Archive for the ‘Heat Shock Protein’ Category

New Method That Reveals Complete Set of Aberrant Signaling Pathways That Give Rise to Cancers

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Posted 02 Dec 2011 — by James Street
Category Breast Cancer, Heat Shock Protein, HSP90, leukemia, Lymphoma, Molecular, PU-H71

From HealthNewsDigest.com

Cancer Issues
Dec 1, 2011 – 1:38:32 PM

 

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – NEW YORK (Dec. 1, 2011) — One major obstacle in the fight against cancer is that anticancer drugs often affect normal cells in addition to tumor cells, resulting in significant side effects. Yet research into development of less harmful treatments geared toward the targeting of specific cancer-causing mechanisms is hampered by lack of knowledge of the molecular pathways that drive cancers in individual patients.

“A major goal of cancer research is to replace chemotherapy with drugs that correct specific molecular pathways disrupted by cancer,” says Dr. Ari Melnick, one of the study’s lead investigators and director of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Center for Biomedical and Physical Sciences and associate professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. “But looking for mutations isn’t always the way to find the most important factors that are keeping cancer cells alive.”

Through a collaboration among Weill Cornell Medical College, the Sloan-Kettering Institute at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a team of scientists has now reported that a tumor-targeting compound called PU-H71 can reveal with great accuracy the set of altered pathways that contribute to malignancy. Because the drug specifically binds to abnormal protein complexes in cancer cells, it could lead to the development of more targeted and effective therapies that produce fewer side effects. These findings were recently published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology.

“The holy grail in the field was to develop some way to figure out what factors keep cancer cells alive, regardless of whether they have mutations,” says Dr. Melnick. “In this paper, we present a method to do just that.”

Through nearly a decade of research, PU-H71 was discovered and refined in the laboratory of Dr. Gabriela Chiosis, associate member of the Molecular Pharmacology and Chemistry Program at the Sloan-Kettering Institute and an associate attending chemist of Memorial Hospital, Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Chiosis, who is the senior investigator in this new study, reported initial findings about the drug five years ago. The compound was designed to inhibit heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90), which helps other proteins fold into the correct three-dimensional shape and function properly.

Hsp90 plays an essential role in the ability of cells to tolerate stress. The altered growth and metabolism of tumors induce a high degree of stress in these cells. To cope with this stress, tumor cells produce a special form of Hsp90 that is tuned to specially protect those proteins required for their growth and survival. Because this tumor/stress form of Hsp90 regulates many pathways that go awry in cancer, it is a more promising drug target than current targets that play a role in only a single pathway, Dr. Chiosis says. Importantly, PU-H71 specifically suppresses the cancer form of Hsp90 but has little effect on Hsp90 in normal cells.

Several years ago, Dr. Chiosis partnered with Dr. Melnick to examine the effectiveness of PU-H71 in treating breast cancer and lymphomas, and they have previously reported that the drug has dramatic antitumor effects without being toxic to animals. As a result of the drug’s success in fighting these two aggressive types of cancer, the research team received approval from the National Cancer Institute to carry out clinical trials. Patients are currently being recruited for the first trial, which will test the drug’s safety in treating a variety of tumor types, and subsequent clinical trials are being planned for patients with lymphomas, breast cancer, chemotherapy-resistant leukemia and other specific types of cancer.

In their new study Dr. Chiosis, Dr. Melnick, and collaborators demonstrated that because PU-H71 binds to tumor-Hsp90, and tumor-Hsp90 binds to proteins that are required for tumor survival, it is possible to use PU-H71 as a method to “fish out” entire networks of abnormal proteins in tumor cells in an unbiased fashion, which has not been possible up until now. Importantly, many or even most of the genes encoding proteins that maintain tumor cell survival are not mutated in tumors. Hence genetic screening would not be able to detect these networks, Dr. Melnick says. “The value of this method is that it’s the first time you can go and probe the functional proteome, or the whole set of proteins that are important to maintaining the tumor.” This strategy opens up new avenues for understanding in greater detail the molecular basis of cancer and identifying novel drug targets.

