Project description:Activating mutations in tyrosine kinase (TK) genes (e.g. FLT3 and KIT) are found in more than 30% of patients with de novo acute myeloid leukemia (AML); many groups have speculated that mutations in other TK genes may be present in the remaining 70%. We performed high-throughput re-sequencing of the kinase domains of 26 TK genes (11 receptor TK and 15 cytoplasmic TK) that are expressed in most AML patients, using genomic DNA from the bone marrow (tumor) and matched skin biopsy samples (germline) from 94 patients with de novo AML; sequence variants were validated in an additional 94 AML tumor samples (14.3 million base pairs of sequence were obtained and analyzed). We identified known somatic mutations in FLT3, KIT, and JAK2 TK genes at the expected frequencies, and found four novel somatic mutations, JAK1V623A, JAK1T478S, DDR1A803V and NTRK1S677N, once each in four respective patients out of 188 tested. We also identified novel germline sequence changes encoding amino acid substitutions (i.e. non-synonymous changes) in 14 TK genes, including TYK2, which had the largest number of non-synonymous sequence variants (11 total detected). Additional studies will be required to define the roles that these somatic and germline TK gene variants play in AML pathogenesis. Experiment Overall Design: 188 patient samples analysed
Project description:Tachykinins (TKs) and their receptors have been shown to be expressed in the mammalian ovary. However, the biological roles for ovarian TKs have yet to be verified. Ci-TK and Ci-TK-R, characterized from the protochordate (ascidian), Ciona intestinalis, are prototypes of vertebrate TKs and their receptors. In the present study, we show a novel biological function of TKs as an inducible factor for oocyte growth using C. intestinalis as a model animal. Immunostaining demonstrated the specific expression of Ci-TK-R in test cells residing in oocytes at the vitellogenic stage. DNA microarray and real-time PCR substantiated that Ci-TK induced gene expression of several proteases including cathepsin D, chymotrypsin, and carboxypeptidase B2 and functionally unidentified lectins or glycosidases in the ovary. The enzymatic activities of the above proteases in the ovary were also shown to be enhanced by Ci-TK. Of particular significance is that treatment of Ciona oocytes with Ci-TK resulted in progression of growth from the vitellogenic stage to the post-vitellogenic stage, which was completely blocked by a TK antagonist or protease inhibitors. These results led to the conclusion that Ci-TK enhances growth of the vitellogenic oocytes via up-regulation of gene expression and enzymatic activities of the proteases. Keywords: tachykinins, ovary
Project description:To investigate genes that are involved in hematopoietic cells production in vivo, we used microarray technology combined with a transgenic mouse model IIb-tk previously developed in our laboratory (Tropel et al., 1997). In these mice, the promoter region of the murine CD41 (GPIIb) gene was used to target the expression of the thymidine kinase (tk) toxigene in cells specifically expressing the CD41 gene. The strength of the model resides in the fact that the depletion of the entire myelo-megakaryocytic lineage including stem cells/early progenitors by ganciclovir (GCV) administration could be inverted by discontinuing the treatment. A nearly full recovery of mature myelo-megakaryocytic cells is then observed within 3 days. To determine at the molecular level how BM cells could be regenerated in vivo following the eradication of all myeloid progenitors by the GCV treatment, microarray technology was applied. The strategy involved monitoring early transcriptional changes for the first 3-day of BM regeneration. Keywords: time-course
Project description:Trifluorothymidine (TFT) is part of the novel oral formulation TAS-102, which is currently evaluated in phase II studies. Drug resistance is an important limitation of cancer therapy. The aim of the present study was to induce resistance in the colon cancer cell line H630 using two different exposure schedules and to analyze the resistance mechanism. Cells were exposed either continuously or intermittently to TFT, resulting in H630-cTFT and H630-4TFT, respectively. Cells were analyzed for cross resistance, cell cycle, protein expression and activity of thymidine phosphorylase (TP), thymidine kinase (TK) and thymidylate synthase (TS), gene expression (microarray) and genomic alterations (array CGH). Both cell lines were cross-resistant to 2’-deoxy-5-fluorouridine (>170-fold). Exposure to IC75-TFT increased the S- and G2/M-phase of H630 cells, while in the resistant variants no change was observed. The two main target enzymes TS and TP remained unchanged in both TFT-resistant variants. In H630-4TFT cells, TK protein expression and activity were decreased, possibly related to an aberrant TK protein, clearly resulting in less activated TFT and most likely the mechanism of TFT resistance. Surprisingly, in H630-cTFT microarray analysis revealed a strong increase in mRNA levels of secretory phospholipase-A2 (sPLA2; 47-fold), which was also found by RT-PCR (211 fold increase). Inhibition of sPLA2 reversed TFT resistance partially. In addition, H630-cTFT had many chromosomal aberrations, but the exact role of sPLA2 in TFT-resistance remains unclear. Altogether, induction of resistance to TFT can lead to different mechanisms of resistance, including decreased TK protein expression and enzyme activity, as well as (phospho)lipid metabolism.
Project description:Pancreatic cancer-derived cells NP-18 underwent four rounds of treatment with increasing doses of an adenoviral vector encoding TK enzyme and GCV. Surviving cells were termed NP-18AR and displayed decreased sensitivity to treatment. This experiment analyses the transcriptomic effect of TK/GCV treatment on NP-18AR as compared to that of NP-18 cells.
Project description:MKN-45 cells were treated with PBS, BF-TK, BF/GCV or BF-TK/GCV for 48 h (GCV, 167 µg/ml), respectively. BF-TK (n = 3), BF/GCV (n = 3) or BF-TK/GCV (n = 3) groups were analyzed in triplicate.