Evaluation of four protein extraction methods for proteomic analysis of mango peel.

The peel of mango (Mangifera indica L.) is a special plant tissue that contains many compounds that interfere with protein extraction. A successful separation with Two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) is the key step for proteomic analysis. To evaluate the efficiencies of mango peel protein extraction for 2-DE, four extraction methods were tested: 1) 2-D clean-up kit, 2) trichloroacetic acid/acetone precipitation, 3) phenol extraction, 4) phenol with methanol/ammonium acetate precipitation. The results showed that the phenol with methanol/ammonium acetate precipitation produced the best quality protein extraction and separation. Proteins were separated in 30-70 and >70 kDa ranges better than with the other methods. Acidic proteins had better resolution with fewer horizontal and vertical streaks. Sixteen proteins were identified by maxtrix-assisted laser desorption/ ionisation time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/ TOF-MS/MS). The result demonstrated that each of these four methods can be used to prepare mango peel proteins. The phenol with methanol/ ammonium acetate precipitation was the best choice for proteomic analysis of mango peel.

Ribosomal s6 protein kinase 4: a prognostic factor for renal cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: The expression and function of ribosomal s6 protein kinase 4 (RSK4) in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) are unknown. METHODS: Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of RSK4 in RCC, and the relationship between RSK4 expression and clinicopathological features as well as prognosis of RCC patients was statistically analysed. Ectopic RSK4 expression in RCC cell lines was performed to determine its effect on cell cycle regulation, tumour invasiveness, and metastatic capability. RESULTS: RSK4 was overexpressed in RCCs (P=0.003), compared with normal tissues, and the expression varied in different RCC subtypes (P=0.021), especially in two subtypes of papillary RCCs (P=0.001). RSK4 expression was positively correlated with high pT stage (P<0.001), high Fuhrman grade (P<0.001), lymph node involvement (P<0.001), and presence of distant metastasis (P=0.039), and could predict poor outcome in RCC patients. Molecular studies showed that overexpression of RSK4 could promote cell cycle progression and enhance the invasive and metastatic capability of RCC cell lines and vice versa. CONCLUSION: The expression pattern and molecular mechanisms of RSK4 in RCCs indicate that it could be a potential independent prognostic factor and serve as a new potential therapeutic target for RCC patients.

Reduction of QM protein expression correlates with tumor grade in prostatic adenocarcinoma.

The QM protein is a transcription cofactor inhibiting the activity of AP-1 transcription factors and is also a ribosomal protein participating in protein synthesis. While protein synthesis is known to be increased in many cancers, inhibition of AP-1 activity presumably suppresses development and growth of sex-hormone-regulated tumor cells. The present study is the first report on immunohistochemical data of QM in human prostatic tissues. Paraffin sections of human prostate cancer samples were immunohistochemically stained for QM. The staining scores were analyzed with the clinicopathologic data of the patients. QM protein expression was found in all normal prostate glands adjacent to prostate cancer and in various intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN). In prostate cancer, the staining intensity and stained areas were decreased, compared to the normal glands and PIN lesions; in high-grade tumors only some patches of tumor cells showed positivity. Intense (3+) staining was mostly observed in the Gleason grade three areas (48%) compared to grade 4 and 5 areas (22%), although both low and high-grade tumors showed similar percentages of weakly stained areas. Moreover, staining in prostatic adenocarcinoma was often topographically patchy and varied from negative or weak (1+) to intense (3+). There was an inverse correlation from normal to low-grade tumors and then to high-grade tumors. However, in high-grade tumors, the positive areas were mostly confined to peripheral aspects of tumors and were particularly strong in foci of perineural invasion. This preliminary study suggests that decreased QM expression may be associated with early development of prostate cancer, but later a high level of QM may facilitate progression of the tumors to a more aggressive phenotype.

Cell cycle basis for the onset and progression of c-Myc-induced, TGFalpha-enhanced mouse mammary gland carcinogenesis.

