Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UNIPROT:P43146 (tumour suppressor)
 5,935 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Although Smad signalling is known to play a tumour suppressor role, it has been shown to play a prometastatic function also in breast cancer and melanoma metastasis to bone. In contrast, mutation or reduced level of Smad4 in colorectal cancer is directly correlated to poor survival and increased metastasis. However, the functional role of Smad signalling in metastasis of colorectal cancer has not been elucidated. We previously reported that overexpression of Smad7 in colon adenocarcinoma (FET) cells induces tumorigenicity by blocking TGF-beta-induced growth inhibition and apoptosis. Here, we have observed that abrogation of Smad signalling by Smad7 induces liver metastasis in a splenic injection model. Polymerase chain reaction with genomic DNA from liver metastases indicates that cells expressing Smad7 migrated to the liver. Increased expression of TGF-beta type II receptor in liver metastases is associated with phosphorylation and nuclear accumulation of Smad2. Immunohistochemical analyses have suggested poorly differentiated spindle cell morphology and higher cell proliferation in Smad7-induced liver metastases. Interestingly, we have observed increased expression and junctional staining of Claudin-1, Claudin-4 and E-cadherin in liver metastases. Therefore, this report demonstrates, for the first time, that blockade of TGF-beta/Smad pathway in colon cancer cells induces metastasis, thus supporting an important role of Smad signalling in inhibiting colon cancer metastasis.
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PMID:Smad7 induces hepatic metastasis in colorectal cancer. 1878 Nov 53

Colorectal cancer is a major health problem worldwide. Aberrant activation of the Wingless-type mouse mammary tumour virus integration site family (Wnt)/beta-catenin signalling pathway due to mutation of adenomatous polyposis coli (APC), beta-catenin (CTNNB1) or AXIN genes is the most common and initial alteration in sporadic colorectal tumours. Numerous epidemiological and experimental studies have indicated a protective action of vitamin D against colorectal cancer. Previous work has demonstrated that the most active vitamin D metabolite, 1alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25(OH)2D3) inhibits beta-catenin transcriptional activity by promoting vitamin D receptor (VDR) binding to beta-catenin and the induction of E-cadherin expression. Recently, 1,25(OH)2D3 has been shown to distinctly regulate two genes encoding the extracellular Wnt inhibitors DICKKOPF-1 and DICKKOPF-4 (DKK-1, DKK-4). By an indirect transcriptional mechanism, 1,25(OH)2D3 increases the expression of DKK-1 RNA and protein, which acts as a tumour suppressor in human colon cancer cells harbouring endogenous mutations in the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway. In contrast, 1,25(OH)2D3 represses DKK-4 transcription by inducing direct VDR binding to its promoter. Unexpectedly, DKK-4 is a target of the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway and is up-regulated in colorectal tumours, and it has been shown to increase cell migration and invasion and to promote a proangiogenic phenotype. Together, these results show that 1,25(OH)2D3 exerts a complex set of regulatory actions leading to the inhibition of the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway in colon cancer cells that is in line with its protective effect against this neoplasia.
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PMID:Vitamin D and Wnt/beta-catenin pathway in colon cancer: role and regulation of DICKKOPF genes. 1903 86

Promoter CpG methylation of tumour suppressor genes (TSGs) is an epigenetic biomarker for TSG identification and molecular diagnosis. We screened genome wide for novel methylated genes through methylation subtraction of a genetic demethylation model of colon cancer (double knockout of DNMT1 and DNMT3B in HCT116) and identified DLEC1 (Deleted in lung and oesophageal cancer 1), a major 3p22.3 TSG, as one of the methylated targets. We further found that DLEC1 was downregulated or silenced in most colorectal and gastric cell lines due to promoter methylation, whereas broadly expressed in normal tissues including colon and stomach, and unmethylated in expressing cell lines and immortalised normal colon epithelial cells. DLEC1 expression was reactivated through pharmacologic or genetic demethylation, indicating a DNMT1/DNMT3B-mediated methylation silencing. Aberrant methylation was further detected in primary colorectal (10 out of 34, 29%) and gastric tumours (30 out of 89, 34%), but seldom in paired normal colon (0 out of 17) and gastric (1 out of 20, 5%) samples. No correlation between DLEC1 methylation and clinical parameters of gastric cancers was found. Ectopic expression of DLEC1 in silenced HCT116 and MKN45 cells strongly inhibited their clonogenicity. Thus, DLEC1 is a functional tumour suppressor, being frequently silenced by epigenetic mechanism in gastrointestinal tumours.
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PMID:DLEC1 is a functional 3p22.3 tumour suppressor silenced by promoter CpG methylation in colon and gastric cancers. 1915 37

