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Phospholipase A2-activating protein--an important regulatory molecule in modulating cyclooxygenase-2 and tumor necrosis factor production during inflammation.

Inflammation is a complex multifactorial process and a hallmark of many inflammatory diseases. Most of the tissue destruction that occurs in these diseases is the result of an aberrant or often uncontrolled immune response. Factors that play an important role in such diseases include pro-inflammatory cytokines, complement, and eicosanoids. This review focuses on eicosanoids and their regulation via phospholipase A2-activating protein, which could be targeted as a new therapeutic tool to control inflammatory diseases.

Animals↗

Muscle differentiation: insulin-like growth factors as positive modulators of myogenic regulatory genes?

The contribution of autocrine production of insulin-like growth factor II (IGFII) to myogenic differentiation was studied in the mouse myogenic C2 cells. Permissive C2 cells were stably transfected with a vector generating antisense RNA complementary to IGF RNAs. Our results show that: (1) accumulation of IGFII mRNA is dramatically decreased (this mRNA is undetectable by RNA blotting); (2) accumulation of MyoD mRNA also becomes undetectable by RNA blot analysis; (3) the ability of the cells to differentiate, including the activation of myogenin and myosin genes, is severely compromised; (4) expression of the MyoD genes and the ability to differentiate are restored following the addition of insulin or IGF to the cells. Our observations indicate that the autonomous differentiation of myogenic cells requires autocrine production of IGF and raise the possibility that IGFII positively regulates expression of the MyoD gene, one of the members of the myogenic regulatory factor family.

Animals↗

Stromal cell modulation of negative regulatory signals that influence apoptosis and proliferation of B lineage lymphocytes.

The bone marrow microenvironment influences whether a given B cell proliferates, differentiates, or undergoes apoptosis. In this report, we demonstrate that apoptosis of primary murine B lymphocyte precursors can be regulated either positively or negatively by stroma. Several stromal lines that support lymphocyte outgrowth suppressed the spontaneous apoptosis of pre-B cells by as much as 90%. Direct contact with stromal cells more effectively protected lymphocytes than did stromal cell-CM or a collection of recombinant cytokines. In contrast, one unique stromal cell clone actually induced lymphocyte apoptosis, and a second line appeared inert. A survey of adherent cell lines suggested that expression of life-sparing molecules is widespread but not ubiquitous. Experiments with neutralizing Abs to CD44, vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1), CD9, intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), or ICAM-2 suggested that these interaction molecules do not deliver short-term survival signals to B cell precursors. Of particular interest, direct interaction with lymphocyte-supportive stromal cells minimized the negative regulatory effects of IL-1alpha, and a glucocorticoid, but not IFN-beta or PGE2. These results demonstrate that the effect of negative regulators depends upon the context in which these signals are presented. As molecules that influence B lymphopoiesis are better defined, it will be important to consider the role of each in combination with other stimuli.

Animals↗

Structure and function of the SWIRM domain, a conserved protein module found in chromatin regulatory complexes.

The SWIRM domain is a module found in the Swi3 and Rsc8 subunits of SWI/SNF-family chromatin remodeling complexes, and the Ada2 and BHC110/LSD1 subunits of chromatin modification complexes. Here we report the high-resolution crystal structure of the SWIRM domain from Swi3 and characterize the in vitro and in vivo function of the SWIRM domains from Saccharomyces cerevisiae Swi3 and Rsc8. The Swi3 SWIRM forms a four-helix bundle containing a pseudo 2-fold axis and a helix-turn-helix motif commonly found in DNA-binding proteins. We show that the Swi3 SWIRM binds free DNA and mononucleosomes with high and comparable affinity and that a subset of Swi3 substitution mutants that display growth defects in vivo also show impaired DNA-binding activity in vitro, consistent with a nucleosome targeting function of this domain. Genetic and biochemical studies also reveal that the Rsc8 and Swi3 SWIRM domains are essential for the proper assembly and in vivo functions of their respective complexes. Together, these studies identify the SWIRM domain as an essential multifunctional module for the regulation of gene expression.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

The evolution of diverse biological responses to DNA damage: insights from yeast and p53.

The cellular response to ionizing radiation provides a conceptual framework for understanding how a yeast checkpoint system, designed to make binary decisions between arrest and cycling, evolved in a way as to allow reversible arrest, senescence or apoptosis in mammals. We propose that the diversity of responses to ionizing radiation in mammalian cells is possible because of the addition of a new regulatory control module involving the tumour-suppressor gene p53. We review the complex mechanisms controlling p53 activity and discuss how the p53 regulatory module enables cells to grow, arrest or die by integrating DNA damage checkpoint signals with the response to normal mitogenic signalling and the aberrant signalling engendered by oncogene activation.

