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)

The family of human histone genes consists of replication-dependent and independent subtypes. The replication-independent histone genes, also known as variants, give rise to distinct mRNAs, whose expression is regulated depending on the growth state of the cell, tissue type and developmental stage. In turn, the histone variants are differentially synthesized and modified by acetylation. Consequently, chromatin structure is altered resulting in complex changes in gene expression. The high conservation among histone protein subtypes suggests that they are indispensable. In addition, conservation of the positions of acetylation within subtypes suggests that the location of these sites is functionally important for the eukaryotic cell. For example, the structures of transcriptionally active and repressed chromatin are different depending on the acetylation state of histone proteins [1-3]. In addition, transcriptionally active and repressed chromatin contains distinct histone variants [4]. Specialized histone variants are targeted to the centromere of the chromosome, where they are essential for chromosome segregation [5]. Other specialized histones exist that are essential for development [6]. Changes in histone acetylation have been implicated in the down-regulation of a tumour suppressor gene in human breast cancer [7]. Acetylation also plays an important role in X chromosome inactivation as well as hormone-mediated transcriptional regulation [8, 9]. We propose here a novel model for histone variant gene regulation at the post-transcriptional level, which provides the groundwork to define the pathways regulating the synthesis of these variants.
Mol Biol Rep 2000 Jun
PMID:Growth regulation of human variant histone genes and acetylation of the encoded proteins. 1109 52

Hedgehog signalling is a key regulator of embryonic development controlling proliferation and/or cell fate determination. With identification of the Hedgehog receptor PTCH1 as a tumour suppressor gene that underlies the human nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome (NBCCS), the Hedgehog signalling pathway was firmly linked to cancer. It now appears that constitutive activation of Hedgehog signalling, by inactivating mutations in PTCH1 or activating mutations in the coreceptor SMOH, is required and possibly sufficient for basal cell carcinoma development and also contributes to the formation of a variety of other tumour types, including medulloblastoma and rhabdomyosarcoma. Several lines of evidence, including transgenic mice experiments, suggest that the critical cellular effect is stimulation of proliferation mediated by the transcriptional effector GLI1. Additional components of the signal transduction machinery as well as essential target genes remain to be identified, and involvement of the Hedgehog signalling pathway in other tumour types and/or hereditary cancer predisposition syndromes is to be expected.
Cell Mol Life Sci 2000 Nov
PMID:Hedgehog signalling in cancer. 1113 Jan 78

The study of inherited cancer syndromes has led to the identification of over 25 genes directly involved in tumorigenesis. These genes have functions as diverse as signal transduction, cell cycle control, cell-to-cell adhesion, control of apoptosis, DNA repair and the maintenance of genome stability. Most cancer syndromes have a dominant pattern of inheritance, due to germline loss-of-function mutation of a tumour suppressor gene. All the recessively inherited genes have been implicated in the maintenance of genome stability. This review summarises our current understanding of the functions of the major cancer susceptibility genes.
Cell Mol Life Sci 2000 Apr
PMID:The inherited susceptibility to cancer. 1113 Apr 59

The melanoma-astrocytoma syndrome is characterized by a dual predisposition to melanoma and neural system tumours, commonly astrocytoma. Germline deletions of the region on 9p21 containing the CDKN2A and CDKN2B genes and CDKN2A exon 1beta have been reported in kindreds, implicating contiguous tumour suppressor gene deletion as a cause of this syndrome. We describe a family characterized by multiple melanoma and neural cell tumours segregating with a germline deletion of the p14(ARF)-specific exon 1beta of the CDKN2A gene. This deletion does not affect the coding or minimal promoter sequences of either the CDKN2A or CDKN2B genes. Our results are consistent with either: (i) loss of p14(ARF) function being the critical abnormality associated with this syndrome, rather than contiguous loss of both the CDKN2A and CDKN2B genes as suggested previously; or (ii) disruption of expression of p16 by mechanisms as yet unknown.
Hum Mol Genet 2001 Jan 01
PMID:A germline deletion of p14(ARF) but not CDKN2A in a melanoma-neural system tumour syndrome family. 1113 14

