Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:Q9UIJ5 (Rec)
 58,342 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Since environmental exposure to arsenicals has been correlated with a high skin cancer risk among populations exposed to sunlight, it is possible that arsenicals might interfere with the repair of damage to DNA (mostly thymine dimers) resulting from the ultraviolet rays in sunlight. To test this hypothesis, strains of E. coli, differing from each other only in one or more repair functions, were exposed to UV light and then plated in the presence or absence of sodium arsenite. Survival after irradiation of wild type E. coli (WP(2)) was significantly decreased by 0.5mM arsenite. This effect was also seen in strains which are unable to carry out excision repair, suggesting that arsenite inhibits one or more steps in the post-replication repair pathways. This is confirmed by the finding that arsenite has no effect on the post-irradiation survival of a recA mutant, which does not carry out post-replication repair. Mutagenesis after ultraviolet irradiation depends on the rec(+) and lex(+) genes. Arsenite decreases mutagenesis in strains containing these genes. In order to determine its mechanism of action, dose-response relationships of arsenite on a number of cellular functions were carried out. The most sensitive cellular functions found were the induction of beta-galactosidase and the synthesis of RNA. Since error-prone repair in E. coli is an inducible process, the inhibition of mutagenesis after UV irradiation may be the result of inhibition of messenger RNA synthesis.
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PMID:Effects of arsenite on DNA repair in Escherichia coli. 33 97

Merkel nerve endings are mechanoreceptors in the mammalian skin. They consist of large, pale cells with lobulated nuclei forming synapse-like contacts with enlarged terminal endings of myelinated nerve fibers. They were first described by F.S. Merkel in 1875. They are found in the skin and in those parts of the mucosa derived from the ectoderm. In mammals (apart from man), the largest accumulation of Merkel nerve endings is found in whiskers. In all vertebrates, Merkel nerve endings are located in the basal layer of the epidermis, apart from birds, where they are located in the dermis. Cytoskeletal filaments consisting of cytokeratins and osmiophilic granules containing a variety of neuropeptides are found in Merkel cells. In anseriform birds, groups of cells resembling Merkel cells, with discoid nerve terminals between cells, form Grandry corpuscles. There has been controversy over the origin of Merkel cells. Results from chick/quail chimeras show that, in birds, Merkel cells are a subpopulation of cells derived from the neural crest, which thus excludes their development from the epidermis. Most recently, also in mammals, conclusive evidence for a neural crest origin of Merkel cells has been obtained. Merkel cells and nerve terminals form mechanoreceptors. Calcium ions enter Merkel cells in response to mechanical stimuli, a process which triggers the release of calcium from intracellular stores resulting in exocytosis of neurotransmitter or neuromodulator. Recent results suggest that there may be glutamatergic transmission between Merkel cell and nerve terminal, which appears to be essential for the characteristic slowly adapting response of these receptors during maintained mechanical stimuli. Thus, we are convinced that Merkel cells with associated nerve terminals function as mechanoreceptor cells. Cells in the skin with a similar appearance as Merkel cells, but without contact to nerve terminals, are probably part of a diffuse neuroendocrine system and do not function as mechanoreceptors. Probably these cells, rather than those acting as mechanoreceptors, are the origin of a highly malignant skin cancer called Merkel cell carcinoma.
Anat Rec A Discov Mol Cell Evol Biol 2003 Mar
PMID:Friedrich Sigmund Merkel and his "Merkel cell", morphology, development, and physiology: review and new results. 1255 39

The human endogenous retrovirus K family (HERV-K) comprises 30 to 50 closely related proviruses, most of which are defective. In contrast to all other human endogenous retroviruses, some HERV-K proviruses have maintained open reading frames for all viral proteins. In addition to the structural proteins Gag and Env and the reverse transcriptase, two regulatory proteins (Rec and Np9) have been described. Malignant melanoma has the highest mortality among skin cancers and is particularly aggressive. To study the expression of HERV-K, a set of seven primers was developed that allows discrimination between full-length and spliced mRNA and mRNA from deleted and undeleted proviruses. Expression of full-length mRNA from deleted and undeleted proviruses was detected in all human cells investigated. Expression of spliced env and rec was detected in a teratocarcinoma cell line, in 45% of the metastatic melanoma biopsies, and in 44% of the melanoma cell lines. In normal neonatal melanocytes, spliced rec was detected but not spliced env. Viral proteins were shown to be expressed in primary melanomas, metastases, and melanoma cell lines by immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, and Western blot analyses using specific antisera. For the first time, antibodies against HERV-K were found in melanoma patients. Melanomas are, in addition to teratocarcinomas and human breast cancer, the third tumor type with enhanced expression of HERV-K.
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PMID:Expression of human endogenous retrovirus K in melanomas and melanoma cell lines. 1589 8