Search results for "P53"
showing 10 items of 303 documents
Galectin-3 Impairment of MYCN-Dependent Apoptosis-Sensitive Phenotype Is Antagonized by Nutlin-3 in Neuroblastoma Cells
2012
MYCN amplification occurs in about 20-25% of human neuroblastomas and characterizes the majority of the high-risk cases, which display less than 50% prolonged survival rate despite intense multimodal treatment. Somehow paradoxically, MYCN also sensitizes neuroblastoma cells to apoptosis, understanding the molecular mechanisms of which might be relevant for the therapy of MYCN amplified neuroblastoma. We recently reported that the apoptosis-sensitive phenotype induced by MYCN is linked to stabilization of p53 and its proapoptotic kinase HIPK2. In MYCN primed neuroblastoma cells, further activation of both HIPK2 and p53 by Nutlin-3 leads to massive apoptosis in vitro and to tumor shrinkage an…
ΔNp73β is oncogenic in hepatocellular carcinoma by blocking apoptosis signaling via death receptors and mitochondria
2010
p73 belongs to the p53 family of transcription factors known to regulate cell cycle and apoptosis. The Trp73 gene has two promoters that drive the expression of two major p73 isoform subfamilies: TA and ΔN. In general, TAp73 isoforms show proapoptotic activities, whereas members of the N-terminally truncated (ΔN) p73 subfamily that lack the transactivation domain show antiapoptotic functions. We found that upregulation of ΔNp73 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) correlated with reduced survival. Here, we investigated the molecular mechanisms accounting for the oncogenic role of ΔNp73 in HCC.ΔNp73β can directly interfere with the transcriptional activation function of the TA (containing the t…
Role of Gadd45a in Wip1-dependent regulation of intestinal tumorigenesis.
2012
Conversion of intestinal stem cells into tumor-initiating cells is an early step in Apc(Min)-induced polyposis. Wild-type p53-induced phosphatase 1 (Wip1)-dependent activation of a DNA damage response and p53 has a permanent role in suppression of stem cell conversion, and deletion of Wip1 lowers the tumor burden in Apc(Min) mice. Here we show that cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 2a, checkpoint kinase 2, and growth arrest and DNA damage gene 45a (Gadd45a) exert critical functions in the tumor-resistant phenotype of Wip1-deficient mice. We further identified Gadd45a as a haploinsufficient gene in the regulation of Wip1-dependent tumor resistance in mice. Gadd45a appears to function through…
Biological characterization of laryngeal squamous-cell carcinoma
1996
The traditional prognostic factors, including stage of disease and tumour grade, have shown a limited prognostic significance and an inability to predict clinical response to specific treatment in patients with laryngeal squamous-cell carcinoma. More recent data suggest that cell kinetics indices, DNA-ploidy, lysosomal cysteine proteinase expression and genetic changes of both tumour suppressor genes and proto-oncogenes may be considered as reliable and reproducible indicators of biological aggressiveness in these patients. Moreover, the frequency of different genetic alterations suggests that several pathways are involved in the genesis of these neoplasias and, in particular, it is very pr…
A Potent Tumor-Reactive p53-Specific Single-Chain TCR without On- or Off-Target Autoimmunity In Vivo
2018
Genetic engineering of T cells with a T cell receptor (TCR) targeting tumor antigen is a promising strategy for cancer immunotherapy. Inefficient expression of the introduced TCR due to TCR mispairing may limit the efficacy and adversely affect the safety of TCR gene therapy. Here, we evaluated the safety and therapeutic efficiency of an optimized single-chain TCR (scTCR) specific for an HLA-A2.1-restricted (non-mutated) p53(264–272) peptide in adoptive T cell transfer (ACT) models using our unique transgenic mice expressing human p53 and HLA-A2.1 that closely mimic the human setting. Specifically, we showed that adoptive transfer of optimized scTCR-redirected T cells does not induce on-tar…
Strategies for tumor elimination by cytotoxic T lymphocytes.
1998
Despite differences in their tissue of origin, many tumors share high level expression of certain tumor-associated proteins. Our laboratory has focused on the possibility of utilizing antigenic components of these proteins as a focus for T-cell immunotherapy of cancer. The advantage of targeting such commonly expressed proteins is the fact that such therapy could be of value in eliminating many different types of tumors. A potential barrier in the identification of T-cell epitopes derived from these proteins and presented by tumor cells is the fact that these proteins are also expressed at low levels in some normal tissues, and therefore, self-tolerance may eliminate T cells that are capabl…
Laser Pressure Catapulting (LPC): Optimization LPC-System and Genotyping of Colorectal Carcinomas
2005
Genotype analysis is becoming more and more useful in clinical practice, since specific mutations in tumors often correlate with prognosis and/or therapeutic response. Unfortunately, current molecular analytical techniques often require time-consuming and costly steps of analysis, thus making their routine clinical use difficult. Moreover, one of the most difficult problems arising during tumor research is that of their cell heterogeneity, which depends on their clear molecular heterogeneity. SSCP analysis discriminates by means of aberrant electrophoresis migration bands, mutated alleles which may represent as little as 15-20% of their total number. Nevertheless, in order to identify by se…
TP53 mutations and S-phase fraction but not DNA-ploidy are independent prognostic indicators in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma
2005
ToprospectivelyevaluatetheprognosticsignificanceofTP53,H-,K-,andN-Rasmutations,DNA-ploidyandS-phasefraction(SPF) in patients affected by locally advanced laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC). Eight-one patients (median follow-up was 71 months) who underwent resective surgery for primary operable locally advanced LSCC were analyzed. Tumor DNA was screened for mutational analysis by PCR/SSCP and sequencing. DNA-ploidy and SPF were performed byflow cytometric analyses. Thirty-six patients (44%) had, at least, a mutation in the TP53 gene. Of them, 22% (8/36) had double mutations and 3% (1/36) had triplemutations.Intotal,46TP53mutationswereobserved.Themajority(41%)oftheseoccurinexon5(19/46),…
DNA double-strand breaks trigger apoptosis in p53-deficient fibroblasts
2001
DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are induced by ionizing radiation (IR) and various radiomimetic agents directly, or indirectly as a consequence of DNA repair, recombination and replication of damaged DNA. They are ultimately involved in the generation of chromosomal aberrations and were reported to cause genomic instability, gene amplification and reproductive cell death. To address the question of whether DSBs act as a trigger of apoptosis, we induced DSBs by means of restriction enzyme electroporation and compared the effect with IR in mouse fibroblasts that differ in p53 status [wild-type (+/+) versus p53-deficient (-/-) cells]. We show that (i) electroporation of PVU:II is highly effici…
MAD2 depletion triggers premature cellular senescence in human primary fibroblasts by activating a P53 pathway preventing aneuploid cells propagation.
2012
The spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) is a cellular surveillance mechanism that ensures faithful chromosome segregation during mitosis and its failure can result in aneuploidy. Previously, it was suggested that reduction of the MAD2 gene, encoding a major component of the SAC, induced aneuploidy in human tumor cells. However, tumor cell lines contain multiple mutations that might affect or exacerbate the cellular response to Mad2 depletion. Thus, the scenario resulting by Mad2 depletion in primary human cells could be different and more complex that the one depicted so far. We used primary human fibroblasts (IMR90) and epithelial breast cells (MCF10A) to gain further insight on the effects …