MicroRNAs are small RNAs that regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. After their discovery 15 years ago, a new layer of gene regulation was introduced into every field of human biology and medicine. Considering the strong association between genetic alterations and neoplastic diseases, it is not surprising that there is a special focus on miRNAs and cancer. A multitude of experimental studies on colorectal cancer, the most common cancer site and furthermore the second most common cause of death due to cancer, deliver insight into miRNA-mediated, regulatory links to well-known oncogenic and tumour suppressor signalling pathways. Furthermore, several investigations have described the ability of microRNA expression patterns to predict prognosis in colon cancer and support diagnosis of poorly differentiated tumours. In this short review, we give a comprehensive overview focussed on miRNAs in colorectal cancer research.
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PMID:The impact of microRNAs on colorectal cancer. 1928 29

Adenomatous Polyposis Coli (APC) is a tumor suppressor protein involved in the initiation and progression of colon cancer. The most widely accepted function ofAPC is to participate to the Wnt signaling pathway, by downregulating beta-catenin and thereby controlling gene transcription and cell proliferation. However, APC is clearly a multifunctional protein whose loss contributes to tumor formation in multiple ways. Regulation of APC localization during cell migration and the ability of APC to bind multiple polarity proteins and microtubule-associated molecules support the idea that APC plays a key role in directed cell migration and that this function may contribute to its tumour suppressor activity.
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PMID:APC in cell migration. 1992 50

UNC5A is an axon-guidance molecule, and plays a critical role in neuronal development and differentiation as a netrin-1 receptor. Emerging evidence suggests that axon guidance molecules including UNC5A regulate apoptosis in non-neuronal cells. Here, we report that UNC5A regulates apoptosis as a downstream target of p53. UNC5A expression was strongly induced by exogenous and endogenous p53. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) revealed that p53 binds to a sequence in the promoter region of the UNC5A gene. Reporter assays showed that this sequence exhibits p53-dependent transcriptional activity. Overexpression of UNC5A significantly suppressed colony formation of two glioblastoma cell lines-U373MG and T98G. UNC5A dramatically induced apoptosis through the activation of caspase-3 in various cancer cell lines, including LS174T (colon cancer), U373MG (glioblastoma), SH-SY5Y (neuroblastoma), and SKNAS (neuroblastoma). Finally, gamma irradiation strongly induced the expression of UNC5A mRNA in the spleen and colon of p53+/+ mice, but not in those of p53-/- mice, implying that the transcription of UNC5A in vivo is regulated by p53. These results suggest that UNC5A is a novel transcriptional target of p53 and plays a role in p53-dependent apoptosis.
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PMID:Identification of UNC5A as a novel transcriptional target of tumor suppressor p53 and a regulator of apoptosis. 2037

The adaptor protein p140Cap/SNIP is a novel Src-binding protein that regulates Src activation through C-terminal Src kinase (Csk). Here, by gain and loss of function approaches in breast and colon cancer cells, we report that p140Cap immobilizes E-cadherin at the cell membrane and inhibits EGFR and Erk1/2 signalling, blocking scatter and proliferation of cancer cells. p140Cap-dependent regulation of E-cadherin/EGFR cross-talk and cell motility is due to the inhibition of Src kinase. However, rescue of Src activity is not sufficient to restore Erk1/2 phosphorylation and proliferation. Indeed, p140Cap also impairs Erk1/2 phosphorylation by affecting Ras activity, downstream to the EGFR. In conclusion, p140Cap stabilizes adherens junctions and inhibits EGFR and Ras signalling through the dual control of both Src and Ras activities, thus affecting crucial cancer properties such as invasion and growth. Interestingly, p140Cap expression is lost in more aggressive human breast cancers, showing an inverse correlation with EGFR expression. Therefore, p140Cap mechanistically behaves as a tumour suppressor that inhibits signalling pathways leading to aggressive phenotypes.
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PMID:p140Cap dual regulation of E-cadherin/EGFR cross-talk and Ras signalling in tumour cell scatter and proliferation. 2045 86