DNA Damage↗

Dual transcriptional activities of PAX3 and PAX7 spatially encode spinal cell fates through distinct gene networks.

Understanding how transcription factors regulate organized cellular diversity in developing tissues remains a major challenge due to their pleiotropic functions. We addressed this by monitoring and genetically modulating the activity of PAX3 and PAX7 during the specification of neural progenitor pools in the embryonic spinal cord. Using mouse models, we show that the balance between the transcriptional activating and repressing functions of these factors is modulated along the dorsoventral axis and is instructive to the patterning of spinal progenitor pools. By combining loss-of-function experiments with functional genomics in spinal organoids, we demonstrate that PAX-mediated repression and activation rely on distinct cis-regulatory genomic modules. This enables both the coexistence of their dual activity in dorsal cell progenitors and the specific control of two major differentiation programs. PAX promote H3K27me3 deposition at silencers to repress ventral identities, while at enhancers, they act as pioneer factors, opening and activating cis-regulatory modules to specify dorsal-most identities. Finally, we show that this pioneer activity is restricted to cells exposed to BMP morphogens, ensuring spatial specificity. These findings reveal how PAX proteins, modulated by morphogen gradients, orchestrate neuronal diversity in the spinal cord, providing a robust framework for neural subtype specification.

Animals↗

The N-terminal end of the catalytic domain of SRC kinase Hck is a conformational switch implicated in long-range allosteric regulation.

Signal transduction in cell growth and proliferation involves regulation of kinases through long-range allostery between remote protein regions. Molecular dynamics free energy calculations are used to clarify the coupling between the catalytic domain of Src kinase Hck and its N-terminal end connecting to the regulatory SH2 and SH3 modules. The N-terminal end is stable in the orientation required for the regulatory modules to remain properly bound only in the inactive catalytic domain. In the active catalytic domain, the N-terminal end prefers a different conformation consistent with dissociation of the regulatory modules. The free energy surface shows that the N-terminal end acts as a reversible two-state conformational switch coupling the catalytic domain to the regulatory modules. Structural analogy with insulin receptor kinase and c-Src suggests that such reversible conformational switching in a critical hinge region could be a common mechanism in long-range allosteric regulation of protein kinase activity.

Allosteric Regulation↗

Modulation of fibroblast hemopoietic regulatory activities by infection with cloned Rauscher helper leukemia virus.

We tested the ability of cellularly cloned Rauscher helper leukemia virus to modulate the release of hemopoietic regulatory activities by skin fibroblasts in culture. The results demonstrate that release of colony stimulating activity for granulocyte/macrophage progenitors by fibroblasts derived from BALB/c, NIH/RIV, 129/J, and DBA/2 mice was increased by virus infection. In contrast, virus infection severely impaired the ability of fibroblasts to support in-vitro granulopoiesis.

Animals↗

Peptides as modulators of enzymes and regulatory proteins.

There is currently great interest in the development of methods to modulate the function of diverse classes of target proteins with chemicals (agonists or antagonists). These would be valuable reagents for biomedical research and some might serve as potential drug leads. Traditionally, most chemicals that modulate protein function have been enzyme inhibitors isolated in functional screens specific for the enzyme of interest. However, recent efforts from many laboratories have suggested that relatively simple binding assays may provide a more convenient and general route to chemical modulators. We review here this work with a particular emphasis on peptide modulators.

CDC2-CDC28 Kinases↗

Erythroid differentiation and regulatory gene expression are modulated by adenosine derivatives interfering with S-adenosylmethionine metabolic pathway.

The differentiation of murine erythroleukemia cells and the expression of SCL, Id1 and c-myc regulatory genes were studied. The first gene is a positive regulator of differentiation, while the other two are both negative regulators of differentiation and positive regulators of proliferation. Accordingly, our data show that when differentiation is stimulated SCL is upregulated while Id1 and c-myc are, coordinately, downregulated. The cultures were treated with two adenosine derivatives, 3-deazaadenosine and 3-deazaaristeromycin, known to act on the metabolic pathway of the methyl donor S-adenosylmethionin, in order to assess the possibility of a coordinated modulation, by these drugs, of regulatory gene expression and erythroid cell differentiation. 3-Deazaaristeromycin caused the simultaneous downregulation of Id1 and c-myc, whereas 3-deazaadenosine caused their upregulation; both drugs produced a transient increase in SCL expression. The use of these drugs evidenced a predominant regulatory effect of negative regulators in the control of erythroid differentiation. The distinct effects of the two drugs on regulatory gene expression led to an increased differentiation induced by 3-deazaaristeromycin and to a reduced differentiation induced by 3-deazaadenosine, if compared with controls. Southern analysis of DNA digested with methylation-specific restriction endonucleases showed that the administration of 3-deazaaristeromycin resulted in hypomethylation of SCL and c-myc, thus evidencing, in these cells, a clear correlation between DNA hypomethylation and differentiation but no straightforward correlation between DNA methylation and gene expression.