For example, in chronic myeloid leukemia cells, the PU-H71 drug preferentially binds to the Hsp90 complex containing Bcr-Abl, an abnormal protein that is overactive in these cells, rather than to Hsp90 associated with the normal protein Abl. Similar findings were observed in other tumor types, with PU-H71-Hsp90 complexes protecting only the tumor-associated proteins.

The researchers then used PU-H71 and proteomic analyses to identify all of the abnormal proteins bound to Hsp90 in chronic myeloid leukemia cells and built networks of these proteins using bioinformatics analyses. They found that these proteins are part of signaling pathways involved in cell death, growth and division. Bcr-Abl is known to use many of these pathways to propagate abnormal signaling in this type of cancer cell. The researchers experimentally confirmed that proteins from these pathways are crucial for cancer cell growth, division and survival, suggesting that their approach can be used to accurately identify Bcr-Abl-related protein networks. Moreover, the same experiments identified many proteins not previously known to drive chronic myeloid leukemia cells. One example of such a protein was CARM1, a regulator of gene expression, which the investigators showed maintains survival of these tumor cells.

Importantly, this PU-H71 cancer proteome method can also be used to identify networks of abnormal proteins in the cells from individual patients, paving the way to personalized therapies that target multiple pathways. “No two tumors are exactly alike, and we don’t really know what is driving cancer in one patient versus the other,” the researchers say. “If you can use this method to identify in a given individual the factors that are maintaining that patient’s particular cancer, then you could develop targeted drugs that hit these specific factors — in effect, designing personalized therapy for individual patients.”

Based on these findings, Dr. Melnick and Dr. Chiosis recently received a multi-investigator collaborative grant from the National Cancer Institute to use this new PU-H71 proteome method to identify the proteins that maintain the survival of lymphoma cells. This funding is an example of how collaboration between investigators and institutions can synergistically accelerate the pace of biomedical research.

Study collaborators include Kamalika Moulick, James Ahn, Anna Rodina, Erica Gomes DaGama, Eloisi Caldas-Lopes, Fabiana Perna, Ly Vu, Xinyang Zhao, Danuta Zatorska, Tony Taldone, Mary Alpaugh, Stephen Nimer, Peter Smith-Jones, Nagavarakishore Pillarsetty, Thomas Ku, Jason Lewis, Steven Larson, Ross Levine and Hediye Erdjument-Bromage of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City; Hongliang Zong, Leandro Cerchietti, Katerina Hatzi, Steven Gross and Monica Guzman of Weill Cornell Medical College; and Kristin Beebe and Len Neckers of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md.

This work was supported in part by the National Cancer Institute, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the Breast Cancer Research Fund, the SPORE Pilot Award and Research and Therapeutics Program in Prostate Cancer, the Hirshberg Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research, the Byrne Fund and the V Foundation for Cancer Research.

The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Center for Biomedical and Physical Sciences

The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Center for Biomedical and Physical Sciences of Weill Cornell Medical College brings together a multidisciplinary team of scientists for the purpose of catalyzing major advances in medicine. By harnessing the combined power of experimental approaches rooted in the physical and biological sciences, Sackler Center investigators can best accelerate the pace of discovery and translate these findings for the benefit of patients with various medical conditions including but not limited to cancer.

Weill Cornell Medical College

Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University’s medical school located in New York City, is committed to excellence in research, teaching, patient care and the advancement of the art and science of medicine, locally, nationally and globally. Physicians and scientists of Weill Cornell Medical College are engaged in cutting-edge research from bench to bedside, aimed at unlocking mysteries of the human body in health and sickness and toward developing new treatments and prevention strategies. In its commitment to global health and education, Weill Cornell has a strong presence in places such as Qatar, Tanzania, Haiti, Brazil, Austria and Turkey. Through the historic Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, the Medical College is the first in the U.S. to offer its M.D. degree overseas. Weill Cornell is the birthplace of many medical advances — including the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer, the synthesis of penicillin, the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S., the first clinical trial of gene therapy for Parkinson’s disease, and most recently, the world’s first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally conscious brain-injured patient. Weill Cornell Medical College is affiliated with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where its faculty provides comprehensive patient care at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The Medical College is also affiliated with the Methodist Hospital in Houston. For more information, visit weill.cornell.edu.