Using single and double transgenic mouse models, we investigated how c-Myc modulates the mammary epithelial cell cycle to induce cancer and how TGFalpha enhanced the process. In c-myc transgenic mice, c-myc expression was high in the hyperplastic mammary epithelium and in the majority of tumor areas. However, the tumors displayed focal areas of low expression of c-myc but high rates of proliferation. In contrast to E2F1 and cyclin A2, which were induced and co-localized with c-myc expression, induction of cyclins D1 and E occurred only in these tumor foci. Overexpression of cyclin D1 also occurred in the hyperplastic epithelium of tgfalpha-single and tgfalpha/c-myc-double transgenic mice. In tgfalpha/c-myc tumors, cells positive for cyclins D1 and E were randomly spread, without showing a reciprocal relationship to c-myc expression. In contrast to c-myc tumors, most tgfalpha/c-myc tumors showed undetectable levels of retinoblastoma protein (pRB), and the loss of pRB occurred in some cases at the mRNA level. These results suggest that E2F1 and cyclin A2 may be induced by c-Myc to mediate the onset of mammary cancer, whereas overexpression of cyclins D1 and E may occur later to facilitate tumor progression. TGFalpha may play its synergistic role, at least in part, by inducing cyclin D1 and facilitating the loss of pRB.

Maternal exposure to tamoxifen during pregnancy increases carcinogen-induced mammary tumorigenesis among female rat offspring.

Tamoxifen is under investigation as a potential chemopreventive agent in women of child-bearing age who are at an increased risk to develop breast cancer. However, because tamoxifen may act as an estrogen in the fetus and high fetal estrogenic activity, in turn, may increase subsequent breast cancer risk, we wanted to determine the effects of a maternal exposure to tamoxifen during pregnancy on offspring's susceptibility to mammary tumorigenesis. Pregnant rats were injected s.c. with 20 microg of tamoxifen or oil vehicle daily during days 15 and 20 of gestation. In utero exposure to tamoxifen caused abnormalities in the development and function of the reproductive track, including a delayed puberty onset and changes in uterine wet weights. The tamoxifen-exposed offspring, treated with 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]antracene (DMBA) at the age of 45 days, developed an increased incidence of mammary tumors. In week 18 after DMBA administration, 50% of the vehicle-controls had developed mammary tumors, whereas tumor incidence in the tamoxifen group was 95%. In addition, a significantly higher number of tumors in the tamoxifen-exposed group kept growing (rather than stopped growing or regressed) than in the control group. Furthermore, histopathological examination revealed that the mammary tumors in the tamoxifen offspring were less differentiated and exhibited a more aggressive phenotype, compared with the tumors growing in the controls. These results suggest that a maternal exposure to tamoxifen during pregnancy acts as an estrogen in the fetal mammary gland and increases the susceptibility to breast cancer among female offspring.

c-Myc in breast cancer.

Ever since Bishop and his co-workers discovered the c-myc gene in the late 1970s (Bishop 1982), voluminous literature has documented its central role in proliferation and malignant transformation of human and animal cells (Amati et al. 1998, Bouchard et al. 1998, Dang et al. 1999). Most, if not all, types of human malignancy have been reported to have amplification and/or overexpression of this gene, although the frequency of these alterations varies greatly among different reports (Nesbit et al. 1999). In 1992, researchers started to realize that aberrant expression of c-myc could cause apoptosis (Evan et al. 1992, Shi et al. 1992), although the phenomenon had actually been observed much earlier (Wurm et al. 1986). Studies in recent years have further shown that the c-myc gene regulates growth, both in the sense of cell size and in the context of tissue differentiation (Gandarillas & Watt 1997, Iritani & Eisenman 1999, Johnston et al. 1999, Schmidt 1999, Schuhmacher et al. 1999). Thus, it is now known that the c-myc gene participates in most aspects of cellular function, including replication, growth, metabolism, differentiation, and apoptosis (Packham & Cleveland 1995, Hoffman & Liebermann 1998, Dang 1999, Dang et al. 1999, Elend & Eilers 1999, Prendergast 1999). How the c-Myc protein may be specifically directed to perform one, but not the others, of these functions is still obscure, despite the fact that the relevant literature has been accumulating at a fast pace in the past two decades. This review focuses on the profound roles of c-Myc in breast cancer and in the actions of the hormones that are eitologically related to breast cancer.

Diethylnitrosamine causes pituitary damage, disturbs hormone levels, and reduces sexual dimorphism of certain liver functions in the rat.

