A gene encoding a protein related to the serpin family of protease inhibitors was identified as a candidate tumor suppressor gene that may play a role in human breast cancer. The gene product, called maspin, is expressed in normal mammary epithelial cells but not in most mammary carcinoma cell lines. Transfection of MDA-MB-435 mammary carcinoma cells with the maspin gene did not alter the cells' growth properties in vitro, but reduced the cells' ability to induce tumors and metastasize in nude mice and to invade through a basement membrane matrix in vitro. Analysis of human breast cancer specimens revealed that loss of maspin expression occurred most frequently in advanced cancers. These results support the hypothesis that maspin functions as a tumor suppressor.

Tumour suppressor genes, whose usual function seems to be controlling normal cell proliferation, have been implicated in many inherited and sporadic forms of malignancies Much evidence supports the concept of tumour formation by loss-of-function mutations in suppressor genes, as predicted by the two-hit model of Knudson and DeMars. The suppressor gene, p53, is affected in such a manner by numerous mutations, which occur in a variety of human tumours. These mutations usually represent the loss of one allele and the substitution of a single base in the other. We have now analysed the p53 gene in a family affected by Li-Fraumeni syndrome, a rare autosomal dominant syndrome characterized by the occurrence of diverse mesenchymal and epithelial neoplasms at multiple sites. In some instances the neoplasms seem to be related to exposure to carcinogens, including ionizing radiation. The Li-Fraumeni family that we studied had noncancerous skin fibroblasts (NSF) with an unusual radiation-resistant phenotype. DNA derived from the NSF cells of four family members, spanning two generations, had the same point mutation in codon 245 (GGC----GAC) of the p53 gene. This mutation leads to substitution of aspartic acid for glycine in one of the regions identified as a frequent target of point mutations in p53. The NSF cell lines with the mutation also retained the normal p53 allele. This inherited p53 mutation may predispose the members of this family to increased susceptibility to cancer.

A prostate-specific gene, PCGEM1, was identified by differential display analysis of paired normal and prostate cancer tissues. Multiple tissue Northern blot analysis revealed that PCGEM1 was expressed exclusively in human prostate tissue. Analysis of PC-GEM1 expression in matched normal and primary tumor specimens revealed tumor-associated overexpression in 84% of patients with prostate cancer by in situ hybridization assay and in 56% of patients by reverse transcription-PCR assay. Among various prostate cancer cell lines analyzed, PCGEM1 expression was detected only in the androgen receptor-positive cell line LNCaP. Extensive DNA sequence analysis of the PCGEM1 cDNA and genomic DNA revealed that PCGEM1 lacks protein-coding capacity and suggests that it may belong to an emerging class of noncoding RNAs, also called ''riboregulators.'' The PCGEM1 locus was mapped to chromosome 2q32. Taken together, the remarkable prostate-tissue specificity and androgen-dependent expression of PCGEM1 as well as its elevated expression in a significant percentage of tumor tissues suggest specific functions of PCGEM1 in the biology and tumorigenesis of the prostate gland.riboregulator ͉ differential display ͉ androgen regulation ͉ noncoding RNA

