced DNA breaks as evidenced by H2AX phosphorylation and increased homologous recombination rates by 7- to 10-fold. These results suggest that in vitro resistance to DAC can be explained by insufficient incorporation into DNA.
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PMID:Mechanisms of resistance to 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine in human cancer cell lines. 1893 45