Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UNIPROT:P23193 (transcription elongation factor)
 739 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Hexamethylene bis-acetamide-inducible protein 1 (HEXIM1) was identified earlier as an inhibitor of positive transcription elongation factor b (P-TEFb), which is a key transcriptional regulator of RNA polymerase II (Pol II). Studies show that more than half of P-TEFb in cells is associated with HEXIM1, which results in the inactivation of P-TEFb. Here, we identify a nucleolar protein, nucleophosmin (NPM), as a HEXIM1-binding protein. NPM binds to HEXIM1 in vitro and in vivo, and functions as a negative regulator of HEXIM1. Over-expression of NPM leads to proteasome-mediated degradation of HEXIM1, resulting in activation of P-TEFb-dependent transcription. In contrast, an increase in HEXIM1 protein levels and a decrease in transcription are detected when NPM is knocked down. We show that a cytoplasmic mutant of NPM, NPMc+, associates with and sequesters HEXIM1 in the cytoplasm resulting in higher RNA Pol II transcription. Correspondingly, cytoplasmic localization of endogenous HEXIM1 is detected in an acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cell line containing the NPMc+ mutation, suggesting the physiological importance of HEXIM1-NPMc+ interaction. Over-expression of NPM has been detected in tumors of various histological origins and our results may provide a possible molecular mechanism for the proto-oncogenic function of NPM. Furthermore, considering that 35% of AML patients are diagnosed with NPMc+ mutation, our findings suggest that in some cases of AML, RNA Pol II transcription may be disregulated by the malfunction of NPM and the mislocation of HEXIM1.
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PMID:Nucleophosmin interacts with HEXIM1 and regulates RNA polymerase II transcription. 1837 77

Hexamethylene bisacetamide-inducible protein 1 (HEXIM1) is best known as the inhibitor of positive transcription elongation factor b (P-TEFb) and is recently identified as a novel positive regulator of p53. We previously showed the basic region (BR) of HEXIM1 mediates the binding of HEXIM1 to a nucleolar protein, nucleophosmin (NPM), and can be ubiquitinated by human double minute 2 protein. Here we identify a cytotoxic peptide derived from the BR of HEXIM1. When fused with a cell-penetrating peptide, the HEXIM1 BR peptide triggers rapid cytotoxic effect independent of p53. Similarly, when the BR peptide is linked with a breast cancer cell targeting peptide, LTV, the LTV-BR fusion peptide exhibits specific killing of breast cancer cells, which is not observed with the commonly used cytotoxic peptide, KLA. Importantly, the BR peptide fails to enter cells by itself and does not induce any cytotoxic effects when it is not guided by any cell-penetrating or cancer targeting peptides. We showed that HEXIM1 BR peptide depolarizes mitochondrial membrane potential in a p53-dependent manner and its cell-killing activity is not suppressed by caspase inhibition. Furthermore, we observed an accumulation of the internalized BR peptide in the nucleoli of treated cells and an altered localization of NPM. These results illustrate a novel mechanism which the BR peptide induces cell death and can potentially be used as a novel therapeutic strategy against breast cancer.
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PMID:Use of a novel cytotoxic HEXIM1 peptide in the directed breast cancer therapy. 2673 38