Adenosine↗

Modulation of mast cell cAMP levels. A regulatory function of calmodulin.

Modulations of cyclic AMP (cAMP) levels and secretory capacity in both immunological and non-immunological stimulation of rat mast cells are influenced by the calmodulin inhibitor trifluoperazine. A model of a calcium-dependent joint regulation of cyclic nucleotide turnover in these two types of mast cell stimulation is presented.

Ascitic Fluid↗

Angiotensin II type 1 and endothelin type A receptor antagonists modulate the extracellular matrix regulatory system differently in diastolic heart failure.

OBJECTIVE: Ventricular fibrosis plays a pivotal role in the development of diastolic heart failure and is a therapeutic target; however, the effects of pharmacological interventions on the extracellular matrix (ECM) regulatory system in diastolic heart failure remain to be clarified. DESIGN AND METHODS: Dahl salt-sensitive rats fed on a diet containing 8% NaCl from age 7 weeks--a hypertensive diastolic heart failure model--were divided into untreated rats, rats treated with angiotensin II type 1 (AT1) receptor antagonist and those treated with endothelin type A (ETA) receptor antagonist. RESULTS: Ventricular fibrosis progressed in the untreated rats, with increases in mRNA levels of type I collagen, matrix metalloproteinase-2, -9 and -13, and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 and -2. Both antagonists attenuated ventricular fibrosis to the same degree. AT1 receptor blockade decreased the type I collagen mRNA level more than ETA receptor blockade. ETA receptor blockade did not decrease the matrix metalloproteinase-2 mRNA level that was decreased by AT1 receptor blockade, and decreased the tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-2 mRNA level that was not affected by AT1 receptor blockade. These led to a higher ratio of matrix metalloproteinase-2 to tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-2 mRNA levels and a greater 72-kDa gelatinase activity in the rats treated with ETA receptor antagonist than in those treated with AT1 receptor antagonist, and may well cancel out the lesser decline in collagen synthesis, resulting in the equivalent attenuation of ventricular fibrosis. CONCLUSIONS: AT1 receptor and ETA receptor antagonists provide their beneficial effects on the ECM through different modulation of its regulatory system.

Angiotensin Receptor Antagonists↗

Induction of autoantigen-specific Th2 and Tr1 regulatory T cells and modulation of autoimmune diabetes.

Autoantigen-based immunotherapy can modulate autoimmune diabetes, perhaps due to the activation of Ag-specific regulatory T cells. Studies of these regulatory T cells should help us understand their roles in diabetes and aid in designing a more effective immunotherapy. We have used class II MHC tetramers to isolate Ag-specific T cells from nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice and BALB/c mice treated with glutamic acid decarboxylase 65 peptides (p206 and p221). Based on their cytokine secretion profiles, immunization of NOD mice with the same peptide induced different T cell subsets than in BALB/c mice. Treatment of NOD mice induced not only Th2 cells but also IFN-gamma/IL-10-secreting T regulatory type 1 (Tr1) cells. Adoptive transfer experiments showed that isolated tetramer(+) T cells specific for p206 or p221 could inhibit diabetes development. These cells were able to suppress the in vitro proliferation of other NOD mouse T cells without cell-cell contact. They performed their regulatory functions probably by secreting cytokines, and Abs against these cytokines could block their suppressive effect. Interestingly, the presence of both anti-IL-10 and anti-IFN-gamma could enhance the target cell proliferation, suggesting that Tr1 cells play an important role. Further in vivo experiments showed that the tetramer(+) T cells could block diabetogenic T cell migration into lymph nodes. Therefore, treatment of NOD mice with autoantigen could induce Th2 and Tr1 regulatory cells that can suppress the function and/or block the migration of other T cells, including diabetogenic T cells, and inhibit diabetes development.

Adoptive Transfer↗

Discovering regulatory binding-site modules using rule-based learning.

Transcription factors regulate expression by binding selectively to sequence sites in cis-regulatory regions of genes. It is therefore reasonable to assume that genes regulated by the same transcription factors should all contain the corresponding binding sites in their regulatory regions and exhibit similar expression profiles as measured by, for example, microarray technology. We have used this assumption to analyze genome-wide yeast binding-site and microarray expression data to reveal the combinatorial nature of gene regulation. We obtained IF-THEN rules linking binding-site combinations (binding-site modules) to genes with particular expression profiles, and thereby provided testable hypotheses on the combinatorial coregulation of gene expression. We showed that genes associated with such rules have a significantly higher probability of being bound by the same transcription factors, as indicated by a genome-wide location analysis, than genes associated with only common binding sites or similar expression. Furthermore, we also found that such genes were significantly more often biologically related in terms of Gene Ontology annotations than genes only associated with common binding sites or similar expression. We analyzed expression data collected under different sets of stress conditions and found many binding-site modules that are conserved over several of these condition sets, as well as modules that are specific to particular biological responses. Our results on the reoccurrence of binding sites in different modules provide specific data on how binding sites may be combined to allow a large number of expression outcomes using relatively few transcription factors.

