Switch of FANCL,a key FA-BRCA component,between tumor suppressor and promoter by alternative splicing

Comment on: Panneerselvam J, et al. Cell Cycle 2012; 11:2947-55.     

Association between polymorphisms in AXIN1 gene and atrial septal defect

Abstract

Context: AXIN1 is a central component of Wnt signalling pathway which is essential for embryonic development.

Objective: To investigate whether polymorphisms of AXIN1 contribute to ASD susceptibility.

Materials and methods: Three tag SNPs (rs12921862, rs370681 and rs1805105) in AXIN1 were genotyped in 208 ASD patients and 302 healthy controls using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) in a Chinese population.

Results: Significantly increased ASD risk was observed to be associated with the A allele of rs12921862 (p?<?0.0001, OR?=?3.096, 95% CI?=?2.037–4.717). Increased ASD risk was observed to be associated with rs370681 in a codominant (p?=?0.043, OR?=?1.52, 95% CI?=?1.04–2.22) and overdominant model (p?=?0.016, OR?=?1.57, 95% CI?=?1.08–2.27).

Conclusion: rs12921862 and rs370681 may contribute to ASD susceptibility.     

Splicing factor poly(rC)-binding protein 1 is a novel and distinctive tumor suppressor

A lot of evidence has been found on the link between tumorigenesis and the aberrant expression of splicing factors. A number of splicing factors have been reported to be either oncogenic or overexpressed in cancer cells. However, splicing factors can also play negative roles in tumorigenesis. In the current review, we focus on splicing factor poly(rC)-binding protein 1 (PCBP1), a novel tumor suppressor that is characterized by downregulation in many cancer types and shows inhibition of tumor formation and metastasis. Notably, the messenger RNA levels of PCBP1 are not significantly decreased in most cancer types. In fact, PCBP1 protein is often degraded or shows a loss-of-function through phosphorylation in cancer cells. PCBP1 is highly homologous to its family member, PCBP2. Interestingly, PCBP2 appears to be an oncogenic splicing factor. A growing body of evidence has shown that PCBP1 regulates alternative splicing, translation, and RNA stability of many cancer-related genes. Taking together, PCBP1 has distinctive tumor suppressive functions, and increasing PCBP1 expression may represent a new approach for cancer treatment.     

AXIN2 and CDH1 polymorphisms, tooth agenesis, and oral clefts

BACKGROUND: AXIN2 and CDH1 genes play important roles during craniofacial morphogenesis. Mutations in these genes have been described in families presenting colorectal cancer and tooth agenesis, and gastric cancer and cleft lip/palate (CL/P). Oral clefts have been associated with tooth agenesis. We investigated if AXIN2 and CDH1 polymorphisms were associated with clefts or with any associated dental subphenotypes. METHODS: Markers in AXIN2 and CDH1 were genotyped using Taqman chemistry in a sample cohort comprised of 500 cleft individuals and 500 unrelated controls. RESULTS: Comparison between cleft and control groups showed a trend for association for AXIN2 with incomplete cleft palate (p = .006) and CDH1 with unilateral CL/P (p = .03 for left CL/P and p = .04 for right CL/P). Comparison of cleft subphenotypes with tooth agenesis and controls revealed borderline associations for CDH1 (p = .008) and AXIN2 (p = .01) with unilateral right CL/P with tooth agenesis. CONCLUSIONS: We observed only borderline results for the association of AXIN2 and CDH1 with CL/P with and without tooth agenesis. Nevertheless, implication of these genes in the simultaneous occurrence of CL/P and cancer, and in tooth agenesis and cancer, is rather intriguing and warrants further investigations with other geographic and ethnic populations. Birth Defects Research (Part A), 2009. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Enhancer-Mediated Oncogenic Function of the Menin Tumor Suppressor in Breast Cancer

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FoxM1与癌发生的相关剪接机制的探讨

FoxM1是一种原癌基因。它也是癌发生、发展密切相关的重要的转录因子。Fox M1是Forkhead Box转录因子家族重要成员,定位于染色体12p13.3,特异性表达于增殖期细胞中,在细胞终末分化时消失,是一个典型的与细胞增殖相关的转录因子,在细胞G/S及G/M期转换过程中发挥重要作用。它具有Fox M1A、B和C三种剪接异构体。Fox M1B和C在癌组织中高表达,发挥转录激活、促癌发生和发展的作用,而Fox M1A在癌组织中低表达,发挥转录抑制功能。癌组织中Fox M1B/C的优先选择对于Fox M1发挥促癌作用非常关键。因此对这一现象的成因即Fox M1癌相关选择性剪接机制的研究非常重要。     

癌基因和抑癌基因研究进展

癌基因和抑癌基因的发现和研究是肿瘤研究史上的一个里程碑,标志着肿瘤研究进入了分子时代,从而在更深层次上为阐明基因的结构、表达、调控、功能的改变与肿瘤形成的关系提供了科学依据和可能性,具有重要的理论和实际意义。本文概述了癌基因和抑癌基因的最新研究进展。     

