The uORF-containing thrombopoietin mRNA escapes nonsense-mediated decay (NMD)

Platelet production is induced by the cytokine thrombopoietin (TPO). It is physiologically critical that TPO expression is tightly regulated, because lack of TPO causes life-threatening thrombocytopenia while an excess of TPO results in thrombocytosis. The plasma concentration of TPO is controlled by a negative feedback loop involving receptor-mediated uptake of TPO by platelets. Furthermore, TPO biosynthesis is limited by upstream open reading frames (uORFs) that curtail the translation of the TPO mRNA. uORFs are suggested to activate RNA degradation by nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) in a number of physiological transcripts. Here, we determine whether NMD affects TPO expression. We show that reporter mRNAs bearing the seventh TPO uORF escape NMD. Importantly, endogenously expressed TPO mRNA from HuH7 cells is unaffected by abrogation of NMD by RNAi. Thus, regulation of TPO expression is independent of NMD, implying that mRNAs bearing uORFs cannot generally be considered to represent NMD targets

Comparison of quality of life after stereotactic body radiotherapy and surgery for early-stage prostate cancer

Background: As the long-term efficacy of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) becomes established and other prostate cancer treatment approaches are refined and improved, examination of quality of life (QOL) following prostate cancer treatment is critical in driving both patient and clinical treatment decisions. We present the first study to compare QOL after SBRT and radical prostatectomy, with QOL assessed at approximately the same times pre- and post-treatment and using the same validated QOL instrument. Methods: Patients with clinically localized prostate cancer were treated with either radical prostatectomy (n = 123 Spanish patients) or SBRT (n = 216 American patients). QOL was assessed using the Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite (EPIC) grouped into urinary, sexual, and bowel domains. For comparison purposes, SBRT EPIC data at baseline, 3 weeks, 5, 11, 24, and 36 months were compared to surgery data at baseline, 1, 6, 12, 24,and 36 months. Differences in patient characteristics between the two groups were assessed using Chi-squared tests for categorical variables and t-tests for continuous variables. Generalized estimating equation (GEE) models were constructed for each EPIC scale to account for correlation among repeated measures and used to assess the effect of treatment on QOL. Results: The largest differences in QOL occurred in the first 1-6 months after treatment, with larger declines following surgery in urinary and sexual QOL as compared to SBRT, and a larger decline in bowel QOL following SBRT as compared to surgery. Long-term urinary and sexual QOL declines remained clinically significantly lower for surgery patients but not for SBRT patients. Conclusions: Overall, these results may have implications for patient and physician clinical decision making which are often influenced by QOL. These differences in sexual, urinary and bowel QOL should be closely considered in selecting the right treatment, especially in evaluating the value of non-invasive treatments, such as SBRT

Cytotoxic T-cell precursor frequencies to HER-2 (369 – 377) in patients with HER-2/neu-positive epithelial tumours

HER-2/neu oncoprotein contains several major histocompatibility complex class I-restricted epitopes, which are recognised by cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) on autologous tumours and therefore can be used in immune-based cancer therapies. Of these, the most extensively studied is HER-2(9(369)). In the present report, we used dendritic cells pulsed with HER-2(9(369)) to stimulate, in the presence of IL-7 and IL-12, the production of IFN-gamma by patients' CTL detected by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot-assay. Frequencies of peptide-specific precursors were estimated in HLA-A2, HLA-A3 and HLA-A26 patients with HER-2/neu-positive (+) breast, ovarian, lung, colorectal and prostate cancers and healthy individuals. We found increased percentages of such precursors in HLA-A2 (25%) and HLA-A26 (30%) patients, which were significantly higher (60%) in HLA-A3 patients. Our results demonstrate for the first time that pre-existing immunity to HER-2(9(369)) occurs in patients with colorectal, lung and prostate cancer. They also suggest that HER-2(9(369)) can be recognised by CTL, besides HLA-A2, also in the context of HLA-A3 and HLA-A26, thus increasing the applicability of HER-2(9(369))-based vaccinations in a considerably broader patients' population.Journal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Identification of contact sites in the actin-thymosin β4 complex by distance-dependent thiol cross-linking

