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Biomedical subjects

R T Johnson

Publications and source records attributed to R T Johnson.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1995

Enhanced photoproduct repair: its role in the DNA damage-resistance phenotype of human malignant melanoma cells.

A fundamental issue in understanding melanoma is to seek the basis for the cellular resistance to DNA damaging agents, which is manifested in vivo as pronounced tumor resistance to therapeutic agents. The published consensus on melanoma has been that exaggerated postreplication recovery (PRR), rather than excision repair, underlies the unusual damage-resistance phenotype. We examined the resistance to the model DNA damaging agent, UV-C, of subclones derived from a human metastatic melanoma cell line. The clones essentially fall into two groups: one with normal and the other with enhanced resistance. We exploited this range to investigate the interrelationships between replication, transcription, and repair of DNA after UV irradiation. Subclones resistant to UV killing were indeed found to possess enhanced rates of PRR and were coresistant to cisplatin. However, we now report an overall elevation of photoproduct repair in both melanoma groups compared to nonmelanoma controls and conclude that this accounts for the resistant melanoma phenotype, including that of enhanced PRR. Repair enhancement may explain chemoresistance, while loss of efficiency of certain functions, such as PRR, due to the intrinsic genetic lability of tumor cells, may generate the class of melanoma subclones exhibiting only normal resistance.

Cisplatin↗
PubMed1995

HIV-1 associated dementia: clinical features and pathogenesis.

HIV-1 infection is characterized by multiple neurological syndromes occurring at all stages of infection. HIV-1-associated dementia, however, is the most devastating CNS consequence of AIDS because of its poor prognosis and functional impairment. A clinical triad of progressive cognitive decline, motor dysfunction, and behavioural abnormalities typifies this subcortical dementia which eventually affects 15 to 20% of AIDS patients. Neuroimaging, CSF studies and neuropsychological testing are frequently required in diagnosing HIV-associated dementia, to exclude other conditions including psychiatric illnesses, opportunistic diseases and systemic disorders. The pathogenesis of HIV dementia is uncertain and there is evidence that multiple mechanisms of neurological injury occur. These mechanisms include: the role of neurovirulent strains of HIV; the potential neurotoxicity of HIV gp120, nitric oxide and quinolinic acid; immunologically mediated CNS injury through the action of cytokines and arachidonic acid metabolites; and altered blood-brain barrier permeability. A collective approach involving clinical studies, in vitro assays and animal models will provide greater insight into the pathogenesis and the rational development of therapy for HIV dementia.

AIDS Dementia Complex↗
PubMed1995

A postprophase topoisomerase II-dependent chromatid core separation step in the formation of metaphase chromosomes.

Metaphase chromatids are believed to consist of loops of chromatin anchored to a central scaffold, of which a major component is the decatenatory enzyme DNA topoisomerase II. Silver impregnation selectively stains an axial element of metaphase and anaphase chromatids; but we find that in earlier stages of mitosis, silver staining reveals an initially single, folded midline structure, which separates at prometaphase to form two chromatid axes. Inhibition of topoisomerase II prevents this separation, and also prevents the contraction of chromatids that occurs when metaphase is arrested. Immunolocalization of topoisomerase II alpha reveals chromatid cores analogous to those seen with silver staining. We conclude that the chromatid cores in early mitosis form a single structure, constrained by DNA catenations, which must separate before metaphase chromatids can be resolved.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Brain endothelial cell infection in children with acute fatal measles.

Neurologic diseases are important complications of measles. The role of virus infection of the central nervous system as well as the route of virus entry has been unclear. Five autopsied cases of individuals who died with severe acute measles 3-10 d after the onset of the rash were studied for evidence of viral involvement of the central nervous system. In all cases, in situ hybridization and RT-PCR in situ hybridization techniques showed endothelial cell infection. Immunoperoxidase staining with an anti-ferritin antibody revealed a reactive microgliosis. These data suggest that endothelial cells in the brain are frequently infected during acute fatal measles. This site of infection may provide a portal of entry for virus in individuals who subsequently develop subacute sclerosing panencephalitis or measles inclusion body encephalitis and a target for immunologic reactions in post-measles encephalomyelitis.

Base Sequence↗
PubMed1994

A topoisomerase II-dependent G2 cycle checkpoint in mammalian cells/.