The effects inhibiting the proliferation of cancer cells by far-infrared radiation (FIR) are controlled by the basal expression level of heat shock protein (HSP) 70A.

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Posted 02 Jul 2011 — by James Street
Category HSP70 gene, Hyperthermia

Ishibashi J, Yamashita K, Ishikawa T, Hosokawa H, Sumida K, Nagayama M, Kitamura S.

Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Anatomy, Medical Science for Oral and Maxillofacial Regeneration, Graduate School of Health Biosciences, University of Tokushima, 3-18-15 Kuramoto, Tokushima 770-8504, Japan.

Abstract

We developed a tissue culture incubator that can continuously irradiate cells with far-infrared radiation (FIR) of wavelengths between 4 and 20 microm with a peak of 7-12 microm, and found that FIR caused different inhibiting effects to five human cancer cell lines, namely A431 (vulva), HSC3 (tongue), Sa3 (gingiva), A549 (lung), and MCF7 (breast). Then, in order to make clear the control system for the effect of FIR, the gene expression concerned to the inhibition effect by FIR were analyzed. In consequence, basal expression level of HSP70A mRNA was higher in A431 and MCF7 cells than in the FIR-sensitive HSC3, Sa3, and A549 cells. Also, the over expression of HSP70 inhibited FIR-induced growth arrest in HSC3 cells, and an HSP70 siRNA inhibited the proliferation of A431 cells by irradiation with FIR. These results indicate that the effect of a body temperature range of FIR suppressing the proliferation of some cancer cells is controlled by the basal expression level of heat shock protein (HSP) 70A. This finding suggested that FIR should be very effective medical treatment for some cancer cells which have a low level of HSP70. Still more, if the level of HSP70 in any cancer of a patient was measured, the effect of medical treatment by FIR can be foreseen for the cancer.

Heat Shock Protein 70 (HSP 70) Wikipedia Article

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Posted 09 Jun 2011 — by James Street
Category General Cancer Research, HSP70 gene

Hsp70

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Heat-shock protein 70)
Mergefrom.svg
 It has been suggested that HSPA8 be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) Proposed since February 2011.
Hsp70 protein
PDB 3hsc EBI.jpg
Structure of the ATPase fragment of a 70K heat-shock cognate protein.[1]
Identifiers
Symbol HSP70
Pfam PF00012
Pfam clan CL0108
InterPro IPR013126
PROSITE PDOC00269
SCOP 3hsc
[show]Available protein structures:

The 70 kilodalton heat shock proteins (Hsp70s) are a family of ubiquitously expressed heat shock proteins. Proteins with similar structure exist in virtually all living organisms. The Hsp70s are an important part of the cell’s machinery for protein folding, and help to protect cells from stress.[2][3]

Contents

[hide]

[edit] Discovery

Members of the Hsp70 family are strongly upregulated by heat stress and toxic chemicals, particularly heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium, copper, mercury, etc. Hsp70 was originally discovered by FM Ritossa in the 1960s when a lab worker accidentally boosted the incubation temperature of Drosophila (fruit flies). When examining the chromosomes, Ritossa found a “puffing pattern” that indicated the elevated gene transcription of an unknown protein.[4][5] This was later described as the “Heat Shock Response” and the proteins were termed the “Heat Shock Proteins” (Hsps).

