Biomedical subjects

Mei-Ling Kuo

Publications and source records attributed to Mei-Ling Kuo.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Ubiquitination of, and sumoylation by, the Arf tumor suppressor.

The Ink4a-Arf locus, which encodes two distinct tumor suppressor proteins, is inactivated in many cancers. Whereas p16Ink4a is an inhibitor of cyclin D-dependent kinases, p19Arf (p14ARF in humans) antagonizes the E3 ubiquitin protein ligase activity of Mdm2 to activate p53. We now recognize that Arf functions in both p53-dependent and -independent modes to counteract hyper-proliferative signals originating from proto-oncogene activation, but its p53-independent activities remain poorly understood. Arf proteins are highly basic (> 20% arginine content, pl > 12) and predominantly localize within nucleoli in physical association with an abundant acidic protein, nucleophosmin (NPM/B23). When bound to NPM, Arf proteins are relatively stable with half-lives of 6-8 hours. Although mouse p19Arf contains only a single lysine residue and human p14ARF has none, both proteins are N-terminally ubiquitinated and degraded in proteasomes. Through as yet uncharacterized mechanisms, p19Arf induces p53-independent sumoylation of a variety of cellular target proteins with which it interacts, including both Mdm2 and NPM. A naturally occurring NPM mutant (NPMc) expressed in myeloid leukemia cells redirects both wild-type NPM and p19Arf to the cytoplasm, inhibits Arf-induced sumoylation, and attenuates p53 activity. Thus, ubiquitination and sumoylation can each influence Arf tumor suppressor activity.

Cell Proliferation↗

PubMed2005

Myeloid leukemia-associated nucleophosmin mutants perturb p53-dependent and independent activities of the Arf tumor suppressor protein.

Nucleophosmin (NPM or B23) plays key roles in ribosome biogenesis, centrosome duplication, and maintenance of genomic integrity. Mutations affecting the carboxylterminal domain of NPM occur in a significant percentage of adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and these alterations create an additional nuclear export signal that relocalizes much of the protein from its normal nucleolar stores to the cytoplasm. When induced by oncogenic stress, the Arf tumor suppressor protein accumulates within the nucleolus, where it is physically associated with, and stabilized by, NPM. Ectopic overexpression of an NPM cytoplasmic mutant (NPMc) relocalized p19Arf and the endogenous NPM protein to the cytoplasm. NPMc-dependent export of p19Arf from the nucleus inhibited its functional interaction with the p53 negative regulator, Mdm2, and blunted Arf-induced activation of the p53 transcriptional program. Cytoplasmic NPM relocalization also attenuated Arf-induced sumoylation of Mdm2 and NPM and prevented wild type NPM from inhibiting p19Arf protein turnover. However, despite the ability of NPMc to interfere with these p53-dependent and independent activities of Arf, NPMc exhibited anti-proliferative activity in Arf-null NIH-3T3 cells. Overexpression of wild type NPM, but not NPMc, overcame premature senescence of Atm-null cells, a phenotype that can be rescued by inactivation of Arf or p53. Therefore, perturbation of Arf function appears to be insufficient to explain the oncogenic effects of the NPMc mutation. We favor the idea that NPMc also contributes to AML by dominantly perturbing other functions of the wild type NPM protein.

Animals↗

PubMed2004

Statistical significance threshold criteria for analysis of microarray gene expression data.

The methodological advancement in microarray data analysis on the basis of false discovery rate (FDR) control, such as the q-value plots, allows the investigator to examine the FDR from several perspectives. However, when FDR control at the "customary" levels 0.01, 0.05, or 0.1 does not provide fruitful findings, there is little guidance for making the trade off between the significance threshold and the FDR level by sound statistical or biological considerations. Thus, meaningful statistical significance criteria that complement the existing FDR methods for large-scale multiple tests are desirable. Three statistical significance criteria, the profile information criterion, the total error proportion, and the guide-gene driven selection, are developed in this research. The first two are general significance threshold criteria for large-scale multiple tests; the profile information criterion is related to the recent theoretical studies of the connection between FDR control and minimax estimation, and the total error proportion is closely related to the asymptotic properties of FDR control in terms of the total error risk. The guide-gene driven selection is an approach to combining statistical significance and the existing biological knowledge of the study at hand. Error properties of these criteria are investigated theoretically and by simulation. The proposed methods are illustrated and compared using an example of genomic screening for novel Arf gene targets. Operating characteristics of q-value and the proposed significance threshold criteria are investigated and compared in a simulation study that employs a model mimicking a gene regulatory pathway. A guideline for using these criteria is provided. Splus/R code is available from the corresponding author upon request.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2004

N-Terminal polyubiquitination of the ARF tumor suppressor, a natural lysine-less protein.

Ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis by proteasomes generally depends upon the conjugation of polyubiquitin chains to lysine epsilon-NH(2) groups within the targeted proteins. However, engineered lysine-less mutants of certain viral and cellular proteins can undergo polyubiquitination at their N-termini. Is N-terminal polyubiquitination a physiologic process, and how many cellular proteins can be targeted for proteasomal degradation through this mechanism? Recent work indicates that the turnover of the endogenous lysine-less human ARF tumor suppressor protein and its mouse Arf counterpart (containing a single, non-conserved lysine residue) is regulated in this manner.

Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p16↗

PubMed2004

N-terminal polyubiquitination and degradation of the Arf tumor suppressor.

Unknown mechanisms govern degradation of the p19Arf tumor suppressor, an activator of p53 and inhibitor of ribosomal RNA processing. Kinetic metabolic labeling of cells with [3H]-leucine indicated that p19Arf is a relatively stable protein (half-life approximately 6 h) whose degradation depends upon the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. Although p19Arf binds to the Mdm2 E3 ubiquitin protein ligase to activate p53, neither of these molecules regulates p19Arf turnover. In contrast, the nucleolar protein nucleophosmin/B23, which binds to p19Arf with high stoichiometry, retards its turnover, and Arf mutants that do not efficiently associate with nucleophosmin/B23 are unstable and functionally impaired. Mouse p19Arf, although highly basic (22% arginine content), contains only a single lysine residue absent from human p14ARF, and substitution of arginine for lysine in mouse p19Arf had no effect on its rate of degradation. Mouse p19Arf (either wild-type or lacking lysine) and human p14ARF undergo N-terminal polyubiquitination, a process that has not as yet been documented in naturally occurring lysine-less proteins. Re-engineering of the p19Arf N terminus to provide consensus sequences for N-acetylation limited Arf ubiquitination and decelerated its turnover.

Acetylation↗

PubMed2003

Arf induces p53-dependent and -independent antiproliferative genes.

The tumor suppressor p19(Arf) (p14(ARF) in humans), encoded by the Ink4a/Arf locus, is mutated, deleted, or silenced in many forms of cancer. p19(Arf) induces growth arrest by antagonizing the activity of the p53-negative regulator, Mdm2, thereby inducing a p53 transcriptional response. p19(Arf) can also inhibit cell cycle progression of mouse embryo fibroblasts lacking Cip1 or lacking both Mdm2 and p53, although in the absence of p53, arrest occurs more slowly. Profiling with high-density oligonucleotide GeneChips and cDNA microarrays was used to interrogate mouse genes, the expression of which was induced or suppressed by a conditionally regulated Arf gene. Cluster analysis of temporal gene expression patterns and validation of the results by RNA analysis identified Arf-responsive genes whose induction was both p53-dependent and -independent. The latter included four members of the B-cell translocation gene family (Btg1, Btg2, Btg3, and Tob1) that were demonstrated to inhibit cell proliferation in primary mouse embryo fibroblasts expressing or lacking functional p53. Together, the results indicate that p19(Arf) induces a broad spectrum of proteins that likely act in concert to arrest cell proliferation.

3T3 Cells↗

PubMed2003

Nucleolar Arf tumor suppressor inhibits ribosomal RNA processing.

The p19(Arf) tumor suppressor, a nucleolar protein, binds to Mdm2 to induce p53-dependent cell cycle arrest. Arf also prevents the proliferation of cells lacking Mdm2 and p53, albeit less efficiently. We show that p19(Arf) inhibits production of ribosomal RNA, retarding processing of 47/45S and 32S precursors. These effects correlate with but do not strictly depend upon inhibition of rRNA biosynthesis or cell cycle arrest, are not mimicked by p53, and require neither p53 nor Mdm2. Arf mutants lacking conserved amino acid residues 2-14 do not block rRNA synthesis and processing or inhibit cell proliferation. Evolution may have linked a primordial nucleolar Arf function to Mdm2 and p53, creating a more efficient checkpoint-signaling pathway for coordinating ribosomal biogenesis and cell cycle progression.