The enzyme DNA topoisomerase II, which removes the catenations formed between the DNA molecules of sister chromatids during replication and is a structural component of chromosome cores, is needed for chromosome condensation in yeast and in Xenopus extracts. Inhibitors of topoisomerase II arrest mammalian cells before mitosis in the G2 phase of the cell cycle, but also produce DNA damage, which causes arrest through established checkpoint controls. It is open to question whether cells need topoisomerase II to leave G2, or control late-cycle progression in response to its activity. Bisdioxopiperazines are topoisomerase II inhibitors that act without producing direct DNA damage; the most potent, ICRF-193, blocks mammalian entry into but not exit from mitosis. Here we show that checkpoint-evading agents such as caffeine override this block to produce abortively condensed chromosomes, indicating that topoisomerase II is needed for complete condensation. We find that exit from G2 is regulated by a catenation-sensitive checkpoint mechanism which is distinct from the G2-damage checkpoint.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

The virology of demyelinating diseases.

Infectious agents have been postulated as causes of multiple sclerosis for over a century. The possible role of a virus or viruses is supported by data that (1) a childhood exposure is involved and "viral" infections may precipitate exacerbations of disease, (2) experimental infections in animals and natural infections in humans can cause diseases with long incubation periods, remitting and relapsing courses, and demyelination, and (3) patients with multiple sclerosis have abnormal immune responses to viruses. The pathogenesis of three human demyelinating diseases of known viral etiology is discussed. In progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, a papovavirus selectively infects oligodendrocytes and causes focal areas of demyelination. In postmeasles encephalomyelitis, the virus is lymphotrophic and disrupts immune regulation that can result in an autoimmune perivenular demyelinating illness without evidence of infection of the central nervous system. In human immunodeficiency virus-encephalopathy and myelopathy virus is present in macrophages and microglia and the myelin abnormalities apparently are caused by soluble factors such as viral proteins, cytokines, or neurotoxins. These findings may have implications on how, when, and where to seek viruses in multiple sclerosis.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

The Soriano Award Lecture. Emerging infections of the nervous system.

The epidemic of acquired immunodeficiency disease [AIDS] has focused interest on the origins of "new" infectious agents. Great plagues are well known from the distant past, but a number of novel diseases affecting the nervous system infections have emerged in recent years. The causes of such new disorders are diverse: whereas rapid mutations of microbes allow the evolution of truly novel agents, the appearance of new diseases is more often due to changes in human or vector populations or changes in societal mores that result in dissemination of preexistent microbes. Examples of recently emerging infections that involve the nervous system include the enterovirus 70 epidemics with poliomyelitis-like disease, the appearance of California virus encephalitis in the midwestern United States, the rapid spread of Lyme disease with its many neurological complications in the eastern United States, and the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in the United Kingdom, in addition to the devastating epidemic of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which will cause nervous system disease in over half of those infected. As the world population increases and modern transportation brings us closer into a "global village" more new agents will emerge and more will be sustained. Knowledge of the molecular biology and ecology of the agents and awareness of how our actions can alter their behavior are our best defense.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Different fates of camptothecin-induced replication fork-associated double-strand DNA breaks in mammalian cells.

The S phase cytotoxicity of camptothecin (CPT) requires both the formation of a covalent topoisomerase I-DNA complex and ongoing DNA replication. The interaction of DNA synthesis and the drug-induced complexes results in the production of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) concentrated in replicating DNA. These DSBs are likely to be extremely cytotoxic lesions and are likely to account for the S phase specificity of CPT. Here we show that a brief exposure to CPT results in replication-associated DSBs and, once formed, the fate of these DNA DSBs is different in human and Chinese hamster cell lines. In hamster CHO-KI, even at supra-lethal concentrations, CPT-induced DSBs in nascent DNA disappear within 5 h of drug removal. Those CHO-KI cells in S phase during treatment with toxic doses of CPT arrive at mitosis within 18 h, with potentially lethal chromatid aberrations. In human cells, CPT-induced DSBs are long lived, and are still detectable at least 24 h after drug removal. After toxic doses of CPT to S phase human cells, mitosis does not occur within 72 h of drug removal and there is an extended, perhaps permanent, cycle arrest in S/G2, possibly due to the presence of unrepaired DNA DSBs. These data, and the greater sensitivity of hamster than human cells to low doses of CPT, suggests that, besides the generation of replication fork-associated DNA DSBs, subsequent processing/repair of these lesions may modulate the sensitivity of cells to this important anti-tumour drug.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Demented and nondemented patients with AIDS differ in brain-derived human immunodeficiency virus type 1 envelope sequences.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) dementia is a common clinical syndrome of uncertain pathogenesis in patients with AIDS. In several animal models of retrovirus-induced brain disease, specific viral envelope sequences have been found to influence the occurrence of central nervous system disease. Therefore, to search for unique envelope sequences correlated with HIV dementia, we studied 22 HIV-infected patients who were neurologically assessed premortem and classified into demented (HIVD) (n = 14) and nondemented (ND) (n = 8) groups. Using DNA from autopsied brain and spleen, we amplified, cloned, and sequenced a 430-nucleotide region including the V3 loop and flanking regions. All brain-derived clones in both clinical groups showed marked homology to the macrophage-tropic consensus sequence within the V3 loop. Two amino acid positions within (position 305) and outside (position 329) the V3 region showed significant divergence between the two clinical groups. At position 305, a histidine was predominant in the HIVD group and was not observed in the ND group, but a proline was predominant in the ND group and was not observed in the HIVD group. Similarly, at position 329, a leucine was predominant in the HIVD group but rarely observed in the ND group, whereas an isoleucine was predominant in the ND group at this position. In addition, the HIVD group had 21 amino acid residues at specific positions that were unique relative to the ND group, whereas only 2 residues at specific positions were unique to the ND group. These data suggest that distinct HIV envelope sequences are associated with the clinical expression of HIV dementia.

