High expression of FMNL1 protein in T non-Hodgkin's lymphomas

We recently cloned a novel Formin-fan-lily human gene, denominated human leukocyte formin and posteriorly named as FMNL1 by the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee. This gene is overexpressed in lymphoid malignances and is found associated with Akt. Here, we describe the expression of the FMNL1 protein in 54 frozen biopsies of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) patients and five reactive lymph nodes. Western blot analysis revealed expression of FMNL1 in all samples studied, although the highest expression was in T-cell NHL (P < 0.05). (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.30673573

ANKHD1, ankyrin repeat and KH domain containing 1, is overexpressed in acute leukemias and is associated with SHP2 in K562 cells

In the present study, increased levels of ANKHD1 mRNA and protein expression in leukemia cell lines are reported, as compared with normal hematopoietic cells. Furthermore, a higher expression of ANKHD1 mRNA was detected in primary acute leukemia samples than in normal hematopoietic cells (P=0.002). ANKHD1 was detected in the cytosolic and membrane fraction of cells and was co-immumoprecipitated with SHP2 in protein extracts of K562 and LNCaP cell lines. These findings suggest a role for ANKHD1 as a scaffolding protein that may be associated with the abnormal phenotype of leukemia cells. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.1762982883

Characterisation of a new splice variant of MASK-BP3(ARF) and MASK human genes, and their expression patterns during haematopoietic cell differentiation

In this study we report the characterisation of a new splice variant, here denominated splice variant 4 (accession number AF258557) of the human Multiple Ankyrin repeats Single KH domain (hMASK) (accession number AF521882) and the hMASK-4E-Binding Protein 3 Alternative Reading Frame (hMASK-BP3(ARF)) (accession number AF521883), containing a number of ANK-repeat motifs. Ankyrin (ANK) repeat-containing proteins carry out a wide variety of biological activities and are involved in processes, such as cell differentiation and transcriptional regulation. The present study reports the computer analysis of these splice variant cDNAs and their broad mRNA expression in different normal human tissues and cancer cell lines. An upregulation of the splice variant mRNAs expression was observed after HL-60 and erythroblast differentiation. The upregulation of splice variant 4 mRNA was considerably higher than those of the other variants, during erythroid differentiation. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.36311312

Nucleating actin for invasion

The invasion of cancer cells into the surrounding tissue is a prerequisite and initial step in metastasis, which is the leading cause of death from cancer. Invasive cell migration requires the formation of various structures, such as invadopodia and pseudopodia, which require actin assembly that is regulated by specialized actin nucleation factors. There is a large variety of different actin nucleators in human cells, such as formins, spire and Arp2/3-regulating proteins, and the list is likely to grow. Studies of the mechanisms of various actin nucleation factors that are involved in cancer cell function may ultimately provide new treatments for invasive and metastatic disease