The tumour suppressor PTEN inhibits cell growth through multiple mechanisms. We have previously demonstrated that overexpression of PTEN in MCF-7 breast cancer cells causes G(1) arrest followed by cell death, the latter of which is believed to be mediated by the phosphoinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) and Akt/PKB pro-apoptotic pathways. In this present study, we show that culture in the presence of low levels of growth factors increased PTEN-mediated growth suppression through the enhancement of PTEN-induced cell death. The caspase 9-specific inhibitor, ZVAD, blocked PTEN-induced cell death without altering the effect of PTEN on cell cycle distribution. Depending on the level of expression, overexpression of dominant-negative Akt induces more cell death and has less effect on the cell cycle or induces similar or decreased cell death without affecting the cell cycle compared with effects on cell death and the cell cycle when overexpressing PTEN. These observations in sum suggest that, in MCF-7 breast cancer cells, the apoptotic cells induced by the overexpression of PTEN did not derive from the G(1)-arrested cells. Further, the effect of PTEN on cell death is mediated through the PI3K/Akt pathway whereas PTEN-mediated cell cycle arrests are through PI3K/Akt-dependent and -independent pathways.
Hum Mol Genet 2001 Feb 01
PMID:PTEN induces apoptosis and cell cycle arrest through phosphoinositol-3-kinase/Akt-dependent and -independent pathways. 1115 42

The tumour suppressor gene PTEN/MMAC1/TEP1 has been implicated in a variety of human cancers and several inherited hamartoma tumour syndromes, including Cowden syndrome, which has a high risk of breast and thyroid cancer. We have previously reported that overexpression of PTEN in MCF-7 breast cancer cells induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. In this study, we analysed PTEN status at both the structural and expression levels and explored PTEN's growth-suppressive effects on thyroid. We found that 1 of 10 thyroid cancer lines [follicular thyroid carcinoma FTC-133] had hemizygous deletion and a splice variant IVS4--19G-->A in the remaining allele. Four lines, including FTC-133, express PTEN mRNA at low levels. In general, PTEN protein levels correlated with mRNA levels, except for NPA87, which has low levels of transcript and relatively high levels of PTEN protein. Transient expression of PTEN in seven thyroid cancer cell lines resulted in G(1) arrest in two well differentiated papillary thyroid cancer lines (PTCs) and both G(1) arrest and cell death in the remaining five lines, including three FTCs, one poorly differentiated PTC and one undifferentiated thyroid cancer. The level of phosphorylated Akt was inversely correlated with the endogenous level of PTEN protein and overexpression of PTEN-blocked Akt phosphorylation in all cells analysed. Our results suggest that downregulation of PTEN expression at the mRNA level plays a role in PTEN inactivation in thyroid cancer and PTEN exerts its tumour-suppressive effect on thyroid cancer through the inhibition of cell cycle progression alone or both cell cycle progression and cell death.
Hum Mol Genet 2001 Feb 01
PMID:Transient ectopic expression of PTEN in thyroid cancer cell lines induces cell cycle arrest and cell type-dependent cell death. 1115 44

E6 is an oncoprotein implicated in cervical cancers produced by " high risk " human papillomaviruses. E6 binds specifically to several cellular proteins, including the tumour suppressor p53 and the ubiquitin ligase E6-AP. However, E6 is also a DNA-binding protein which recognizes a structural motive present in four-way junctions. Here, we demonstrate that the C-terminal zinc-binding domain of E6, expressed separately from the rest of the protein, fully retains the selective four-way junction recognition activity. The domain can bind to two identical and independent sites on a single junction, whereas full-length E6 can only bind to one site. The junction bound to either one or two domains adopts an extended square conformation. These results allow us to assign the structure-dependent DNA recognition activity of E6 to its C-terminal domain, which therefore represents a new class of zinc-stabilized DNA-binding module. Comparison with the binding characteristics of other junction-specific proteins enlightens the rules which govern protein-induced deformation of four-way DNA junctions.
J Mol Biol 2001 Jan 26
PMID:Specific recognition of four-way DNA junctions by the C-terminal zinc-binding domain of HPV oncoprotein E6. 1116 88

