Biomedical subjects

Steven J Collins

Publications and source records attributed to Steven J Collins.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMed2003

Diverse fibrillar peptides directly bind the Alzheimer's amyloid precursor protein and amyloid precursor-like protein 2 resulting in cellular accumulation.

The Alzheimer's disease Abeta peptide can increase the levels of cell-associated amyloid precursor protein (APP) in vitro. To determine the specificity of this response for Abeta and whether it is related to cytotoxicity, we tested a diverse range of fibrillar peptides including amyloid-beta (Abeta), the fibrillar prion peptides PrP106-126 and PrP178-193 and human islet-cell amylin. All these peptides increased the levels of APP and amyloid precursor-like protein 2 (APLP2) in primary cultures of astrocytes and neurons. Specificity was shown by a lack of change to amyloid precursor-like protein 1, tau-1 and cellular prion protein (PrP(c)) levels. APP and APLP2 levels were elevated only in cultures exposed to fibrillar peptides as assessed by electron microscopy and not in cultures treated with non-fibrillogenic peptide variants or aggregated lipoprotein. We found that PrP106-126 and the non-toxic but fibril-forming PrP178-193 increased APP levels in cultures derived from both wild-type and PrP(c)-deficient mice indicating that fibrillar peptides up-regulate APP through a non-cytotoxic mechanism and irrespective of parental protein expression. Fibrillar PrP106-126 and Abeta peptides bound recombinant APP and APLP2 suggesting the accumulation of these proteins was mediated by direct binding to the fibrillated peptide. This was supported by decreased APP accumulation following extensive washing of the cultures to remove fibrillar aggregates. Pre-incubation of fibrillar peptide with recombinant APP18-146, the putative fibril binding site, also abrogated the accumulation of APP. These findings show that diverse fibrillogenic peptides can induce accumulation of APP and APLP2 and this mechanism could contribute to pathogenesis in neurodegenerative disorders.

Alzheimer Disease↗

PubMed2002

Retinoids and retinoic acid receptors regulate growth arrest and apoptosis in human mammary epithelial cells and modulate expression of CBP/p300.

Retinoids and retinoic acid receptors (RARs) are important mediators of normal epithelial cell homeostasis. To assess the role of retinoids and RARs in regulating growth arrest and apoptosis in benign and malignant mammary epithelial cells, two model systems were developed: 1) RAR function was suppressed in retinoid-sensitive normal human mammary epithelial cells (HMECs) by the dominant-negative retinoic acid receptor, RARalpha403 (DNRAR), and 2) retinoid-resistant MCF-7 breast cancer cells were transduced with a functional RARbeta2. Inhibition of RAR function by the DNRAR in HMECs resulted in retinoid-resistance, increased proliferation, and dysregulated growth when cells were cultured in reconstituted extracellular matrix (rECM). Expression of RARbeta2 in MCF-7 cells resulted in sensitivity to retinoid-induced growth arrest and apoptosis. The CREB-binding protein (CBP) and the homologous protein p300 are tightly regulated, rate-limiting integrators of diverse signaling pathways and are recruited during retinoid-mediated transcriptional activation. The relationship between retinoid receptor expression, growth regulation, and transcriptional regulation of CBP/p300 is poorly understood. Inhibition of RAR function in HMECs by DNRAR suppressed expression of CBP/p300 and expression of RARbeta2 in MCF-7 cells promoted induction of CBP/p300 when cells were treated with 1.0 microM all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA). These results suggest that ATRA and RARs regulate growth arrest of HMECs and modulate CBP/p300 protein expression. Since CBP and p300 are normally present in limiting amounts, their regulation by ATRA and RARs may be an important element in the control of transcriptional activation of genes regulating growth arrest and apoptosis.

Apoptosis↗

PubMed2002

Retinoid-induced G1 arrest and differentiation activation are associated with a switch to cyclin-dependent kinase-activating kinase hypophosphorylation of retinoic acid receptor alpha.

Cell cycle G(1) exit is a critical stage where cells commonly commit to proliferate or to differentiate, but the biochemical events that regulate the proliferation/differentiation (P/D) transition at G(1) exit are presently unclear. We previously showed that MAT1 (ménage à trois 1), an assembly factor and targeting subunit of the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)-activating kinase (CAK), modulates CAK activities to regulate G(1) exit. Here we find that the retinoid-induced G(1) arrest and differentiation activation of cultured human leukemic cells are associated with a switch to CAK hypophosphorylation of retinoic acid receptor alpha (RARalpha) from CAK hyperphosphorylation of RARalpha. The switch to CAK hypophosphorylation of RARalpha is accompanied by decreased MAT1 expression and MAT1 fragmentation that occurs in the differentiating cells through the all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA)-mediated proteasome degradation pathway. Because HL60R cells that harbor a truncated ligand-dependent AF-2 domain of RARalpha do not demonstrate any changes in MAT1 levels or CAK phosphorylation of RARalpha following ATRA stimuli, these biochemical changes appear to be mediated directly through RARalpha. These studies indicate that significant changes in MAT1 levels and CAK activities on RARalpha phosphorylation accompany the ATRA-induced G(1) arrest and differentiation activation, which provide new insights to explore the inversely coordinated P/D transition at G(1) exit.