综述: 微环境调控肿瘤代谢的研究

20世纪20年代,奥托·瓦博格首次发现肿瘤细胞在正常氧的情况下优先利用糖酵解的现象．近一个世纪以来,细胞代谢在肿瘤发生发展中的作用引起了广泛的关注．其基本机制是肿瘤细胞在营养匮乏的环境中通过劫持、重塑不同的细胞代谢途径,包括合成和分解途径,从而为其生存和增殖提供生物大分子原料;而这些代谢途径改变和代谢物的变化通过转录、表观、翻译和翻译后修饰等不同机制来调控细胞的生命活动, 从而在肿瘤发生发展中起着至关重要的作用．因此,代谢异常是肿瘤的十大特征之一．近年来,随着对癌基因和抑癌基因的突变以及各类生长因子和下游信号通路的深入研究,特别是近十年对肿瘤细胞所处的微环境在肿瘤发生发展中的关键作用不断阐明,人们逐步认识到肿瘤细胞和其所处微环境的相互作用对肿瘤代谢的重塑产生重要的影响,因此揭示微环境对肿瘤细胞代谢的调控机制,将为肿瘤的诊断和治疗提供新的靶点和合理化治疗方案,从而提高肿瘤病人的生存率及其生活质量．     

染色质结构与mRNA可变剪接

mRNA的可变剪接(alternative splicing)是一种由一个mRNA前体(pre-mRNA)通过不同的剪接方式产生多个mRNA变异体(variants)的RNA加工过程。在过去很长一段时间里,人们认为mRNA剪接过程是独立于转录过程的一个转录后RNA加工过程。然而,越来越多的实验证明mRNA剪接在很大程度上是与转录偶联发生的。因此,剪接调控会受到与转录相关因素的调控。本文将对染色质与mRNA剪接调控的相关性和染色质结构调控可变剪接的分子机制进行阐述。     

Stress-resistant Translation of Cathepsin L mRNA in Breast Cancer Progression

The cysteine protease cathepsin L (CTSL) is often thought to act as a tumor promoter by enhancing tumor progression and metastasis. This goes along with increased CTSL activity in various tumor entities; however, the mechanisms leading to high CTSL levels are incompletely understood. With the help of the polyoma middle T oncogene driven breast cancer mouse model expressing a human CTSL genomic transgene, we show that CTSL indeed promotes breast cancer metastasis to the lung. During tumor formation and progression high expression levels of CTSL are maintained by enduring translation of CTSL mRNA. Interestingly, human breast cancer specimens expressed the same pattern of 5′ untranslated region (UTR) splice variants as the transgenic mice and the human cancer cell line MDA-MB 321. By polyribosome profiling of tumor tissues and human breast cancer cells, we observe an intrinsic resistance of CTSL to stress-induced shutdown of translation. This ability can be attributed to all 5′ UTR variants of CTSL and is not dependent on a previously described internal ribosomal entry site motif. In conclusion, we provide in vivo functional evidence for overexpressed CTSL as a promoter of lung metastasis, whereas high CTSL levels are maintained during tumor progression due to stress-resistant mRNA translation.     

抑癌基因MTUS1在结直肠癌的表达与其淋巴结转移呈负相关

微管相关肿瘤抑制基因1(MTUS1)是一个新的肿瘤抑制基因,编码血管紧张素II AT受体结合蛋白（ATIPs）. MTUS1基因表达下调可促进肿瘤细胞增殖,但MTUS1基因表达在结直肠癌转移中的作用尚不知晓.本文以接受根治性手术、经病理检查证实的50例结直肠癌患者新鲜癌组织、癌旁组织和远癌组织为材料,探索MTUS1基因表达与结直肠癌淋巴结转移的关系. 荧光定量PCR及蛋白质免疫印迹揭示,有淋巴结转移的结直肠癌患者的癌及癌旁组织MTUS1 基因表达的mRNA及蛋白质水平明显低于无淋巴结转移的患者. MTUS1 蛋白质在淋巴结转移的结直肠癌患者的癌及癌旁组织表达下调,并进一步得到免疫组织化学的验证.实验结果提示,MTUS1的表达量与肿瘤的侵润深度有明显的负相关性.结合临床资料,推断抑癌基因MTUS1在肿瘤的发生、发展及淋巴转移中发挥重要作用.     

NUAK1通过影响F-actin聚合促进乳腺癌的侵袭转移

本课题组先前研究证明NUAK1/ARK5参与乳腺癌、胶质瘤侵袭转移,但机制尚不清楚.本文证明,NUAK1通过影响F-actin聚合促进乳腺癌的侵袭转移.应用小RNA干扰技术敲除乳腺癌细胞系MDA-MB-231中的NUAK1,用G418进行稳定筛选,并用Western印迹进行蛋白质表达检测,结果显示,成功敲除MDA-MB-231细胞中的NUAK1;采用Transwell侵袭实验检测NUAK1在乳腺癌细胞侵袭转移中的作用,结果表明,NUAK1被干扰的SiNUAK1/MDA-231细胞的侵袭能力明显减弱;应用免疫荧光法对细胞的F-actin进行荧光染色,半定量F-actin聚合分析结果显示,IGF-1在转染空载的细胞组（Scr/MDA-231）能诱导肌动蛋白短暂的聚合反应,而在敲除NUAK1的细胞组（SiNUAK1/MDA-231）肌动蛋白的聚合显著减少;用细胞因子IGF-1刺激乳腺癌细胞观察cofilin磷酸化,结果显示,在敲除NUAK1的细胞组（SiNUAK1/MDA-231）,IGF-1诱导的cofilin的磷酸化明显受抑制.上述结果表明,NUAK1能通过促进F-actin的聚合从而影响乳腺癌细胞的侵袭转移.