Bcl-2 family member proteins are differentially expressed in skin and in non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC). To elucidate the contribution of bcl-2 and bax proteins to epidermal differentiation and skin carcinogenesis, we investigated keratinocyte proliferation, differentiation and tumourigenesis in bcl-2(-/-) and bax(-/-) mice. The rate and pattern of proliferation and spontaneous cell death in the bcl-2(-/-) and bax(-/-) mice were not different from control mice. The epidermis of bcl-2(-/-) and bax(-/-) expressed sightly higher levels of cytokeratin 1 and loricrin compared to control littermates. The apoptotic response to ultraviolet-induced genotoxic stress was assessed by quantitating TUNEL positive cells. Bax(-/-) keratinocytes showed a significant resistance to UV-induced cell death compared to control mice. The life-span of bcl-2(-/-) mice precluded an assessment of bcl-2 gene disruption on in vivo tumourigenesis. A significant increase in tumour incidence was observed in bax(-/-) mice compared to control mice in two-step chemical carcinogenesis studies. These findings suggest that bcl-2 and bax gene products may be important determinants of normal keratinocyte differentiation and response to genotoxic stress in vivo, and indicate that bax may provide a tumour suppressor effect during skin carcinogenesis.
Int J Mol Med 2001 Mar
PMID:Bax gene disruption alters the epidermal response to ultraviolet irradiation and in vivo induced skin carcinogenesis. 1117

The tumour suppressor gene PTEN/MMAC1/TEP1 encodes a dual-specificity phosphatase that recognizes phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-triphosphate and protein substrates. We have shown previously that over-expression of PTEN in a tetracycline-controlled inducible system blocks cell cycle progression and induces apoptosis in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Here, we demonstrate that over-expression of wild-type PTEN leads to the suppression of cell growth through the blockade of cell cycle progression, an increase in the abundance of p27, a decrease in the protein levels of cyclin D1 and the inhibition of Akt phosphorylation. In contrast, expression of the phosphatase-dead mutant, C124S, promotes cell growth and has the opposite effect on the abundance of p27, cyclin D1 levels and the phosphorylation of Akt. The G129E mutant, which does not have lipid phosphatase activity but retains protein phosphatase activity, behaves like C124S except that the former causes decreases in cyclin D1 levels similar to wild-type PTEN. Therefore, PTEN exerts its growth suppression through lipid phosphatase-dependent and independent activities and most likely, via the coordinate effect of both protein phosphatase and lipid phosphatase activities. Addition of either estrogen or insulin abrogates PTEN-mediated up-regulation of p27 and partially blocks PTEN-mediated growth suppression, whereas the combination of estrogen and insulin eliminates the alterations of p27 and cyclin D1 and completely blocks PTEN-mediated growth suppression. Our findings demonstrate that PTEN blocks cell cycle progression differentially through down-regulating the positive cell cycle regulator, cyclin D1, by its protein phosphatase activity, and up-regulating the negative cell cycle regulator, p27, by its lipid phosphatase activity.
Hum Mol Genet 2001 Mar 15
PMID:PTEN coordinates G(1) arrest by down-regulating cyclin D1 via its protein phosphatase activity and up-regulating p27 via its lipid phosphatase activity in a breast cancer model. 1123 Jan 79

The tumour suppressor gene PTEN encodes a dual-specificity phosphatase that recognizes protein substrates and phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-triphosphate. PTEN seems to play multiple roles in tumour suppression and the blockade of phosphoinositide-3-kinase signalling is important for its growth suppressive effects, although precise mechanisms are not fully understood. In this study, we show that PTEN plays a unique role in the insulin-signalling pathway in a breast cancer model. Ectopic expression of wild-type PTEN in MCF-7 epithelial breast cancer cells resulted in universal inhibition of Akt phosphorylation in response to stimulation by diverse growth factors and selective inhibition of MEK/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) phosphorylation stimulated by insulin or insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). The latter was accompanied by a decrease in the phosphorylation of insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1) and the association of IRS-1 with Grb2/Sos, without affecting the phosphorylation status of the insulin receptor and Shc, nor Shc/Grb2 complex formation. The MEK inhibitor, PD980059, but not the PI3K inhibitor, wortmannin, abolished the effect of PTEN on insulin-stimulated cell growth. Without addition of insulin, wortmannin reduced PTEN-mediated growth suppression, whereas PD980059 had little effect, suggesting that PTEN suppresses insulin-stimulated cell growth by blocking the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway. Furthermore, PD980059 treatment led to the downregulation of cyclin D1 and the suppression of cell cycle progression. Our data suggest that PTEN blocks MAPK phosphorylation in response to insulin stimulation by inhibiting the phosphorylation of IRS-1 and IRS-1/Grb2/Sos complex formation, which leads to downregulation of cyclin D1, inhibition of cell cycle progression and suppression of cell growth.
Hum Mol Genet 2001 Mar 15
PMID:PTEN inhibits insulin-stimulated MEK/MAPK activation and cell growth by blocking IRS-1 phosphorylation and IRS-1/Grb-2/Sos complex formation in a breast cancer model. 1123 Jan 80


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