The acute toxicity of diethylnitrosamine (DEN) to the liver has been well documented in the literature, but whether DEN also affects the endocrine parameters has been addressed in only a few studies. We thus investigated the effects of DEN on pituitary, serum hormone levels, and certain sex-differentiated liver enzymes in this study. Adult male Wister rats were intraperitoneally injected with DEN at a single dose of 200 mg/kg and were sacrificed at 1, 3, 7, and 35 days after injection; DEN-treated females were included as controls at days 7 and 35. Electron microscopic observation showed that during the first week after injection, all types of granular cells of the anterior pituitary in male animals exhibited cellular damage, including disrupted organelles and cellular structure, as well as pyknotic or lytic nuclei. Many undamaged secretory cells exhibited dilated endoplasmic reticula, hypertrophic Golgi complexes, and peripheral location of secretory granules, which usually are morphologic features of increased cellular activities. In male rats, the serum level of total testosterone decreased and the corticosterone increased 1 day after DEN treatment. The serum level of growth hormone (GH) decreased and the prolactin level increased on day 3. The hepatic expression of the male-specific cytochrome P450 2C11 (CYP2C11) decreased to 1-5% of the normal levels during the first week and was still 50% lower than the normal level on day 35, whereas the female-specific CYP2C12 expression increased only slightly. Activities of the male predominant 16alpha, 16beta, and 6beta hydroxylation of androstenedione by microsome decreased in an in vitro assay, whereas the non-sex-differentiated 7alpha hydroxylation and the female-predominant 5alpha reduction of androstenedione were unaffected. In female rats, decreased serum GH level was observed on day 7. The CYP2C12 expression in females was decreased to about 1% and 80% of the normal levels on day 7 and day 35, respectively, but the CYP2C11 expression was unchanged. These data suggest that in male rats, DEN treatment may cause pituitary damage, disturb serum hormone levels, and induce long-lasting reduction of sexual dimorphism in certain liver functions.

Basic anatomy and tumor biology of the RPS6KA6 gene that encodes the p90 ribosomal S6 kinase-4.

The RPS6KA6 gene encodes the p90 ribosomal S6 kinase-4 (RSK4) that is still largely uncharacterized. In this study we identified a new RSK4 transcription initiation site and several alternative splice sites with a 5'-RACE approach. The resulting mRNA variants encompass four possible first start codons. The first 15 nucleotides (nt) of exon 22 in mouse and the penultimate exon in both human (exon 21) and mouse (exon 24) RSK4 underwent alternative splicing, although the penultimate exon deleted variant appeared mainly in cell clines, but not in most normal tissues. Demethylation agent 5-azacytidine inhibited the deletion of the penultimate exon, whereas two indolocarbazole-derived inhibitors of cyclin-dependent kinase 4 or 6 induced deletion of the first 39 nt from exon 21 of human RSK4. In all human cancer cell lines studied, the 90-kDa wild-type RSK4 was sparse but, surprisingly, several isoforms at or smaller than 72 kDa were expressed as detected by seven different antibodies. On immunoblots, each of these smaller isoforms often appeared as a duplet or triplet and the levels of these isoforms varied greatly among different cell lines and culture conditions. Cyclin D1 inhibited RSK4 expression and serum starvation enhanced the inhibition, whereas c-Myc and RSK4 inhibited cyclin D1. The effects of RSK4 on cell growth, cell death and chemoresponse depended on the mRNA variant or the protein isoform expressed, on the specificity of the cell lines, as well as on the anchorage-dependent or -independent growth conditions and the in vivo situation. Moreover, we also observed that even a given cDNA might be expressed to multiple proteins; therefore, when using a cDNA, one needs to exclude this possibility before attribution of the biological results from the cDNA to the anticipated protein. Collectively, our results suggest that whether RSK4 is oncogenic or tumor suppressive depends on many factors.

Therapeutic effects of Sophora moorcroftiana alkaloids in combination with albendazole in mice experimentally infected with protoscolices of Echinococcus granulosus.

The objective of the present study was to determine if the combination of alkaloids from Sophora moorcroftiana seeds and albendazole might be effective in the treatment of experimental echinococcosisin female NIH mice (6 weeks old and weighing 18-20 g, N = 8 in each group) infected withprotoscolices of Echinococcus granulosus. Viable protoscolices (N = 6 x 10(3)) were cultured in vitro in 1640 medium and mortality was calculated daily. To determine the in vivo efficacy, mice were inoculated intraperitoneally with viable protoscolices and then treated once daily by gavage for three months with the alkaloids (50 mg kg-1 day-1) and albendazole (50 mg kg-1 day-1), separately and in combination (both alkaloids at 25 mg kg-1 day-1 and albendazole at 25 mg kg-1 day-1). Next, the hydatid cysts collected from the peritoneal cavity of the animals were weighed and serum IL-4, IL-2, and IgE levels were analyzed. Administration of alkaloids to cultured protoscolices showed significant dose- and time-dependent killing effects. The weight of hydatid cysts was significantly decreased upon treatment with each drug (P < 0.01), but the decrease was more prominent and the rate of hydatid cyst growth inhibition was much higher (76.1%) in the group receiving the combined treatments (18.3 +/- 4.6 mg). IL-4 and total IgE were decreased (939 +/- 447 pg/mL and 2.03 +/- 0.42 IU/mL, respectively) in serum from mice treated with alkaloids and albendazole compared with the untreated control (1481 +/- 619 pg/mL and 3.31 +/- 0.37 IU/mL; P < 0.01). These results indicate that S. moorcroftiana alkaloids have protoscolicidal effects and the combination of alkaloids and albendazole has significant additive effects.

