PLC-β2 monitors the drug-induced release of differentiation blockade in tumoral myeloid precursors

Differentially expressed genes in metastatic advanced Egyptian bladder cancer

BACKGROUND

Bladder cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide. Gene expression profiling using microarray technologies improves the understanding of cancer biology. The aim of this study was to determine the gene expression profile in Egyptian bladder cancer patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Samples from 29 human bladder cancers and adjacent non-neoplastic tissues were analyzed by cDNA microarray, with hierarchical clustering and multidimensional analysis.

RESULTS

Five hundred and sixteen genes were differentially expressed of which SOS1, HDAC2, PLXNC1, GTSE1, ULK2, IRS2, ABCA12, TOP3A, HES1, and SRP68 genes were involved in 33 different pathways. The most frequently detected genes were: SOS1 in 20 different pathways; HDAC2 in 5 different pathways; IRS2 in 3 different pathways. There were 388 down-regulated genes. PLCB2 was involved in 11 different pathways, MDM2 in 9 pathways, FZD4 in 5 pathways, p15 and FGF12 in 4 pathways, POLE2 in 3 pathways, and MCM4 and POLR2E in 2 pathways. Thirty genes showed significant differences between transitional cell cancer (TCC) and squamous cell cancer (SCC) samples. Unsupervised cluster analysis of DNA microarray data revealed a clear distinction between low and high grade tumors. In addition 26 genes showed significant differences between low and high tumor stages, including fragile histidine triad, Ras and sialyltransferase 8 (alpha) and 16 showed significant differences between low and high tumor grades, like methionine adenosyl transferase II, beta.

CONCLUSIONS

The present study identified some genes, that can be used as molecular biomarkers or target genes in Egyptian bladder cancer patients.

Vav1 and PU.1 are recruited to the CD11b promoter in APL-derived promyelocytes: role of Vav1 in modulating PU.1-containing complexes during ATRA-induced differentiation

Vav1 plays an important role in the all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA)-induced completion of the differentiation program of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL)-derived cells, in which it strengthens the drug effects and is involved in the regulation of maturation-related proteins, such as the CD11b surface antigen. In both myeloid and lymphoid cells, accumulating data attribute to the multidomain protein Vav1 a functional relevance in the control of gene expression, by direct interaction with chromatin remodeling and/or transcriptional proteins. The present study provides evidence that, in the APL-derived NB4 cell line, Vav1 and the transcription factor PU.1 cooperate in regulating the ATRA-induced CD11b expression. Both chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) experiments and electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA) indicate that Vav1 and PU.1 are recruited to CD11b promoter. Even if the two proteins may participate in diverse protein/DNA complexes, the amounts of complexes including PU.1 seem to be dependent on the interaction of this transcription factor with tyrosine-phosphorylated Vav1. The reported data suggest that the ATRA-induced increase of Vav1 expression and tyrosine phosphorylation may be involved in recruiting PU.1 to its consensus sequence on the CD11b promoter and, ultimately, in regulating CD11b expression during the late stages of neutrophil differentiation of APL-derived promyelocytes.

Phospholipase C-β2 promotes mitosis and migration of human breast cancer-derived cells

Like most human neoplasm, breast cancer has aberrations in signal transduction elements that can lead to increased proliferative potential, apoptosis inhibition, tissue invasion and metastasis. Due to the high heterogeneity of this tumor, currently, no markers are clearly associated with the insurgence of breast cancer, as well as with its progression from in situ lesion to invasive carcinoma. We have recently demonstrated an altered expression of the beta2 isoform of the phosphoinositide-dependent phospholipase C (PLC) in invasive breast tumors with different histopathological features. In primary breast tumor cells, elevated amounts of this protein are closely correlated with a poor prognosis of patients with mammary carcinoma, suggesting that PLC-beta2 may be involved in the development and worsening of the malignant phenotype. Here we demonstrate that PLC-beta2 may improve some malignant characteristics of tumor cells, like motility and invasion capability, but it fails to induce tumorigenesis in non-transformed breast-derived cells. We also report that, compared with the G(0)/G(1) phases of the cell cycle, the cells in S/G(2)/M phases show high PLC-beta2 expressions that reach the greatest levels during the late mitotic stages. In addition, even if unable to modify the proliferation rate and the expression of cell cycle-related enzymes of malignant cells, PLC-beta2 may promote the G(2)/M progression, a critical event in cancer evolution. Since phosphoinositides, substrates of PLC, are involved in regulating cytoskeleton architecture, PLC-beta2 in breast tumor cells may mediate the modification of cell shape that characterizes cell division, motility and invasion. On the basis of these data, PLC-beta2 may constitute a molecular marker of breast tumor cells able to monitor the progression to invasive cancers and a target for novel therapeutic breast cancer strategies.