[edit] Structure

The Hsp70 proteins have three major functional domains:

  • N-terminal ATPase domain – binds ATP (Adenosine triphosphate) and hydrolyzes it to ADP (Adenosine diphosphate). The exchange of ATP drives conformational changes in the other two domains.
  • Substrate binding domain – contains a groove with an affinity for neutral, hydrophobic amino acid residues. The groove is long enough to interact with peptides up to seven residues in length.
  • C-terminal domain – rich in alpha helical structure acts as a ‘lid’ for the substrate binding domain. When an Hsp70 protein is ATP bound, the lid is open and peptides bind and release relatively rapidly. When Hsp70 proteins are ADP bound, the lid is closed, and peptides are tightly bound to the substrate binding domain.

[edit] Function and regulation

When not interacting with a substrate peptide, Hsp70 is usually in an ATP bound state. Hsp70 by itself is characterized by a very weak ATPase activity, such that spontaneous hydrolysis will not occur for many minutes. As newly synthesized proteins emerge from the ribosomes, the substrate binding domain of Hsp70 recognizes sequences of hydrophobic amino acid residues, and interacts with them. This spontaneous interaction is reversible, and in the ATP bound state Hsp70 may relatively freely bind and release peptides. However, the presence of a peptide in the binding domain stimulates the ATPase activity of Hsp70, increasing its normally-slow rate of ATP hydrolysis. When ATP is hydrolyzed to ADP the binding pocket of Hsp70 closes, tightly binding the now-trapped peptide chain. Further speeding ATP hydrolysis are the so-called J-domain cochaperones: primarily Hsp40 in eukaryotes, and DnaJ in prokaryotes. These cochaperones dramatically increase the ATPase activity of Hsp70 in the presence of interacting peptides.

By binding tightly to partially-synthesized peptide sequences (incomplete proteins), Hsp70 prevents them from aggregating and being rendered nonfunctional. Once the entire protein is synthesized, a nucleotide exchange factor (BAG-1 and HspBP1 are among those which have been identified) stimulates the release of ADP and binding of fresh ATP, opening the binding pocket. The protein is then free to fold on its own, or to be transferred to other chaperones for further processing. HOP (the Hsp70/Hsp90 Organizing Protein) can bind to both Hsp70 and Hsp90 at the same time, and mediates the transfer of peptides from Hsp70 to Hsp90.[6]

Hsp70 also aids in transmembrane transport of proteins, by stabilizing them in a partially-folded state.

Hsp70 proteins can act to protect cells from thermal or oxidative stress. These stresses normally act to damage proteins, causing partial unfolding and possible aggregation. By temporarily binding to hydrophobic residues exposed by stress, Hsp70 prevents these partially-denatured proteins from aggregating, and allows them to refold. Low ATP is characteristic of heat shock and sustained binding is seen as aggregation suppression, while recovery from heat shock involves substrate binding and nucleotide cycling. In a thermophile anaerobe (Thermotoga maritima) the Hsp70 demonstrates redox sensitive binding to model peptides, suggesting a second mode of binding regulation based on oxidative stress.

Hsp70 seems to be able to participate in disposal of damaged or defective proteins. Interaction with CHIP (Carboxyl-terminus of Hsp70 Interacting Protein)–an E3 ubiquitin ligase–allows Hsp70 to pass proteins to the cell’s ubiquitination and proteolysis pathways.[7]