Cancer in the 21st century has become the number one cause of death in developed countries. Although much progress has been made in improving patient survival, tumour relapse is one of the important causes of cancer treatment failure. An early observation in the study of cancer was the heterogeneity of tumours. Traditionally, this was explained by a combination of genomic instability of tumours and micro environmental factors leading to diverse phenotypical characteristics. It was assumed that cells in a tumour have an equal capacity to propagate the cancer. This model is currently known as the stochastic model. Recently, the Cancer stem cell model has been proposed to explain the heterogeneity of a tumour and its progression. According to this model, the heterogeneity of tumours is the result of aberrant differentiation of tumour cells into the cells of the tissue the tumour originated from. Tumours were suggested to contain stem cell-like cells, the cancer stem cells or tumour-initiating cells, which are uniquely capable of propagating a tumour much like normal stem cells fuel proliferation and differentiation in normal tissue. In this review we discuss the normal stem cell biology of the stomach and intestine followed by both the stochastic and cancer stem cell models in light of recent findings in the gastric and intestinal systems. The molecular pathways underlying normal and tumourigenic growth have been well studied, and recently the stem cells of the stomach and intestine have been identified. Furthermore, intestinal stem cells were identified as the cells-of-origin of colon cancer upon loss of the tumour suppressor APC. Lastly, several studies have proposed the positive identification of a cancer stem cell of human colon cancer. At the end we compare the cancer stem cell model and the stochastic model. We conclude that clonal evolution of tumour cells resulting from genetic mutations underlies tumour initiation and progression in both cancer models. This implies that at any point during tumour development any tumour cell can revert to a cancer stem cell after having gained a clonal advantage over the original cancer stem cell. Therefore, these models represent two sides of the same coin.
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PMID:Stem cells and cancer of the stomach and intestine. 2059 59

Epigenetic changes are inherited alterations in DNA that affect gene expression and function without altering the DNA sequence. DNA methylation is one epigenetic process implicated in human disease that is influenced by diet. DNA methylation involves addition of a 1-C moiety to cytosine groups in DNA. Methylated genes are not transcribed or are transcribed at a reduced rate. Global under-methylation (hypomethylation) and site-specific over-methylation (hypermethylation) are common features of human tumours. DNA hypomethylation, leading to increased expression of specific proto-oncogenes (e.g. genes involved in proliferation or metastasis) can increase the risk of cancer as can hypermethylation and reduced expression of tumour suppressor (TS) genes (e.g. DNA repair genes). DNA methyltransferases (DNMT), together with the methyl donor S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), facilitate DNA methylation. Abnormal DNA methylation is implicated not only in the development of human cancer but also in CVD. Polyphenols, a group of phytochemicals consumed in significant amounts in the human diet, effect risk of cancer. Flavonoids from tea, soft fruits and soya are potent inhibitors of DNMT in vitro, capable of reversing hypermethylation and reactivating TS genes. Folates, a group of water-soluble B vitamins found in high concentration in green leafy vegetables, regulate DNA methylation through their ability to generate SAM. People who habitually consume the lowest level of folate or with the lowest blood folate concentrations have a significantly increased risk of developing several cancers and CVD. This review describes how flavonoids and folates in the human diet alter DNA methylation and may modify the risk of human colon cancer and CVD.
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PMID:Epigenetic modifications and human pathologies: cancer and CVD. 2106 30

The effective use of targeted therapy is highly dependent on the identification of responder patient populations. Loss of FBW7, which encodes a tumour-suppressor protein, is frequently found in various types of human cancer, including breast cancer, colon cancer and T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL). In line with these genomic data, engineered deletion of Fbw7 in mouse T cells results in T-ALL, validating FBW7 as a T-ALL tumour suppressor. Determining the precise molecular mechanisms by which FBW7 exerts antitumour activity is an area of intensive investigation. These mechanisms are thought to relate in part to FBW7-mediated destruction of key proteins relevant to cancer, including Jun, Myc, cyclin E and notch 1 (ref. 9), all of which have oncoprotein activity and are overexpressed in various human cancers, including leukaemia. In addition to accelerating cell growth, overexpression of Jun, Myc or notch 1 can also induce programmed cell death. Thus, considerable uncertainty surrounds how FBW7-deficient cells evade cell death in the setting of upregulated Jun, Myc and/or notch 1. Here we show that the E3 ubiquitin ligase SCF(FBW7) (a SKP1-cullin-1-F-box complex that contains FBW7 as the F-box protein) governs cellular apoptosis by targeting MCL1, a pro-survival BCL2 family member, for ubiquitylation and destruction in a manner that depends on phosphorylation by glycogen synthase kinase 3. Human T-ALL cell lines showed a close relationship between FBW7 loss and MCL1 overexpression. Correspondingly, T-ALL cell lines with defective FBW7 are particularly sensitive to the multi-kinase inhibitor sorafenib but resistant to the BCL2 antagonist ABT-737. On the genetic level, FBW7 reconstitution or MCL1 depletion restores sensitivity to ABT-737, establishing MCL1 as a therapeutically relevant bypass survival mechanism that enables FBW7-deficient cells to evade apoptosis. Therefore, our work provides insight into the molecular mechanism of direct tumour suppression by FBW7 and has implications for the targeted treatment of patients with FBW7-deficient T-ALL.
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PMID:SCF(FBW7) regulates cellular apoptosis by targeting MCL1 for ubiquitylation and destruction. 2136 33


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