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

The testis is a tissue of high proliferative activity. In this organ, sperm cells (spermatozoa) are produced from stem cells (spermatogonia) by two consecutive steps of cell multiplication and spermatid cytodifferentiation. Mitotic proliferation of spermatogonia generates primary spermatocytes which enter meiosis, leading to the generation of spermatids. The number of cells entering meiosis is held constant, since outnumbering spermatogonia or premeiotic spermatocytes are eliminated by apoptosis (programmed cell death). During apoptosis, the nuclear chromatin is internucleosomally degraded by the activity of a Ca2+, Mg2+-dependent endonuclease. Recent data indicate that deoxyribonuclease I (DNase I) is identical to the apoptotic endonuclease responsible for the internucleosomal DNA degradation. Previous results using primers specific for rat parotid DNase I in a polymerase chain reaction have demonstrated the presence of DNase I-specific gene transcripts in rat testis. We have therefore analysed the presence of DNase I in rat testis by immunohistochemistry and biochemical procedures. The presence of DNase I-like endonucleolytic activity was verified enzymatically. DNase I immunoreactivity was detected in the nuclei of a few spermatogonia and premeiotic spermatocytes, but within the acrosomic vesicle of all spermatids and spermatozoa. In situ hybridisation revealed the accumulation of DNase I-specific gene transcripts in a small number of spermatogonia and/or premeiotic spermatocytes, but in a large number of spermatids. The occurrence of apoptotic DNA fragmentation was investigated by in situ end-labelling (ISEL) of free 3'-OH DNA ends and gave positive nuclear staining of only very few spermatogonia. No positive ISEL staining was observed in maturing spermatids and/or spermatozoa. These data support the notion that, within the seminiferous epithelium, the number of primary spermatocytes entering meiosis is controlled by apoptosis. In addition, they demonstrated that mature sperm cells are equipped with an endonuclease that might be used for DNA degradation during their elimination at later stages of their life span. The expression and distribution of the tumour suppressor gene product, p53, was analysed by immunostaining. Strong p53 immunoreactivity was observed in the nuclei of a number of spermatogonia, of some premeiotic spermatocytes and probably in all spermatids. Thus, p53 expression appeared to parallel that of DNase I. In contrast, p53 immunoreactivity was absent in mature spermatozoa present in the lumen of the testicular tubules or the ductus epididymidis. It is therefore proposed that at later stages of spermatid maturation most probably before their release as mature spermatozoa-the p53 gene product was either degraded or retained in residual bodies, since p53 immunoreactivity was found to be concentrated within these organelles.
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PMID:Distribution of deoxyribonuclease I (DNase I) and p53 in rat testis and their correlation with apoptosis. 891 66

Genetic mapping studies have identified multiple cancer susceptibility regions at chromosome 8q24, upstream of the MYC oncogene. MYC has been widely presumed as the regulated target gene, but definitive evidence functionally linking these cancer regions with MYC has been difficult to obtain. Here we examined candidate functional variants of a haplotype block at 8q24 encompassing the two independent risk alleles for prostate and breast cancer, rs620861 and rs13281615. We used the mapping of DNase I hypersensitive sites as a tool to prioritise regions for further functional analysis. This approach identified rs378854, which is in complete linkage disequilibrium (LD) with rs620861, as a novel functional prostate cancer-specific genetic variant. We demonstrate that the risk allele (G) of rs378854 reduces binding of the transcription factor YY1 in vitro. This factor is known to repress global transcription in prostate cancer and is a candidate tumour suppressor. Additional experiments showed that the YY1 binding site is occupied in vivo in prostate cancer, but not breast cancer cells, consistent with the observed cancer-specific effects of this single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). Using chromatin conformation capture (3C) experiments, we found that the region surrounding rs378854 interacts with the MYC and PVT1 promoters. Moreover, expression of the PVT1 oncogene in normal prostate tissue increased with the presence of the risk allele of rs378854, while expression of MYC was not affected. In conclusion, we identified a new functional prostate cancer risk variant at the 8q24 locus, rs378854 allele G, that reduces binding of the YY1 protein and is associated with increased expression of PVT1 located 0.5 Mb downstream.
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PMID:A functional variant at a prostate cancer predisposition locus at 8q24 is associated with PVT1 expression. 2181 16

The serine/threonine kinase LKB1 is a tumour suppressor that regulates multiple biological pathways, including cell cycle control, cell polarity and energy metabolism by direct phosphorylation of 14 different AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) family members. Although many downstream targets have been described, the regulation of LKB1 gene expression is still poorly understood. In this study, we performed a functional analysis of the human LKB1 upstream regulatory region. We used 200 base pair deletion constructs of the 5'-flanking region fused to a luciferase reporter to identify the core promoter. It encompasses nucleotides -345 to +52 relative to the transcription start site and coincides with a DNase I hypersensitive site. Based on extensive deletion and substitution mutant analysis of the LKB1 promoter, we identified four cis-acting elements which are critical for transcriptional activation. Using electrophoretic mobility shift assays as well as chromatin immunoprecipitations, we demonstrate that the transcription factors Sp1, NF-Y and two forkhead box O (FOXO) family members FOXO3 and FOXO4 bind to these elements. Overexpression of these factors significantly increased the LKB1 promoter activity. Conversely, small interfering RNAs directed against NF-Y alpha and the two FOXO proteins greatly reduced endogenous LKB1 expression and phosphorylation of LKB1's main substrate AMPK in three different cell lines. Taken together, these results demonstrate that Sp1, NF-Y and FOXO transcription factors are involved in the regulation of LKB1 transcription.
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PMID:Gene expression of the tumour suppressor LKB1 is mediated by Sp1, NF-Y and FOXO transcription factors. 2241 93

DNase I hypersensitive sites (DHSs) provide important information on the presence of transcriptional regulatory elements and the state of chromatin in mammalian cells. Conventional DNase sequencing (DNase-seq) for genome-wide DHSs profiling is limited by the requirement of millions of cells. Here we report an ultrasensitive strategy, called single-cell DNase sequencing (scDNase-seq) for detection of genome-wide DHSs in single cells. We show that DHS patterns at the single-cell level are highly reproducible among individual cells. Among different single cells, highly expressed gene promoters and enhancers associated with multiple active histone modifications display constitutive DHS whereas chromatin regions with fewer histone modifications exhibit high variation of DHS. Furthermore, the single-cell DHSs predict enhancers that regulate cell-specific gene expression programs and the cell-to-cell variations of DHS are predictive of gene expression. Finally, we apply scDNase-seq to pools of tumour cells and pools of normal cells, dissected from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue slides from patients with thyroid cancer, and detect thousands of tumour-specific DHSs. Many of these DHSs are associated with promoters and enhancers critically involved in cancer development. Analysis of the DHS sequences uncovers one mutation (chr18: 52417839G>C) in the tumour cells of a patient with follicular thyroid carcinoma, which affects the binding of the tumour suppressor protein p53 and correlates with decreased expression of its target gene TXNL1. In conclusion, scDNase-seq can reliably detect DHSs in single cells, greatly extending the range of applications of DHS analysis both for basic and for translational research, and may provide critical information for personalized medicine.
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PMID:Genome-wide detection of DNase I hypersensitive sites in single cells and FFPE tissue samples. 2711 Jun 26