AIDS Dementia Complex↗
PubMed1993

Hypersensitivity of Cockayne's syndrome cells to camptothecin is associated with the generation of abnormally high levels of double strand breaks in nascent DNA.

We report that fibroblasts from individuals with Cockayne's Syndrome (CS), an autosomal recessive disease exhibiting hypersensitivity to UV, are also hypersensitive to the killing action of camptothecin (CPT). In normal and CS cell lines the level of the protein-linked single strand DNA breaks (SSBs) induced by equal doses of CPT is similar, and these DNA breaks disappear within minutes of the removal of CPT. Thus, the toxicity of CPT does not correlate with the primary DNA lesions induced by the drug, and the hypersensitivity of CS cells cannot be explained by excessive topoisomerase I activity or by a defect in the enzyme ligation step. We have reported that CPT toxicity in normal cells is closely associated with the generation of double-strand DNA breaks (DSBs), predominantly at sites of DNA replication. The hypersensitivity of CS cells to CPT correlates closely with the much higher level of DSBs in nascent DNA than in normal cells. These DSBs are long-lived in all cells, but in CS many more (about 10-fold) remain 24 h after CPT removal and are presumably responsible for the higher frequency of chromosome aberrations in these cells. In CS as in normal cells aphidicolin prevents the generation of replication-related DSBs, suggesting that the movement of the DNA polymerase is necessary for the induction by CPT of the cytotoxic DSBs. Resistance to CPT and UV is restored to wild type in proliferating hybrids constructed between CS lines from two different complementation groups as is the abundance of replication-related DSBs. On the basis of this complementation we conclude that the UV and CPT sensitivities are distinct phenotypic traits arising from mutations in the CS A and B genes.

Aphidicolin↗
PubMed1993

New patterns of bulk DNA repair in ultraviolet irradiated mouse embryo carcinoma cells following differentiation.

Mouse embryocarcinoma stem cells differentiate in culture, given the appropriate induction. We examined whether these cells could provide information about the regulation of nucleotide excision repair in relation to differentiation by measuring the rate-limiting incision step, the removal of cyclobutane dimers and (6-4) photoproducts from the genome as a whole and the effect of the bacteriophage T4 endonuclease (denV) gene on repair in differentiated cells. It was found that differentiation is accompanied by a marked decline in the early incision ability after UV irradiation (sixfold for P19, fourfold for PCC7 and twofold for F9), and we measured, in parallel, the loss of two common UV photoproducts [cyclobutane dimers and (6-4) photoproducts] from P19 cells. After differentiation, the excellent overall cyclobutane dimer repair capacity of proliferating cells (84% removal in 24 h) is lost (no removal in 24 h), while removal of (6-4) photoproducts, although normal at 24 h (94%), is much slower than in undifferentiated P19 at 3 h (no removal versus 64%). The presence of the denV gene greatly stimulates the repair of cyclobutane dimers in undifferentiated P19 cells (94% removal at 3 h versus 40%) and also in differentiated cells (50% removal at 24 h versus no removal). The denV gene also stimulates the early repair of (6-4) photoproducts in both differentiated and undifferentiated cells.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Prion disease.

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Animals↗