基于原子力显微镜研究p53蛋白与PBR322 DNA的相互作用

肿瘤(癌症)是由于细胞在复制过程中,DNA损伤不能修复导致细胞凋亡或者细胞无限增殖而形成的。DNA在细胞中转录和翻译都会涉及蛋白与DNA的结合,肿瘤抑制蛋白也是参与这一过程的关键蛋白之一。然而,众多研究发现,肿瘤抑制蛋白p53具有识别和修复损伤DNA的效果,对于细胞的凋亡、基因的保护和避免癌症发生有着重要的意义。有研究表明,金属镁离子和锌离子可以增强p53蛋白的结构稳定性和p53-DNA的亲和力。因此,我们基于原子力显微镜(AFM),直观地呈现出p53蛋白与PBR322环状DNA相互作用的图像,同时发现p53蛋白可以使环状DNA自身形成聚集或者相交。但是,对于长度相当的5 000bp的线状DNA几乎没有这样的效果,而对于20 000bp DNA不会出现这样的现象。然而,在高浓度镁离子环境下,环状DNA会扭转成为麻花状,即形成超螺旋结构。这一现象,可为p53蛋白功能和作用机理研究提供指导,也为癌症治疗、癌症药物开发以及癌症检测方法提供启发。     

携带p53和p21基因腺病毒转移载体的构建

构建携带p53和p21基因的重组腺病毒转移载体以研究p53和p21联合基因治疗效果.将p53cDNA克隆到转移载体pCMV5GFP替代gfp,得到pCMVp53,使其受到CMV启动子的调控;同时将p21基因克隆到pCMVp53,得到重组腺病毒转移载体pCMVp53/p21.得到携带p53和p21基因的重组腺病毒转移载体.     

Senescence and tumour clearance is triggered by p53 restoration in murine liver carcinomas

Although cancer arises from a combination of mutations in oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes, the extent to which tumour suppressor gene loss is required for maintaining established tumours is poorly understood. p53 is an important tumour suppressor that acts to restrict proliferation in response to DNA damage or deregulation of mitogenic oncogenes, by leading to the induction of various cell cycle checkpoints, apoptosis or cellular senescence. Consequently, p53 mutations increase cell proliferation and survival, and in some settings promote genomic instability and resistance to certain chemotherapies. To determine the consequences of reactivating the p53 pathway in tumours, we used RNA interference (RNAi) to conditionally regulate endogenous p53 expression in a mosaic mouse model of liver carcinoma. We show that even brief reactivation of endogenous p53 in p53-deficient tumours can produce complete tumour regressions. The primary response to p53 was not apoptosis, but instead involved the induction of a cellular senescence program that was associated with differentiation and the upregulation of inflammatory cytokines. This program, although producing only cell cycle arrest in vitro, also triggered an innate immune response that targeted the tumour cells in vivo, thereby contributing to tumour clearance. Our study indicates that p53 loss can be required for the maintenance of aggressive carcinomas, and illustrates how the cellular senescence program can act together with the innate immune system to potently limit tumour growth.     

Cellular immortalization by a cDNA clone encoding the transformation-associated phosphoprotein p53

Malignant transformation of primary cells requires at least two distinct and characteristic alterations in cellular behaviour. The first, cellular immortality, can be induced by chemical carcinogens or by cloned oncogenes such as polyoma large T (ref. 4), adenovirus early region 1A (E1A) or the oncogene from avian (MC29) myelocytomatosis virus, v-myc. Cells whose in vitro life-span has been extended by these procedures can be fully transformed by transfection with oncogenes belonging to a different complementation group, including genes of the ras family, adenovirus E1b and polyoma virus middle T (refs 4, 5). The unstable cellular phosphoprotein p53 is frequently present at elevated levels in transformed cells and is stabilized by the formation of complexes with simian virus 40 (SV40) large T or adenovirus E1b 57K protein. Although several reports have associated p53 with cell proliferation, its role remains obscure. We have cloned complementary DNA sequences encoding murine p53 and report here that transfection of p53 expression constructs into cells of finite lifespan in vitro results in cellular immortality and susceptibility to transformation by a ras oncogene.     

