Oncogene database

1027

CDKN1B

cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1B (p27, Kip1);CDKN1B;cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1B (p27, Kip1)

cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1B

12p13.1-p12

protein-coding

Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a rare calcitonin producing tumor. About 70-75% of patients with MTC have sporadic disease while the others suffer from hereditary MTC. Hereditary MTC is divided into three clinical subtypes: multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN) type 2A is characterized by MTC, pheochromocytoma and primary hyperparathyroidism. MEN 2B is characterized by aggressive MTC, pheochromocytoma, marfanoid habitus and the presence of distinctive mucosal neuromas on the tongue, lips and subconjunctival areas as well as ganglioneuromatosis of the gastrointestinal tract. The third clinical subtype of inherited MTC, familial MTC, is defined as the presence of MTC in families without evidence of adrenal or parathyroid gland involvement. Hereditary MTC is caused by autosomal dominant gain-of-function mutations in the RET proto-oncogene. The first RET germline mutations were identified in 1993 in patients with MEN 2A and FMTC. Initially a codon 634 (exon 11) mutation was found in approximately 85% of patients with MEN 2A, and germline mutations in FMTC kindreds were more equally distributed throughout the RET proto-onocogene. In about 5% of families in these earlier series, mutations did not reside in exons 10 and 11. We now report a change in the spectrum of mutations detected in the RET proto-oncogene in patients with hereditary MTC from the classical mutation at codon 634 in exon 11 (level 2) to more cases with mutations in the exons 13-15 (level 1) and less aggressive disease. In our series 38.9% of mutations were level 1 mutations, 54.4% level 2, and 5.6% level 3 mutations.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in Down syndrome (DS) children has several unique features including a predominance of the acute megakaryocytic leukemia (AMkL) phenotype, higher event-free survivals compared to non-DS children using cytosine arabinoside (ara-C)/anthracycline-based protocols and a uniform presence of somatic mutations in the X-linked transcription factor gene, GATA1. Several chromosome 21-localized transcription factor oncogenes including ETS2 may contribute to the unique features of DS AMkL. ETS2 transcripts measured by real-time RT-PCR were 1.8- and 4.1-fold, respectively, higher in DS and non-DS megakaryoblasts than those in non-DS myeloblasts. In a doxycycline-inducible erythroleukemia cell line, K562pTet-on/ETS2, induction of ETS2 resulted in an erythroid to megakaryocytic phenotypic switch independent of GATA1 levels. Microarray analysis of doxycycline-induced and doxycycline-uninduced cells revealed an upregulation by ETS2 of cytokines (for example, interleukin 1 and CSF2) and transcription factors (for example, TAL1), which are key regulators of megakaryocytic differentiation. In the K562pTet-on/ETS2 cells, ETS2 induction conferred differences in sensitivities to ara-C and daunorubicin, depending on GATA1 levels. These results suggest that ETS2 expression is linked to the biology of AMkL in both DS and non-DS children, and that ETS2 acts by regulating expression of hematopoietic lineage and transcription factor genes involved in erythropoiesis and megakaryopoiesis, and in chemotherapy sensitivities.

The identification of target mRNAs is a key step for assessing the role of aberrantly expressed microRNAs in human cancer. MiR-221 is upregulated in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) as well as in other malignancies. One proven target of miR-221 is CDKN1B/p27, whose downregulation affects HCC prognosis. Here, we proved that the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor (CDKI) CDKN1C/p57 is also a direct target of miR-221. Indeed, downregulation of both CDKN1B/p27 and CDKN1C/p57 occurs in response to miR-221 transfection into HCC-derived cells and a significant upregulation of both CDKN1B/p27 and CDKN1C/p57 occurs in response to antimiR-221 transfection. A direct interaction of miR-221 with a target site on the 3 UTR of CDKN1C/p57 mRNA was also demonstrated. By controlling these two CDKIs, upregulation of miR-221 can promote growth of HCC cells by increasing the number of cells in S-phase. To assess the relevance of these studies in primary tumors, matched HCC and cirrhosis samples were assayed for miR-221, for CDKN1B/p27 and CDKN1C/p57 expression. MiR-221 was upregulated in 71% of HCCs, whereas CDKN1B/p27 and CDKN1C/p57 proteins were downregulated in 77% of cases. A significant inverse correlation between miR-221 and both CDKN1B/p27 and CDKN1C/p57 was found in HCCs. In conclusion, we suggest that miR-221 has an oncogenic function in hepatocarcinogenesis by targeting CDKN1B/p27 and CDKN1C/p57, hence promoting proliferation by controlling cell-cycle inhibitors. These findings establish a basis toward the development of therapeutic strategies aimed at blocking miR-221 in HCC.