Binding sites of actin and thymosin β4 were investigated using a set of bifunctional thiol-specific reagents, which allowed the insertion of cross-linkers of defined lengths between cysteine residues of the complexed proteins. After the cross-linkers were attached to actin specifically at either Cys, Cys, or to the sulfur atom of the ATP analog adenosine 5`-O-(thiotriphosphate) (ATPS), the actin derivatives were reacted with synthetic thymosin β4 analogs containing a cysteine at one of the positions 6, 17, 28, 34, and 40. Immediate cross-linking as followed by UV spectroscopy was found for Cys of actin and Cys of thymosin β4, indicating that the N terminus of thymosin β4 is in close proximity (≤9.2 Å) to the C terminus of actin. In contrast, only insignificant reactivity was measured for all thymosin β4 analogs when the cross-linkers were anchored at Cys of actin. A second contact site was identified by cross-linking of Cys and Cys in thymosin β4 with the ATPS derivative bound to actin, indicating that the hexamotif of thymosin β4 (positions 17-22) is in close proximity (≤9.2 Å) to the nucleotide. The importance of the amino acids 17 and 28 in thymosin β4 for the interaction with actin was emphasized by the finding that thymosin analogs containing cysteine in these positions exhibited strongly reduced abilities to inhibit actin polymerizatio

The ternary complex of DNase I, actin and thymosin β4

We have recently described a method for identifying contact sites between actin and thymosin β4 (Tβ4) by following spectrophotometrically the extent and kinetics of distinct, thiolspecific crosslinking reactions between appropriate derivatives of the two proteins [Reichert et al. (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271, 1301–1308]. In the present study this method was used to show that such crosslinking, which is indicative of complex formation, occurs to the same extent with the actin-DNase I complex as with pure actin, although at a somewhat lower rate. Further evidence for the formation of the ternary complex was given by gel electrophoresis. From fluorescence spectroscopy the K D value of Tβ4 from the actin-DNase I complex was found to be identical to that from pure actin. In line with these data, the capacity of actin for inhibiting DNase I was not affected by the addition of Tβ4. In conclusion, DNase I and Tβ4 are independent of each other in their interaction with actin, suggesting that the binding sites of thymosin β4 and DNase I on actin do not overlap. A ternary complex of DNase I, actin and Tβ4, if obtained in crystalline form, could thus provide an approach for studying the interface of Tβ4 and actin by X-ray analysis

mRNA isoform diversity can obscure detection of miRNA-mediated control of translation

Reporter-based studies support inhibition of translation at the level of initiation as a substantial component of the miRNA mechanism, yet recent global analyses have suggested that they predominantly act through decreasing target mRNA stability. Cells commonly coexpress several processing isoforms of an mRNA, which may also differ in their regulatory untranslated regions (UTR). In particular, cancer cells are known to express high levels of short 3′ UTR isoforms that evade miRNA-mediated regulation, whereas longer 3′ UTRs predominate in nontransformed cells. To test whether mRNA isoform diversity can obscure detection of miRNA-mediated control at the level of translation, we assayed the responses of 11 endogenous let-7 targets to inactivation of this miRNA in HeLa cells, an intensively studied model system. We show that translational regulation in many cases appears to be modest when measuring the composite polysome profile of all extant isoforms of a given mRNA by density ultracentrifugation. In contrast, we saw clear effects at the level of translation initiation for multiple examples when selectively profiling mRNA isoforms carrying the 5′ or 3′ untranslated regions that were actually permissive to let-7 action, or when let-7 and a second targeting miRNA were jointly manipulated. Altogether, these results highlight a caveat to the mechanistic interpretation of data from global miRNA target analyses in transformed cells. Importantly, they reaffirm the importance of translational control as part of the miRNA mechanism in animal cells

The crystal structure of yeast copper thionein: the solution of a long-lasting enigma