The pathological response to DNA damage does not contribute to p53-mediated tumour suppression

The p53 protein has a highly evolutionarily conserved role in metazoans as 'guardian of the genome', mediating cell-cycle arrest and apoptosis in response to genotoxic injury. In large, long-lived animals with substantial somatic regenerative capacity, such as vertebrates, p53 is an important tumour suppressor--an attribute thought to stem directly from its induction of death or arrest in mutant cells with damaged or unstable genomes. Chemotherapy and radiation exposure both induce widespread p53-dependent DNA damage. This triggers potentially lethal pathologies that are generally deemed an unfortunate but unavoidable consequence of the role p53 has in tumour suppression. Here we show, using a mouse model in which p53 status can be reversibly switched in vivo between functional and inactive states, that the p53-mediated pathological response to whole-body irradiation, a prototypical genotoxic carcinogen, is irrelevant for suppression of radiation-induced lymphoma. In contrast, delaying the restoration of p53 function until the acute radiation response has subsided abrogates all of the radiation-induced pathology yet preserves much of the protection from lymphoma. Such protection is absolutely dependent on p19(ARF)--a tumour suppressor induced not by DNA damage, but by oncogenic disruption of the cell cycle.     

携带p53基因重组腺病毒载体的构建

将pCMVp53重组转移载体经BamHI和NheI酶切,得到p53基因cDNA,然后将cDNA片段克隆到转移载体pCMV5GFP,使其受CMV5启动子的调控,获得pCMV5p53重组转移载体.用该线状重组转移载体与腺病毒右臂DNA经磷酸钙共转染293细胞获得重组腺病毒,经酶联免疫吸附法(ELISA)测定p53蛋白含量,证明外源p53基因在含重组腺病毒的293细胞中得到表达.     

Virus-mediated killing of cells that lack p53 activity

A major goal of molecular oncology is to identify means to kill cells lacking p53 function. Most current cancer therapy is based on damaging cellular DNA by irradiation or chemicals. Recent reports support the notion that, in the event of DNA damage, the p53 tumour-suppressor protein is able to prevent cell death by sustaining an arrest of the cell cycle at the G2 phase. We report here that adeno-associated virus (AAV) selectively induces apoptosis in cells that lack active p53. Cells with intact p53 activity are not killed but undergo arrest in the G2 phase of the cell cycle. This arrest is characterized by an increase in p53 activity and p21 levels and by the targeted destruction of CDC25C. Neither cell killing nor arrest depends upon AAV-encoded proteins. Rather, AAV DNA, which is single-stranded with hairpin structures at both ends, elicits in cells a DNA damage response that, in the absence of active p53, leads to cell death. AAV inhibits tumour growth in mice. Thus viruses can be used to deliver DNA of unusual structure into cells to trigger a DNA damage response without damaging cellular DNA and to selectively eliminate those cells lacking p53 activity.     

Wild-type p53 induces apoptosis of myeloid leukaemic cells that is inhibited by interleukin-6.

Wild-type p53 protein has many properties consistent with its being the product of a tumour suppressor gene. Although the normal roles of tumour suppressor genes are still largely unknown, it seems that they could be involved in promoting cell differentiation as well as in mediating growth arrest by growth-inhibitory cytokines. Hence, the abrogation of wild-type p53 expression, which is a common feature of many tumours, could eliminate these activities. We have now tested this notion by restoring the expression of p53 in a murine myeloid leukaemic cell line that normally lacks p53. The use of a temperature-sensitive p53 mutant allowed us to analyse cells in which the introduced p53 had either wild-type or mutant properties. Although there seemed to be no effect on differentiation, the introduction of wild-type p53 resulted in rapid loss of cell viability in a way characteristic of apoptosis (programmed cell death). The effect of wild-type p53 was counteracted by interleukin-6. Thus products of tumour suppressor genes could be involved in restricting precursor cell populations by mediating apoptosis.     