BACKGROUND: MiR-221 and miR-222 are two highly homologous microRNAs whose upregulation has been recently described in several types of human tumors, for some of which their oncogenic role was explained by the discovery of their target p27, a key cell cycle regulator. We previously showed this regulatory relationship in prostate carcinoma cell lines in vitro, underlying the role of miR-221/222 as inducers of proliferation and tumorigenicity. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we describe a number of in vivo approaches confirming our previous data. The ectopic overexpression of miR-221 is able, per se, to confer a high growth advantage to LNCaP-derived tumors in SCID mice. Consistently, the anti-miR-221/222 antagomir treatment of established subcutaneous tumors derived from the highly aggressive PC3 cell line, naturally expressing high levels of miR-221/222, reduces tumor growth by increasing intratumoral p27 amount; this effect is long lasting, as it is detectable as long as 25 days after the treatment. Furthermore, we provide evidence in favour of a clinical relevance of the role of miR-221/222 in prostate carcinoma, by showing their general upregulation in patient-derived primary cell lines, where we find a significant inverse correlation with p27 expression. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These findings suggest that modulating miR-221/222 levels may have a therapeutic potential in prostate carcinoma.

SKP2 is the ubiquitin ligase subunit that targets p27(KIP1) (p27) for degradation. SKP2 is induced in the G(1)-S transit of the cell cycle, is frequently overexpressed in human cancer, and displays transformation activity in experimental models. Here we show that MYC induces SKP2 expression at the mRNA and protein levels in human myeloid leukemia K562 cells with conditional MYC expression. Importantly, in these systems, induction of MYC did not activate cell proliferation, ruling out SKP2 up-regulation as a consequence of cell cycle entry. MYC-dependent SKP2 expression was also detected in other cell types such as lymphoid, fibroblastic, and epithelial cell lines. MYC induced SKP2 mRNA expression in the absence of protein synthesis and activated the SKP2 promoter in luciferase reporter assays. With chromatin immunoprecipitation assays, MYC was detected bound to a region of human SKP2 gene promoter that includes E-boxes. The K562 cell line derives from human chronic myeloid leukemia. In a cohort of chronic myeloid leukemia bone marrow samples, we found a correlation between MYC and SKP2 mRNA levels. Analysis of cancer expression databases also indicated a correlation between MYC and SKP2 expression in lymphoma. Finally, MYC-induced SKP2 expression resulted in a decrease in p27 protein in K562 cells. Moreover, silencing of SKP2 abrogated the MYC-mediated down-regulation of p27. Our data show that SKP2 is a direct MYC target gene and that MYC-mediated SKP2 induction leads to reduced p27 levels. The results suggest the induction of SKP2 oncogene as a new mechanism for MYC-dependent transformation.

Investigation into the highly conserved 1433epsilon protein has become increasingly important in cell biology due to its involvement in cell survival signaling, cell cycle control and apoptosis. The 1433epsilon protein has been found to exert an impact on the development of various tumor types. However, the functional role and the possible mechanism of 1433epsilon in gastric cancer remains to be elucidated. A previous study by our group indicated a negative correlation between 1433epsilon expression levels and gastric cancer tissue differentiation and a positive correlation between 1433epsilon expression levels and tumor infiltration, lymph node metastasis and tumor, nodes and metastasis staging. In the present study, 1433epsilon suppression in the SGC7901 gastric cancer cell line was demonstrated to inhibit cell proliferation in vitro and tumor growth in vivo and the cell cycleassociated proteins cyclin E and p27kip1 may have contributed to this antitumor effect. The present study showed for the first time that reducing the expression of 1433epsilon may inhibit the proliferation and progression of gastric cancer and inhibition of this protein may provide a potential strategy for gastric cancer therapy in the future.