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Biomedical subjects

German Pihan

Publications and source records attributed to German Pihan.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Facile, comprehensive, high-throughput genotyping of human genital papillomaviruses using spectrally addressable liquid bead microarrays.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the worldwide cause of carcinoma of the uterine cervix, a cancer that is the second most common neoplasm in women, resulting in nearly 250,000 deaths a year. The magnitude of the risk of cancer after HPV infection, however, is virus type-specific. Over 40 HPV types can infect the genital tract. Comprehensive, high-throughput typing assays for HPV, however, are not currently available. Blending multiplex PCR and multiplex hybridization using spectrally addressable liquid bead microarrays we have developed a high-throughput, fast, single-tube-typing assay capable of simultaneously typing 45 HPV. The overall incidence of HPV in 429 women tested using this new assay was 72.2% for those with squamous intraepithelial lesions, 51.5% for those with atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance and 15.4% for women with normal cytology, respectively. This compared well with the incidence of HPV detected by a parallel non-typing generic high-risk assay. The new assay detected a wide spectrum of HPV types and a high incidence of mixed infections. We believe our assay may find widespread applications in areas requiring virus type-specific information, such as in epidemiological studies, cancer screening programs, monitoring therapeutic interventions, and evaluating the efficacy of HPV vaccine trials.

DNA, Viral↗
PubMed2005

Extracavitary primary effusion lymphoma of the anorectum.

We report a case of an extracavitary primary effusion lymphoma occurring in the anorectum of a patient with advanced acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The morphology, null cell immunophenotype, and acquisition of plasma cell markers in this case are typical of the so-called solid variant of primary effusion lymphoma. Lymphoma cells in this case were shown to be co-infected with human herpesvirus-8 and Epstein-Barr virus. Following combination chemotherapy and highly active antiretroviral therapy, this patient has remained in clinical remission for > 3.5 years. The purpose of this report is to add another case to the emerging literature regarding the heterogeneous category of extraserous human herpesvirus-8-associated lymphomas.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Absence of p21 partially rescues Mdm4 loss and uncovers an antiproliferative effect of Mdm4 on cell growth.

Mdm4 (MdmX) is a p53-binding protein that shares structural similarities with Mdm2 and has been proposed to be a negative regulator of p53 function. Like Mdm2, the absence of Mdm4 has recently been found to induce embryonic lethality in mice that is rescued by p53 deletion. Mdm4-null embryos are reduced in size and die at mid-gestation, and Mdm4-deficient embryos and embryonic fibroblasts displayed reduced rates of cell proliferation. The p53-induced, cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21 is strongly upregulated in Mdm4-null embryos and cells. Here, we report that deletion of p21 delays the mid-gestation lethality observed in Mdm4-null mice, suggesting that Mdm4 downregulates p53-mediated suppression of cell growth. Surprisingly, the absence of p21 also uncovers an antiproliferative effect of Mdm4 on cell growth in vitro and in Mdm4-heterozygous mice. These results indicate that p21 is a downstream modifier of Mdm4, and provides genetic evidence that Mdm4 can function to regulate cell growth both positively and negatively.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

An alternative splice form of Mdm2 induces p53-independent cell growth and tumorigenesis.

The Mdm2 gene is amplified in approximately one-third of human sarcomas and overexpressed in a variety of other human cancers. Mdm2 functions as an oncoprotein, in part, by acting as a negative regulator of the p53 tumor suppressor protein. Multiple spliced forms of Mdm2 transcripts have been observed in human tumors; however, the contribution of these variant transcripts to tumorigenesis is unknown. In this report, we isolate alternative splice forms of Mdm2 transcripts from sarcomas that spontaneously arise in Mdm2-overexpressing mice, including Mdm2-b, the splice form most commonly observed in human cancers. Transduction of Mdm2-b into a variety of cell types reveals that Mdm2-b promotes p53-independent cell growth, inhibits apoptosis, and up-regulates the RelA subunit of NFkappaB. Furthermore, expression of Mdm2-b induces tumor formation in transgenic mice. These results identify a p53-independent role for Mdm2 and determine that an alternate spliced form of Mdm2 can contribute to formation of cancer via a p53-independent mechanism. These findings also provide a rationale for the poorer prognosis of those patients presenting with tumors harboring multiple Mdm2 transcripts.

Alternative Splicing↗
PubMed2003

Mutations and aneuploidy: co-conspirators in cancer?

The role of intragenic point mutations in human cancer is well established. However, the contribution of massive genomic changes collectively known as aneuploidy is less certain. Recent experimental work suggests that aneuploidy is required for sporadic carcinogenesis in mice and that it may collaborate with intragenic mutations during tumorigenesis. The genomic plasticity afforded by aneuploidy could facilitate emergence of protumorigenic gene dosage changes and accelerate accumulation of oncogenes and loss of tumor suppressor genes. These new findings force us to rethink the pathogenesis of carcinoma in ways that have significant implications for diagnosis and therapy.

Aneuploidy↗
PubMed2003

Wnt5a inhibits B cell proliferation and functions as a tumor suppressor in hematopoietic tissue.

Wnt5a is a member of the Wnt family of secreted glycoproteins that play essential organizing roles in development. Similar to other Wnt members, Wnt5a can upregulate cell proliferation and has been proposed to have oncogenic function. Here we report that Wnt5a signals through the noncanonical Wnt/Ca++ pathway to suppress cyclin D1 expression and negatively regulate B cell proliferation in a cell-autonomous manner. Wnt5a hemizygous mice develop myeloid leukemias and B cell lymphomas that are clonal in origin and display loss of Wnt5a function in tumor tissues. Furthermore, analysis of human primary leukemias reveals deletion of the WNT5A gene and/or loss of WNT5A expression in a majority of the patient samples. These results demonstrate that Wnt5a suppresses hematopoietic malignancies.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Survival signaling mediated by c-Jun NH(2)-terminal kinase in transformed B lymphoblasts.

The c-Jun NH(2)-terminal kinase (JNK) is implicated in the apoptotic response of cells exposed to stress, but the JNK signal transduction pathway may not act exclusively in apoptosis. In some studies of tumor cells, JNK has been implicated in signaling cell survival. The possibility that JNK might mediate a survival signal in tumor cells is consistent with the observation that it is activated in response to some oncogenes, such as the leukemogenic oncogene BCR-ABL, which is created by a reciprocal translocation between human chromosomes 9 and 22 (ref. 2). The BCR-ABL protein activates the JNK signaling pathway in hematopoietic cells and increases transcriptional activity mediated by the transcription factor AP1 (ref. 3). Also, inhibition of c-Jun or JNK prevents BCR-ABL-induced cell transformation in vitro. Although this implicates the JNK signaling pathway in transformation by BCR-ABL, the possible role of JNK in this process is unclear. We find that disruption of the JNK ortholog Mapk8 (also known as Jnk1) in mice causes defective transformation of pre-B cells by BCR-ABL in vitro and in vivo. The Jnk1 protein is required for the survival of the transformed cells in the absence of stromal support. Failure to survive is associated with decreased expression of Bcl2, and the effect of Jnk1 deficiency can be rescued by transgenic expression of Bcl2. Our results show that Jnk1 signals cell survival in transformed B lymphoblasts and suggest that it may contribute to the pathogenesis of some proliferative diseases.

Animals↗