Algorithms↗

Modulation of p53 transcription regulatory activity and post-translational modification by hepatitis C virus core protein.

Oncogenic virus proteins often target to tumor suppressor p53 during virus life cycle. In the case of hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein, it has been shown to affect p53-dependent transcription. Here, we further characterized the in vitro and in vivo interactions between HCV core protein and p53 and showed that these two proteins colocalized in subnuclear granular structures and the perinuclear area. By use of a reporter assay, we observed that while low level of HCV core protein enhanced the transactivational activity of p53, high level of HCV core protein inhibited this activity. In both cases, however, HCV core protein increased the p53 DNA-binding affinity in gel retardation analyses, likely due to the hyperacetylation of p53 Lys(373) and Lys(382) residues. Additionally, HCV core protein, depending on its expression level, had differential effects on the Ser(15) phosphorylation of p53. Moreover, HCV core protein could rescue p53-mediated suppressive effects on both RNA polymerase I and III transcriptions. Collectively, our results indicate that HCV core protein targets to p53 pathway via at least three means: physical interaction, modulation of p53 gene regulatory activity and post-translational modification. This feature of HCV core protein, may potentially contribute to the HCV-associated pathogenesis.

Acetylation↗

Participation of protein kinase C and regulatory G proteins in modulation of the evoked noradrenaline release in brain.

1. In the present paper two questions are discussed: (A) Does protein kinase C (PKC) participate in the modulation of evoked noradrenaline release in brain tissue? and (B) Is there any link between presynaptic alpha 2-adrenoceptors and regulatory G proteins? 2. Slices of the middle part of the rabbit hippocampus, labeled with 3H-noradrenaline, were superfused with medium containing the reuptake inhibitor cocaine. During superfusion the tissue was stimulated twice electrically for 2 min each. 3. The PKC activators 4 beta-phorbol 12,13-dibutyrate (4 beta-PDB) and 12-O-tetradecanoyl phorbol 13-acetate (TPA) increased the stimulation-evoked transmitter release in a concentration-dependent manner. 4 alpha-PDB and 4-O-methyl-TPA, which do not activate PKC, were without effect on transmitter release. Polymyxin B, an inhibitor of PKC, diminished the stimulus-evoked overflow and counteracted the effects of the phorbol esters. The increases in release caused by phorbol esters and the alpha 2-adrenoceptor antagonist yohimbine were additive. 4. Treatment of hippocampal tissue with islet-activating protein (IAP) or N-ethylmaleimide (NEM), both known to inactivate the regulatory G proteins Gi and Go by chemical modification, led to a marked increase in evoked noradrenaline release. In addition, the effects of both the alpha 2-adrenoceptor agonist clonidine and the alpha 2-adrenoceptor antagonist yohimbine were inhibited. 5. The facilitatory effects of IAP and NEM on transmitter release were not additive. In synaptosomes prepared from rabbit hippocampus two polypeptides with molecular weights corresponding to those of alpha i and alpha o were 32P-ADP-ribosylated with IAP. Pretreatment of synaptosomes with NEM reduced the subsequent ADP ribosylation by IAP concentration dependently. 6. The above results suggest that PKC is involved in the modulation of noradrenaline release in the rabbit hippocampus. The presynaptic alpha 2-autoreceptors modulate transmitter release by a mechanism which is not directly affected by PKC. The alpha 2-autoreceptor-mediated signals seem to be transduced across the plasma membrane via regulatory G proteins.

Adenylyl Cyclases↗

Modulation of cell cycle regulatory protein expression and suppression of tumor growth by mimosine in nude mice.

Our previous results demonstrated that the plant amino acid mimosine blocked cell cycle progression and suppressed proliferation of human lung cancer cells in vitro by multiple mechanisms. Inhibition of cyclin D1 expression or induction of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21WAF1 expression was found in mimosine-treated lung cancer cells. However, whether mimosine may modulate the expression of these cell cycle regulatory proteins and suppress tumor growth in vivo is unknown. In this study, we examined the anti-cancer effect of mimosine on human H226 lung cancer cells grown in nude mice. Our results demonstrated that mimosine inhibits cyclin D1 and induces p21WAF1 expression in vivo. Furthermore, results of TUNEL analysis indicated that mimosine may induce apoptosis to suppress tumor growth in nude mice. Collectively, these results suggest that mimosine exerts anti-cancer effect in vivo and might be useful in the therapy of lung cancer.

Animals↗