Finally, in addition to improving overall protein integrity, Hsp 70 directly inhibits apoptosis.[8] One hallmark of apoptosis is the release of cytochrome c, which then recruits Apaf-1 and dATP/ATP into an apoptosome complex. This complex then cleaves procaspase-9, activating caspase-9 and eventually inducing apoptosis via caspase-3 activation. Hsp 70 inhibits this process by blocking the recruitment of procaspase-9 to the Apaf-1/dATP/cytochrome c apoptosome complex. It does not bind directly to the procaspase-9 binding site, but likely induces a conformational change that renders procaspase-9 binding less favorable. Hsp70 is shown to interact with Endoplasmic reticulum stress sensor protein IRE1alpha thereby protecting the cells from ER stress – induced apoptosis. This interaction prolonged the splicing of XBP-1 mRNA thereby inducing transcriptional upregulation of targets of spliced XBP-1 like EDEM1, ERdj4 and P58IPK rescuing the cells from apoptosis.[9] Other studies suggest that Hsp 70 may play an anti-apoptotic role at other steps, but is not involved in Fas-ligand-mediated apoptosis (although Hsp 27 is). Therefore, Hsp 70 not only saves important components of the cell (the proteins) but also directly saves the cell as a whole. Considering that stress-response proteins (like Hsp 70) evolved before apoptotic machinery, Hsp 70’s direct role in inhibiting apoptosis provides an interesting evolutionary picture of how more recent (apoptotic) machinery accommodated previous machinery (Hsps), thus aligning the improved integrity of a cell’s proteins with the improved chances of that particular cell’s survival.

[edit] Cancer

HSP 70 is overexpressed in malignant melanoma[10] and underexpressed in renal cell cancer.[11][12]

[edit] Family members

Prokaryotes express three Hsp70 proteins: DnaK, HscA (Hsc66), and HscC (Hsc62).[13]

Eukaryotic organisms express several slightly different Hsp70 proteins. All share the common domain structure, but each has a unique pattern of expression or subcellular localization. These are, among others:

  • Hsc70 (Hsp73/HSPA8) is a constitutively expressed chaperone protein. It typically makes up one to three percent of total cellular protein.
  • Hsp70 (encoded by three very closely related paralogs: HSPA1A, HSPA1B, and HSPA1L) is a stress-induced protein. High levels can be produced by cells in response to hyperthermia, oxidative stress, and changes in pH.
  • Binding immunoglobulin protein (BiP or Grp78) is a protein localized to the endoplasmic reticulum. It is involved in protein folding there, and can be upregulated in response to stress or starvation.
  • mtHsp70 or Grp75 is the mitochondrial Hsp70.

The following is a list of human Hsp70 genes and their corresponding proteins:[2]

gene protein synonyms subcellular
location
HSPA1A Hsp70 HSP70-1, Hsp72 Nuc/Cyto
HSPA1B Hsp70 HSP70-2 Nuc/Cyto
HSPA1L Hsp70 ?
HSPA2 Hsp70-2 ?
HSPA4 Hsp70-4 ?
HSPA4L Hsp70-4L ?
HSPA5 Hsp70-5 BiP/Grp78 ER
HSPA6 Hsp70-6 ?
HSPA7 Hsp70-7 ?
HSPA8 Hsp70-8 Hsc70 Nuc/Cyto
HSPA9 Hsp70-9 Grp75/mtHsp70 Mito
HSPA12A Hsp70-12a ?
HSPA14 Hsp70-14 ?