Maspin has been shown to inhibit tumor cell invasion and metastasis in breast tumor cells. Maspin expression was detected in normal breast and prostate epithelial cells, whereas tumor cells exhibited reduced or no expression. However, the regulatory mechanism of maspin expression remains unknown. We report here a rapid and robust induction of maspin expression in prostate cancer cells (LNCaP, DU145, and PC3) and breast tumor cells (MCF7) following wild type p53 expression from an adenovirus p53 expression vector (AdWTp53). p53 activates the maspin promoter by binding directly to the p53 consensus-binding site present in the maspin promoter. DNA-damaging agents and cytotoxic drugs induced endogenous maspin expression in cells containing the wild type p53. Maspin expression was refractory to the DNA-damaging agents in cells containing mutant p53. These results, combined with recent studies of the tumor metastasis suppressor gene KAI1 and plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI1), define a new category of molecular targets of p53 that have the potential to negatively regulate tumor invasion and/or metastasis.Maspin was originally identified in normal breast epithelial cells (1). The maspin gene encodes a 42-kDa protein and belongs to the serine protease inhibitor (serpin) superfamily with tissue type plasminogen activator as the possible protease target (2). Maspin expression was detected in normal breast and prostate epithelial cells; however, tumor cells showed a decreased expression or absence of expression. Expression of maspin in breast tumor cells inhibit tumor cell invasion in vitro and tumor cell metastasis in vivo (1). Neutralization of maspin by an anti-maspin antibody abolished the invasion suppressive effect of conditioned medium from cultured breast myoepithelial cells on tumor cells (3). A recent report also suggests that the tumor suppressive effects of manganese-containing superoxide dismutase in human breast cancer cells could result from the up-regulation of maspin (4). Gamma linolenic acid, an essential fatty acid with anticancer properties, is reported to induce maspin expression and affect the motility of cancer cells (5). Transcriptional activity of maspin expression differed between prostate normal and tumor cells (6). These observations suggest that maspin expression plays important roles in regulating tumor cell invasion and metastasis. Thus, an understanding of the regulation of maspin expression is important in designing therapeutic agents for the cancer treatment.Molecular targets of p53, e.g. p53-regulated genes or p53-interacting proteins, have provided critical information central to the current understanding of the biochemical and biologic function of the p53 tumor suppressor gene. The function of p53 as check point protein is now well established (7). p53-regulated genes have also defined the role of p53 in apoptosis, hypoxia, and angiogenesis (8 -10). However, the downstream targets of p53 remain to be defined in the process of cancer cell invasion/metastasis. In our search for mole...

Beijing Science and Technology Project and Beijing Nova Program.

A series of mesoporous MnOx−CeO2 binary oxide catalysts with high specific surface areas were prepared by surfactant-assisted precipitation. The CO and C3H8 oxidation reactions were used as model reactions to evaluate their catalytic performance. The techniques of N2 adsorption/desorption, XRD, XPS, TPR, TPO, TPD, and in situ DRIFTS were employed for catalyst characterization. It is found that the activity for CO and C3H8 oxidation of the catalysts exhibits a volcano-type behavior with the increase of Mn content. The catalyst with a Mn/Ce ratio of 4/6, possessing a high specific surface area of 215 m2/g, exhibits the best catalytic activity, which is related not only to its highest reducibility and oxygen-activation ability, as revealed by TPR and TPO, but also to the formation of more active oxygen species on the MnOx−CeO2 interface as identified by TPD. After the addition of a small amount of Pd to the MnOx−CeO2 catalyst, its activity for CO oxidation is greatly enhanced, due to the acceleration of gas-phase oxygen activation and transferring via spillover. However, the activity for C3H8 oxidation is hardly promoted due to the different reaction pathways for CO and C3H8 oxidation. For CO oxidation, the gas-phase oxygen activated by Pd can directly react with the adsorbed CO to form CO2, while, for C3H8 oxidation, which takes place at a much higher temperature than CO oxidation, the C−H bond activation and cleavage may be mainly driven by the active oxygen species on the interface between MnOx and CeO2. The addition of Pd shows little effect on the active interface oxygen species, so no promotion upon C3H8 oxidation is observed.

No abstract

SFTS virus (SFTSV) is a novel bunyavirus that causes severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), an emerging infectious disease that occurred in China in recent years, with an average case fatality rate of 10-12%. Intervention in the early clinical stage is the most effective measure to reduce the mortality rate of disease. To elucidate the natural course of and immune mechanisms associated with the pathogenesis of SFTSV, 59 laboratory-confirmed SFTS patients in the acute phase, who were hospitalized between October 2010 and September 2011, were enrolled in this study, and the patients sera were dynamically collected and tested for SFTSV viral RNA load, 34 cytokines or chemokines and other related laboratory parameters. All clinical diagnostic factors in the acute phase of SFTS were evaluated and assessed. The study showed that the severity of the disease in 11 (18.6%) patients was associated with abdominal pain (p 0.007; OR = 21.95; 95% CI, 2.32-208.11) and gingival bleeding (p 0.001; OR=122.11; 95% CI, 6.41-2328). The IP-10, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-10, granzyme B and HSP70 levels were higher over the 7-8 days in severe cases, accompanied by altered AST, CK and LDH levels. HSP70 (p 0.012; OR=8.29; 95% CI, 1.58-43.40) was independently correlated with the severity of the early acute phase of SFTSV infection. The severity of SFTS can be predicted based on the presence of symptoms such as abdominal pain and gingival bleeding and on the level of HSP70 in the acute phase of the disease.