Correlation of amplification and overexpression of the c-myc oncogene in high-grade breast cancer: FISH, in situ hybridisation and immunohistochemical analyses.

In this study, we analysed gene amplification, RNA expression and protein expression of the c-myc gene on archival tissue specimens of high-grade human breast cancer, using fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH), nonradioactive in situ hybridisation and immunohistochemistry. The specific question that we addressed was whether expression of c-Myc mRNA and protein were correlated with its gene copy amplification, as determined by FISH. Although c-Myc is one of the most commonly amplified oncogenes in human breast cancer, few studies have utilised in situ approaches to directly analyse the gene copy amplification, RNA transcription and protein expression on human breast tumour tissue sections. We now report that by using the sensitive FISH technique, a high proportion (70%) of high-grade breast carcinoma were amplified for the c-myc gene, irrespective of status of the oestrogen receptor. However, the level of amplification was low, ranging between one and four copies of gene gains, and the majority (84%) of the cases with this gene amplification gained only one to two copies. Approximately 92% of the cases were positive for c-myc RNA transcription, and essentially all demonstrated c-myc protein expression. In fact, a wide range of expression levels were detected. Statistically significant correlations were identified among the gene amplification indices, the RNA expression scores and protein expression scores. c-myc gene amplification, as detected by FISH, was significantly associated with expression of its mRNA, as measured by the intensity of in situ hybridisation in invasive cells (P=0.0067), and by the percentage of invasive cells positive for mRNA expression (P=0.0006). c-myc gene amplification was also correlated with the percentage of tumour cells which expressed high levels of its protein, as detected by immunohistochemistry in invasive cells (P=0.0016). Thus, although multiple mechanisms are known to regulate normal and aberrent expression of c-myc, in this study, where in situ methodologies were used to evaluate high-grade human breast cancers, gene amplification of c-myc appears to play a key role in regulating expression of its mRNA and protein.

Therapeutic effects of Sophora moorcroftiana alkaloids in combination with albendazole in mice experimentally infected with protoscolices of Echinococcus granulosus

The objective of the present study was to determine if the combination of alkaloids from Sophora moorcroftiana seeds and albendazole might be effective in the treatment of experimental echinococcosisin female NIH mice (6 weeks old and weighing 18-20 g, N = 8 in each group) infected withprotoscolices of Echinococcus granulosus. Viable protoscolices (N = 6 x 103) were cultured in vitro in 1640 medium and mortality was calculated daily. To determine the in vivo efficacy, mice were inoculated intraperitoneally with viable protoscolices and then treated once daily by gavage for three months with the alkaloids (50 mg kg-1 day-1) and albendazole (50 mg kg-1 day-1), separately and in combination (both alkaloids at 25 mg kg-1 day-1 and albendazole at 25 mg kg-1 day-1). Next, the hydatid cysts collected from the peritoneal cavity of the animals were weighed and serum IL-4, IL-2, and IgE levels were analyzed. Administration of alkaloids to cultured protoscolices showed significant dose- and time-dependent killing effects. The weight of hydatid cysts was significantly decreased upon treatment with each drug (P < 0.01), but the decrease was more prominent and the rate of hydatid cyst growth inhibition was much higher (76.1 percent) in the group receiving the combined treatments (18.3 ± 4.6 mg). IL-4 and total IgE were decreased (939 ± 447 pg/mL and 2.03 ± 0.42 IU/mL, respectively) in serum from mice treated with alkaloids and albendazole compared with the untreated control (1481 ± 619 pg/mL and 3.31 ± 0.37 IU/mL; P < 0.01). These results indicate that S. moorcroftiana alkaloids have protoscolicidal effects and the combination of alkaloids and albendazole has significant additive effects.