We report here the crystal structure of yeast copper thionein (Cu-MT), determined at 1.44-A resolution. The Cu-MT structure shows the largest known oligonuclear Cu(I) thiolate cluster in biology, consisting of six trigonally and two digonally coordinated Cu(I) ions. This is at variance with the results from previous spectroscopic determinations, which were performed on MT samples containing seven rather than eight metal ions. The protein backbone has a random coil structure with the loops enfolding the copper cluster, which is located in a cleft where it is bound to 10 cysteine residues. The protein structure is somewhat different from that of Ag(7)-MT and similar, but not identical, to that of Cu(7)-MT. Besides the different structure of the metal cluster, the main differences lie in the cysteine topology and in the conformation of some portions of the backbone. The present structure suggests that Cu-MT, in addition to its role as a safe depository for copper ions in the cell, may play an active role in the delivery of copper to metal-free chaperones

Design and development of synthetic peptide antigens

Using hydrophilicity, surface probability, backbone flexibility and secondary structure parameters, antigenic sites of β-thymosins (Tβ), ubiquitin and gp41 envelope glycoprotein fragments of HIV-1 are determined. Corresponding antigenic sites of Tβ4, Tβ9, ubiquitin and gp41 (583–623) are produced either by tryptic cleavage from the natural peptides or by solid phase peptide synthesis (Fmoc/Bu’ strategy, Ecosyn P batch synthesizer, Eppendorf/Biotronik, Maintal, Germany). The predicted antigenic fragments allow the generation of specific antibodies for the determination of body fluid or tissue levels and immunostaining experiments, or, in the case of gp41-HIV fragments, the antigens can be used directly for the diagnosis of AIDS patients. © 1994 IUPA

Natural CD8+ T-cell responses against MHC class I epitopes of the HER-2/neu oncoprotein in patients with epithelial tumors

HER-2/neu is an immunogenic protein eliciting both humoral and cellular immune responses in patients with HER-2/neu-positive (+) tumors. Preexisting cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) immunity to HER-2/neu has so far been mainly evaluated in terms of detection of CTL precursor (CTLp) frequencies to the immunogenic HLA-A2-binding nona-peptide 369-377 (HER-2(9369)). In the present study, we examined patients with HER-2/neu+ breast, ovarian, lung, colorectal, and prostate cancers for preexisting CTL immunity to four recently described HER-2/neu-derived and HLA-A2-restricted "cytotoxic" peptides and to a novel one spanning amino acids 777-785 also with HLA-A2-binding motif. We utilized enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot (ELISpot) assay, which allows a quantitative and functional assessment of T cells directed against specific peptides after only brief in vitro incubation. CTL reactivity was determined with an Interferon γ (IFN-γ) ELISpot assay detecting T cells at the single cell level secreting IFN-γ. CTLp were denned as peptide-specific precursors per 106 peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Patients' PBMCs with increased CTLp were also tested against autologous tumor targets and peptide-pulsed dendritic cells (DCs) in cytotoxicity assays. We also studied patients with HER-2/ neu-negative ( -) tumors and healthy individuals. Of the HER-2/neu+ patients examined, 31% had increased CTLp to HER-2(9952), 19% to HER-2(9665), 16% to HER-2(9689), and 12.5% HER-2(9 435), whereas only 2 of 32 patients (6%) responded to HER-2(9 777). The CTLp recognizing HER-2(9952) were extremely high in two patients with breast cancer, one with lung cancer, and one with prostate cancer. None of the HER-2/neu- patients or healthy donors exhibited increased CTLp to any of these peptides. Besides IFN-γ production, preexisting CTL immunity to all five HER-2/neu peptides was also shown in cytotoxicity assays where patients' PBMCs with increased CTLp specifically lysed autologous tumor targets and autologous peptide-pulsed DCs. Our results demonstrate for the first time that (1) preexisting immunity to peptides HER-2(9435), HER-2(9952), HER-2(9689), HER-2(9665), and HER-2(9777) is present in patients with HER-2/neu+ tumors of distinct histology, (2) HER-2(9777) is a naturally processed peptide expressed on the surface of HER-2/neu + tumors, as are the other four peptides, and (3) HER-2/neu + prostate tumor cells can be recognized and lysed by autologous HER-2 peptide-specific CTL. Our findings broaden the potential application of HER-2/neu-based immunotherapy