Multiplex single-tube screening for mutations in the Nijmegen Breakage Syndrome (NBS1) gene in Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients of Slavic origin.
(1/873)
Patients with Nijmegen Breakage Syndrome (NBS) have a high risk to develop malignant diseases, most frequently B-cell lymphomas. It has been demonstrated that this chromosomal breakage syndrome results from mutations in the NBS1 gene that cause either a loss of full-length protein expression or expression of a variant protein. A large proportion of the known NBS patients are of Slavic origin who carry a major founder mutation 657del5 in exon 6 of the NBS1 gene. The prevalence of this mutation in Slav populations is reported to be high, possibly contributing to higher cancer risk in these populations. Therefore, if mutations in NBS1 are associated with higher risk of developing lymphoid cancers it would be most likely to be observed in these populations. A multiplex assay for four of the most frequent NBS1 mutations was designed and a series of 119 lymphoma patients from Slavic origin as well as 177 healthy controls were tested. One of the patients was a heterozygote carrier of the ACAAA deletion mutation in exon 6 (1/119). No mutation was observed in the control group, despite the reported high frequency (1/177). The power of this study was 30% to detect a relative risk of 2.0. (+info)
Lymphoma development in Bax transgenic mice is inhibited by Bcl-2 and associated with chromosomal instability.
(2/873)
Bax is a Bcl-2 family member that promotes apoptosis but has paradoxical effects on lymphoma development in p53-deficient mice. To better understand the mechanism of Bax-induced lymphoma development, the effect of Bax levels, p53 status and Bcl-2 coexpression on lymphoma development were determined. In addition, DNA content and cytogenetics were performed on young (premalignant) Lck-Bax mice as measures of genetic instability. Bax promoted lymphoma development in p53-deficient mice in a dose-dependent manner. Bax expression also led to lymphoma development in both p53 +/- and +/+ animals. Ploidy analysis in mice prior to the onset of overt thymic lymphomas demonstrated that Lck-Bax transgenic mice were more likely to be aneuploid and demonstrate increased chromosome instability. With tumor progression, aneuploidy increased and Bax expression was maintained. Importantly, coexpression of Bcl-2 delayed lymphoma development in Lck-Bax transgenic mice. These data support a model in which increased sensitivity to apoptosis leads directly to chromosome instability in developing T cells and may explain a number of paradoxical observations regarding Bcl-2 family members and the regulation of cancer. (+info)
Chromosomal instability detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization in surgical specimens of non-small cell lung cancer is associated with poor survival.
(3/873)
PURPOSE: Chromosomal instability (CIN) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has yet to be well studied. We examined the relationship between CIN detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization and survival in patients with NSCLC. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Touch preparations from 50 surgical specimens of NSCLC were studied. Tumors included 34 adenocarcinomas, 15 squamous cell carcinomas, and 1 large cell carcinoma. The pathologic stage was IA in 14, IB in 17, IIB in 8, IIIA in 9, and IIIB in 2 cases. Enumeration of chromosomes 3, 10, 11, and 17 was used to determine which tumors carried CIN. The association between CIN and survival was also analyzed. RESULTS: Disomy was most common, but tetrasomy and trisomy of the examined chromosomes were seen frequently. Fourteen tumors (28%) showed heterogeneity of all four chromosomes examined and were judged to be carrying CIN. Both univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that two factors, lymph node metastasis and CIN, were significant poor prognostic factors. CONCLUSIONS: CIN in NSCLC detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization is an independent factor predicting a poor prognosis. (+info)
Chromosomal instability rather than p53 mutation is associated with response to neoadjuvant cisplatin-based chemotherapy in gastric carcinoma.
(4/873)
PURPOSE: The objective of the study was to evaluate microsatellite alterations [microsatellite instability (MSI) and loss of heterozygosity (LOH)] and mutation in the p53 gene in relation to response and patient survival to a cisplatin-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy in gastric cancer. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Fifty-three pretherapeutic gastric carcinoma biopsies were analyzed with 11 microsatellite markers. The entire coding region of the p53 gene (exons 2-11) was analyzed for mutations by denaturing high-pressure liquid chromatography and sequencing. p53 protein expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. Patients were treated with a cisplatin-based, neoadjuvant chemotherapy regimen. Therapy response was evaluated by computed tomography scan, endoscopy, and endoluminal ultrasound. The median follow-up of the patients was 45.6 months. RESULTS: p53 mutations were identified in 19 of the 53 (36%) analyzed tumors. No significant association with response or survival was found for p53 mutation or for p53 protein expression. MSI (either high-grade MSI or low-grade MSI) did not show a correlation with response. With respect to LOH, LOH at chromosome 17p13 showed a significant association with therapy response (P = 0.022) but did not reach statistical significance in terms of patient survival. The global LOH rate, expressed as fractional allelic loss (FAL), was assessed, and tumors were classified into tumors with a high (>0.5), medium (>0.25-0.5), and low (0-0.25) FAL value. A statistically significant association of FAL with therapy response was found (P = 0.003), with a high FAL being related to therapy response. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value for FAL > 0.5 were 45%, 93%, 82%, and 72%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: A high level of chromosomal instability (high FAL value) defines a subset of patients who are more likely to benefit from cisplatin-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy. p53 mutation status is not significantly associated with therapy response and is not a useful marker for response prediction. (+info)
Drosophila melanogaster and D. simulans rescue strains produce fit offspring, despite divergent centromere-specific histone alleles.