3T3 Cells↗

PubMed2002

The RING domain of Mdm2 can inhibit cell proliferation.

Mdm2 is a p53-inducible phosphoprotein that negatively regulates p53 by binding to it and promoting its ubiquitin-mediated degradation. Alternatively spliced variants of Mdm2 have been isolated from human and mouse tumors, but their roles in tumorigenesis, if any, remain elusive. We cloned six alternatively spliced variants of Mdm2 from E(mu)-Myc-induced mouse lymphomas, all of which lacked the NH(2)-terminal p53-binding domain but conserved the remainder of the Mdm2 protein. Enforced expression of full-length Mdm2 in primary mouse embryo fibroblasts or bone marrow-derived, interleukin 7-dependent pre-B cells accelerated their proliferation, whereas unexpectedly, overexpression of truncated Mdm2 isoforms inhibited their growth. Truncated variants were active as inhibitors whether they localized predominantly to the nucleus or cytoplasm. Despite the absence of the p53-binding domain, growth inhibition remained strictly p53 dependent (but not p19(Arf) dependent) and could be overcome by full-length Mdm2. The intact RING finger domain at the Mdm2 COOH terminus (amino acids 399-489) was necessary and sufficient for growth inhibition by truncated Mdm2 proteins and could physically interact with either the RING finger domain or central acidic region of full-length Mdm2. However, such interactions do not inhibit Mdm2 E3 ubiquitin ligase activity in vitro using p53 as a substrate. Expression of growth-inhibitory Mdm2 isoforms in tumors remains an enigma.

Alternative Splicing↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Overexpression of the R2 subunit of ribonucleotide reductase in human nasopharyngeal cancer cells reduces radiosensitivity.

PURPOSE: Ribonucleotide reductase is the rate-limiting enzyme in the de novo synthesis of deoxyribonucleotide triphosphates, which are utilized in both DNA synthesis and DNA repair. We reported previously that RR enzyme activity and R2 (catalytic subunit of RR) protein levels were increased after exposure to ionizing radiation (IR) in growth-arrested human tumor cells, suggesting that R2 protein expression regulates RR activity to allow for IR damage repair. Using isogenic human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells in this study, we examine the relationship of overexpression of either the R1 regulatory subunit or the R2 catalytic subunit of RR to the cellular response of IR damage. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used three isogenic human nasopharyngeal cancer cell lines previously derived by Zhou et al, including KB, the parental tumor cell line; KB/M1, an R1 protein-overexpressing clone stably transfected with human R1 complementary DNA; and KB/M2, a R2 protein-overexpressing clone stably transfected with human R2 complementary DNA. We initially characterized these isogenic human tumor cell lines in exponential growth for R2 protein expression, RR enzyme activity, and R2 protein changes during the cell cycle by flow cytometry. Subsequently, the IR response in these cell lines was determined by clonogenic survival, cell cycle changes occurring after IR, and an analysis of IR DNA damage determined by pulsed field gel electrophoresis. The effect of combining IR and hydroxyurea, a RR (R2) inhibitor, was also studied in KB and KB/M2 cells. RESULTS: KB/M2 cells were found to have 4.5-fold higher R2 protein expression and a threefold higher RR enzyme activity in exponential growth than KB and KB/M1. Although R2 protein levels increased at the G1/S transition in all cell lines, KB/M2 cells also demonstrated consistently higher R2 protein levels throughout the cell cycle. Using a linear-quadratic analysis of IR clonogenic survival data, KB/M2 cells were more radioresistant than KB and KB/M1 cells, including both decreased alpha and decreased beta values, a finding that correlates with increased reparable IR damage. KB/M2 cells also show a reduced G2 cell cycle arrest and fewer DNA double strand breaks 18 hours after IR (6 Gy). Exposure of KB/M2 cells to hydroxyurea (300 microM) after exposure to IR restored in vitro radiosensitivity in a manner similar to that found in KB and KB/M1 cells. DISCUSSION: An increase in R2 protein levels and RR activity in KB/M2 cells results in IR resistance, which appears mediated by enhanced IR damage repair during G2. R1 protein overexpression in these isogenic human tumor cells (KB/M1) did not affect RR activity or IR response.

Antineoplastic Agents↗