Bone Neoplasms↗

PubMed2002

IL-3-induced enhancement of retinoic acid receptor activity is mediated through Stat5, which physically associates with retinoic acid receptors in an IL-3-dependent manner.

The regulation of hematopoiesis involves the interaction of specific hematopoietic cytokines with lineage-specific transcription factors, but little is known about how these cytokines might regulate the expression/activity of these different transcription factors. Here we identify the critical signal transduction pathways that mediate the interleukin 3 (IL-3)-induced enhancement of retinoic acid receptor (RAR) transcriptional activity that accompanies the IL-3-mediated commitment of the multipotent, stem cell factor (SCF)-dependent EML cell line to granulocyte/monocyte progenitors. We observe that the addition of IL-3 to EML cells induces activation of the phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase, mitogen-activated protein kinase, and Jak/Stat pathways and that Jak2 activation is the critical "proximal" mediator of the IL-3-induced enhancement of RAR activity. Constitutively active Stat5 constructs enhance both the transcriptional activity of RARs in EML cells and the commitment of these cells to granulocyte/monocyte progenitors, whereas dominant-negative Stat5 constructs inhibit this IL-3-induced enhancement of RAR transcriptional activity. We observe that the retinoic acid response element (RARE) used in our RA responsive reporter harbors overlapping Stat/RAR-binding sites. Moreover, coimmunoprecipitation studies indicate an interaction between Stat5 and RARs that is IL-3 dependent. Thus, Stat5 is an important mediator of the IL-3-induced enhancement of RAR transcriptional activity that accompanies the commitment of immature EML cells to the granulocyte/monocyte lineage. Cytokine-mediated physical and functional interactions between Stat5 and RARs may play critical roles in regulating different stages of hematopoiesis.

Animals↗

PubMed2002

The cytokines IL-3 and GM-CSF regulate the transcriptional activity of retinoic acid receptors in different in vitro models of myeloid differentiation.

The disruption of retinoic acid receptor (RAR) activity that characterizes human acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is associated with a block to granulocytic differentiation indicating that RARs are critical regulators of normal myeloid differentiation. Nevertheless, how RAR activity might be regulated in the presumably homogenous concentration of retinoids in blood and bone marrow and how these receptors might interact with specific hematopoietic cytokines to regulate normal myeloid differentiation remain unclear. Here, using several cytokine-dependent in vitro models of myeloid development, it was observed that specific hematopoietic cytokines that normally regulate myeloid lineage commitment and differentiation (interleukin-3 and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor) trigger the enhancement of both ligand-dependent and ligand-independent transcriptional activity of both endogenous and exogenous (transiently transfected) RARs. This cytokine-mediated enhancement of RAR activity is not associated with any observed changes in expression of the RARs or their respective coactivators/corepressors. These studies define a previously unknown cytokine-RAR interaction during myelopoiesis and suggest that RAR activation might be a critical downstream event following interleukin-3 and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor signaling during myeloid differentiation. This observation of ligand-independent activation of RARs that is mediated by certain cytokines represents a new paradigm with respect to how RAR activity might be modulated during hematopoiesis and also suggests a molecular basis for the differential sensitivity of human acute myelogenous leukemia cells to retinoids.

Animals↗

PubMed2002

Tumor-associated zinc finger mutations in the CTCF transcription factor selectively alter tts DNA-binding specificity.

CTCF is a widely expressed 11-zinc finger (ZF) transcription factor that is involved in different aspects of gene regulation including promoter activation or repression, hormone-responsive gene silencing, methylation-dependent chromatin insulation, and genomic imprinting. Because CTCF targets include oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, we screened over 100 human tumor samples for mutations that might disrupt CTCF activity. We did not observe any CTCF mutations leading to truncations/premature stops. Rather, in breast, prostate, and Wilms' tumors, we observed four different CTCF somatic missense mutations involving amino acids within the ZF domain. Each ZF mutation abrogated CTCF binding to a subset of target sites within the promoters/insulators of certain genes involved in regulating cell proliferation but did not alter binding to the regulatory sequences of other genes. These observations suggest that CTCF may represent a novel tumor suppressor gene that displays tumor-specific "change of function" rather than complete "loss of function."

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed2002

Quinacrine does not prolong survival in a murine Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease model.

Paramount among issues relating to the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (also known as prion diseases) is the absence of any effective therapy. This need has been heightened by the substantial European and emerging global problem of bovine spongiform encephalopathy and consequent variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Stimulated by the recent reports of a potent antiprion effect in cell culture-based clearance assays, we studied the utility of quinacrine in a well-characterized in vivo model of mouse-adapted transmissible spongiform encephalopathy. Our results failed to show any evidence that quinacrine is effective when using the simple but objective measure of survival prolongation.

Animals↗