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Flaherty KM, DeLuca-Flaherty C, McKay DB (August 1990). “Three-dimensional structure of the ATPase fragment of a 70K heat-shock cognate protein”. Nature 346 (6285): 623–8. doi:10.1038/346623a0. PMID 2143562.
  2. ^ a b Tavaria M, Gabriele T, Kola I, Anderson RL (April 1996). “A hitchhiker’s guide to the human Hsp70 family”. Cell Stress Chaperones 1 (1): 23–8. doi:10.1379/1466-1268(1996)001<0023:AHSGTT>2.3.CO;2. PMC 313013. PMID 9222585.
  3. ^ Morano KA (October 2007). “New tricks for an old dog: the evolving world of Hsp70″. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 1113: 1–14. doi:10.1196/annals.1391.018. PMID 17513460.
  4. ^ Ritossa F (1962). “A new puffing pattern induced by temperature shock and DNP in drosophila”. Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences (CMLS) 18 (12): 571–573. doi:10.1007/BF02172188.
  5. ^ Ritossa F (June 1996). “Discovery of the heat shock response”. Cell Stress Chaperones 1 (2): 97–8. doi:10.1379/1466-1268(1996)001<0097:DOTHSR>2.3.CO;2. PMC 248460. PMID 9222594.
  6. ^ Wegele H, Müller L, Buchner J (2004). “Hsp70 and Hsp90 – a relay team for protein folding”. Rev. Physiol. Biochem. Pharmacol. 151: 1–44. doi:10.1007/s10254-003-0021-1. PMID 14740253.
  7. ^ Lüders J, Demand J, Höhfeld J (February 2000). “The ubiquitin-related BAG-1 provides a link between the molecular chaperones Hsc70/Hsp70 and the proteasome”. J. Biol. Chem. 275 (7): 4613–7. doi:10.1074/jbc.275.7.4613. PMID 10671488.
  8. ^ Beere HM, Wolf BB, Cain K, Mosser DD, Mahboubi A, Kuwana T, Tailor P, Morimoto RI, Cohen GM, Green DR (August 2000). “Heat-shock protein 70 inhibits apoptosis by preventing recruitment of procaspase-9 to the Apaf-1 apoptosome”. Nat. Cell Biol. 2 (8): 469–75. doi:10.1038/35019501. PMID 10934466.
  9. ^ Gupta S, Deepti A, Deegan S, Lisbona F, Hetz C, Samali A (July 2010). “HSP72 protects cells from ER stress-induced apoptosis via enhancement of IRE1alpha-XBP1 signaling through a physical interaction”. PLoS Biol. 8 (7): e1000410. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000410. PMC 2897763. PMID 20625543.
  10. ^ Ricaniadis N, Kataki A, Agnantis N, Androulakis G, Karakousis CP (February 2001). “Long-term prognostic significance of HSP-70, c-myc and HLA-DR expression in patients with malignant melanoma”. Eur J Surg Oncol 27 (1): 88–93. doi:10.1053/ejso.1999.1018. PMID 11237497.
  11. ^ Ramp U, Mahotka C, Heikaus S, Shibata T, Grimm MO, Willers R, Gabbert HE (October 2007). “Expression of heat shock protein 70 in renal cell carcinoma and its relation to tumor progression and prognosis”. Histol. Histopathol. 22 (10): 1099–107. PMID 17616937.
  12. ^ “Heat shock proteins and cancer”. HealthValue. Retrieved 2009-05-26.
  13. ^ Yoshimune K, Yoshimura T, Nakayama T, Nishino T, Esaki N (May 2002). “Hsc62, Hsc56, and GrpE, the third Hsp70 chaperone system of Escherichia coli”. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 293 (5): 1389–95. doi:10.1016/S0006-291X(02)00403-5. PMID 12054669.

Expression of human HSP70 during the synthetic phase of the cell cycle

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Posted 08 Jun 2011 — by James Street
Category Gemcitabine, HSP70 gene, quercetin

Abstract

Expression of the major heat shock and stress-induced protein, HSP70, is under complex regulatory control in human cells. In addition to being induced by physiological stress such as heat shock or transition metals (SUCH AS A TINTANIUM IMPLANT,) the HSP70 gene is induced by serum stimulation and immortalizing products of the adenovirus E1A 13S and polyoma large tumor antigen genes. Here we show that expression of the human HSP70 gene is tightly regulated during the cell cycle. Using selective mitotic detachment, a noninductive method to obtain synchronous populations of HeLa cells, we show that levels of HSP70 mRNA rapidly increase 10- to 15-fold upon entry into S phase and decline by late S and G2. A transient increase in HSP70 synthesis is detected during early S phase. The subcellular localization of HSP70 varies throughout the cell cycle; the protein is diffusely distributed in the nucleus and cytoplasm in G1, localized in the nucleus in S, and again diffusely distributed in G2 cells. We suggest that the temporal pattern of HSP70 expression during S phase, the nuclear localization, and activation by trans-acting immortalizing proteins indicate a role for HSP70 in the nucleus of replicating cells.