Isolation of monoclonal antibodies against avian oncornaviral protein p19

Differential effects of flavonoids as inhibitors of tyrosine protein kinases and serine/threonine protein kinases

The inhibitory potencies of bioflavonoids on various tyrosine protein kinases and serine/threonine protein kinases were investigated. The phosphotransferase activity of an oncogene product, pp130fps, and a growth factor receptor, insulin receptor, were inhibited by myricetin, a derivative of quercetin. However, tyrosine kinase activity in the particulate fraction from human platelets (PM-TPK) was resistant to myricetin. Apparent Ki values of myricetin for tyrosine protein kinases of pp130fps and insulin receptor were 1.8 and 2.6 microM, respectively. The Ki values for serine/threonine kinase activities of myosin light chain kinase (MLC-kinase), casein kinase I, casein kinase II, cAMP-dependent protein kinase, and protein kinase C were 1.7 microM, 9.0 microM, 0.6 microM, 27.5 microM, and 12.1 microM, respectively. Lineweaver-Burk plots revealed that myricetin competitively inhibits pp130fps tyrosine kinase, myosin light chain kinase, casein kinase I and II with ATP, but does not inhibit other protein kinases. Since myricetin is a hydroxylated derivative of quercetin, the inhibitory effects of a series of seven flavonoids with various numbers of hydroxy residues were examined. Structure activity studies exhibited that the inhibitory potencies of the flavonoids for tyrosine kinases of pp130fps and insulin receptor correlated with the number of hydroxy residues on the flavone rings (gamma = 0.974 and 0.926, respectively), whereas the hydroxylation influenced to a lesser extent the inhibitory potencies for serine/threonine protein kinase. The hydroxy residues at position 3' and 5' did not affect the activities of cAMP-dependent protein kinase, and protein kinase C, and the hydroxylation at position 5' is detrimental for the inhibition of MLC-kinase, and casein kinase I and II. Thus, flavonoids may be useful tools to elucidate the active site of tyrosine and serine/threonine protein kinases.

Characterization of epitopes on a variant surface glycoprotein from Trypanosoma congolense by six monoclonal antibodies

Monoclonal antibodies were isolated from mice immunized with variant surface glycoprotein of Trypanosoma congolense. Five out of the six monoclonals were able to detect epitopes at the cell surface in an indirect immunofluorescence analysis. One antibody did not react. Using protein-A-containing bacterial adsorbent all monoclonal antibodies precipitate glycosylated as well as non-glycosylated variant surface glycoprotein. Carbohydrate chains therefore do not appear to be part of the immunodeterminant structure recognized by the various monoclonal antibodies. Interaction of the monoclonal antibodies with protein fragments obtained by partial proteolysis with V8 protease from Staphylococcus aureus or papain allows the classification of the antibodies into three groups with different epitope specificity.

DNA-binding activity is associated with purified myb proteins from AMV and E26 viruses and is temperature-sensitive for E26 ts mutants

Oncogene protein products from avian myeloblastosis virus, p48v-myb, and from avian leukemia virus E26, p135gag-myb-ets, are located predominantly in the nucleus of nonproducer bone marrow cell clones, as revealed by indirect immunofluorescence. Both oncogene proteins were purified by immunoaffinity chromatography using monoclonal antibodies against p19 and immunoglobulins specific for myb, which was expressed in bacteria for antibody production. The purified proteins bind to DNA in vitro. In contrast, purified p135gag-myb-ets proteins from several mutants of E26 virus, temperature-sensitive for myeloblast transformation, either lost their abilities to bind to DNA or exhibited highly thermolabile DNA-protein interactions in vitro. DNA binding of AMV and E26 oncogene proteins is inhibited by myb-specific immunoglobulins. Our results suggest that lesions in the myb oncogene affect transformation as well as DNA binding of myb proteins in vitro.

Biochemical characterization of transformation-specific proteins of acute avian leukemia and sarcoma viruses

The biological and biochemical properties of the transformation-specific proteins of three avian oncornaviruses with different oncogenic potentials were compared, namely the gag-myc protein of the avian myelocytomatosis virus MC29, the gag-erb A protein of the avian erythroblastosis virus AEV, and the gag-fps protein of Fujinami sarcoma virus FSV. These oncogenes were analyzed in transformed fibroblasts that expressed only the transforming proteins but showed no virus replication. Monoclonal antibodies against the viral structural protein p19, which is the N-terminus of the proteins, were used for indirect immunofluorescence, for immunoprecipitation of the proteins from subcellular fractions, and for immunoaffinity column chromatography. With this last method a 3000-fold purification of the proteins was obtained. By indirect immunofluorescence it was shown that the gag-myc protein was located in the nucleus, and bound to DNA after purification. The gag-erb A protein was not nuclear but probably located in the cytoplasm and did not bind to DNA after purification. Neither of the two proteins exhibited protein kinase activity. In contrast, the gag-fps protein did not bind to DNA but showed protein kinase activity after purification. It was not located in the nucleus either.