(5/873)
The interaction between rapidly evolving centromere sequences and conserved kinetochore machinery appears to be mediated by centromere-binding proteins. A recent theory proposes that the independent evolution of centromere-binding proteins in isolated populations may be a universal cause of speciation among eukaryotes. In Drosophila the centromere-specific histone, Cid (centromere identifier), shows extensive sequence divergence between D. melanogaster and the D. simulans clade, indicating that centromere machinery incompatibilities may indeed be involved in reproductive isolation and speciation. However, it is presently unclear whether the adaptive evolution of Cid was a cause of the divergence between these species, or merely a product of postspeciation adaptation in the separate lineages. Furthermore, the extent to which divergent centromere identifier proteins provide a barrier to reproduction remains unknown. Interestingly, a small number of rescue lines from both D. melanogaster and D. simulans can restore hybrid fitness. Through comparisons of cid sequence between nonrescue and rescue strains, we show that cid is not involved in restoring hybrid viability or female fertility. Further, we demonstrate that divergent cid alleles are not sufficient to cause inviability or female sterility in hybrid crosses. Our data do not dispute the rapid divergence of cid or the coevolution of centromeric components in Drosophila; however, they do suggest that cid underwent adaptive evolution after D. melanogaster and D. simulans diverged and, consequently, is not a speciation gene. (+info)
The Fanconi Anemia/BRCA signaling pathway: disruption in cisplatin-sensitive ovarian cancers.
(6/873)
Ovarian tumors often exhibit chromosome instability and hypersensitivity to the chemotherapeutic agent cisplatin. Recently, we have shown that this cellular phenotype may result from an acquired disruption of the Fanconi Anemia/BRCA (FA/BRCA) signaling pathway. Disruption results from methylation and silencing of one of the FA genes (FANCF), leading to cisplatin sensitivity. Restoration of this pathway is associated with demethylation of FANCF, leading to acquired cisplatinum resistance. The serial inactivation and reactivation of the FA/BRCA pathway has important implications for the diagnosis and treatment of ovarian cancers and related cancers. (+info)
Long-term global gene expression patterns in irradiated human lymphocytes.
(7/873)
Radiation-induced chromosomal instability has many features in common with genomic instability of cancer cells. In order to understand the delayed cellular response to ionizing radiation we have studied variations in the patterns of gene expression in primary human lymphocytes at various time points after gamma irradiation in vitro. Cells either exposed to 3 Gy of gamma rays in vitro or unexposed were subjected to long-term growth in bulk culture or as individual T-cell clones. Samples were taken at days 7, 17 or 55 from bulk cultures. The T-cell clones were harvested after 22-46 days. Total RNA was used to generate cDNA probes for hybridization to oligonucleotide arrays containing 12,625 gene templates (Affymetrix). The results showed that: (i) irradiation as well as culture time influence the gene expression patterns, (ii) the number of genes with increased or decreased expression in irradiated cells increases dramatically with increasing culture time, (iii) the changes of gene expression showed a significantly more diversified pattern in the irradiated T-cell clones than in non-irradiated clones. We conclude that the diversification of the transcriptome associated with radiation exposure reflects subtle changes of expression in many genes, rather than being the result of major changes in a few genes. Finally, (iv) we sorted out a set of genes whose change of expression correlates with radiation exposure in both bulk cultures and T-cell clones. Very few of these genes overlap with genes that change during the acute response to radiation. This set of genes may be regarded as a starting point for further studies of the cellular phenotype associated with radiation-induced genomic instability. (+info)
Regional differences of somatic CAG repeat instability do not account for selective neuronal vulnerability in a knock-in mouse model of SCA1.
(8/873)
Expression of unstable translated CAG repeats is the mutational mechanism in nine different neurodegenerative disorders. Although the products of genes harboring these repeats are widely expressed, a subset of neurons is vulnerable in each disease accounting for the different phenotypes. Somatic instability of the expanded CAG repeat has been implicated as a factor mediating the selective striatal neurodegeneration in Huntington disease. It remains unknown, however, whether such a mechanism contributes to the selective neurodegeneration in other polyglutamine diseases or not. To address this question, we investigated the pattern of CAG repeat instability in a knock-in mouse model of spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1). Small pool PCR analysis on DNA from various neuronal and non-neuronal tissues revealed that somatic repeat instability was most remarkable in the striatum. In the two vulnerable tissues, cerebellum and spinal cord, there were substantial differences in the profiles of mosaicism. These results suggest that in SCA1 there is no clear causal relationship between the degree of somatic instability and selective neuronal vulnerability. The finding that somatic instability is most pronounced in the striatum of various knock-in models of polyglutamine diseases highlights the role of trans-acting tissue- or cell-specific factors in mediating the instability. (+info)