人类P53下游基因一致性序列研究

人类P53蛋白是一种通用转录因子，通过调控一系列下游基因的转录来影响许多细胞功能。p53下游基因含有P53蛋白结合序列，收集已报道的63条人类P53蛋白结合序列并与E1-Deiry等定义的一致性序列进行比较，发现这些P53蛋白结合序列与一致性序列特征并不严格一致，对这些偏差规律的分析有利于建立p53下游基因预测模型，进而利用计算机方法预测p53下游基因，研究其基因互作网络。     

人类P53下游基因一致性序列研究

人类P53蛋白是一种通用转录因子，通过调控一系列下游基因的转录来影响许多细胞功能。p53下游基因含有P53蛋白结合序列，收集已报道的63条人类P53蛋白结合序列并与ElDeiry等定义的一致性序列进行比较，发现这些P53蛋白结合序列与一致性序列特征并不严格一致，对这些偏差规律的分析有利于建立p53下游基因预测模型，进而利用计算机方法预测p53下游基因，研究其基因互作网络。     

Deubiquitination of p53 by HAUSP is an important pathway for p53 stabilization

The p53 tumour suppressor is a short-lived protein that is maintained at low levels in normal cells by Mdm2-mediated ubiquitination and subsequent proteolysis. Stabilization of p53 is crucial for its tumour suppressor function. However, the precise mechanism by which ubiquitinated p53 levels are regulated in vivo is not completely understood. By mass spectrometry of affinity-purified p53-associated factors, we have identified herpesvirus-associated ubiquitin-specific protease (HAUSP) as a novel p53-interacting protein. HAUSP strongly stabilizes p53 even in the presence of excess Mdm2, and also induces p53-dependent cell growth repression and apoptosis. Significantly, HAUSP has an intrinsic enzymatic activity that specifically deubiquitinates p53 both in vitro and in vivo. In contrast, expression of a catalytically inactive point mutant of HAUSP in cells increases the levels of p53 ubiquitination and destabilizes p53. These findings reveal an important mechanism by which p53 can be stabilized by direct deubiquitination and also imply that HAUSP might function as a tumour suppressor in vivo through the stabilization of p53.     

p53蛋白与肝细胞癌临床病理特征及预后的关系

目的 探讨p53蛋白表达与肝细胞癌的临床病理特征及预后的关系,为术后综合治疗及判断预后提供依据。方法 采用免疫组织化学方法检测88例肝细胞癌组织中p53蛋白的表达,比较阳性患者和阴性患者的临床病理因素和术后累积复发率、术后累积生存率的差异。结果 p53蛋白表达阳性组1、2、3累积生存率分别为75．0％、54.4%、24．2％,阴性组相应的分别为84．3％、77．8％、56．1％。与阴性组相比,p53蛋白阳性组有较高的术前AFP浓度（P=0．005）、有较大的肿瘤最大直径（P=0．042）、肿瘤包膜不完整或无包膜者多见（P=0．023）。结论 p53蛋白是评价肝细胞癌恶性程度及预后的一个有价值的生物学指标。     

Overproduction of p53 antigen makes established cells highly tumorigenic

The p53 cellular tumour antigen, long known to be overproduced in a variety of neoplastically transformed cells, was recently shown to be directly involved in transformation. Thus, p53 can complement activated Ha-ras in transforming secondary rat embryo fibroblasts into grossly altered, tumorigenic cells. Moreover, p53 can also be shown to possess immortalizing activity. Our previous results indicated, however, that the contribution of p53 to the transformation was not synonymous with immortalization, suggesting that the two activities of the protein are probably separable. We demonstrate here that this is indeed the case, as overproduction of p53 in an established cell line, while not causing gross morphological changes, endows these cells with an overt tumorigenic potential. Furthermore, the tumorigenic efficiency of such cell lines may be correlated with the extent of p53 over-production.