Thesis (M.Sc.). / Written for the Dept. of Surgery, Division of Surgical Research. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2009/06/30). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Case Western Reserve University, 2006. / [School of Medicine] Department of Pathology. Includes bibliographical references. Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on March 2, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Dr. Kent S. Gates, Dissertation Supervisor. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 160 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Orientadores: Hiroshi Aoyama, Celso Eduardo Benedetti / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Biologia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-11T20:43:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Medeiros_LucianadeCamposLeite_D.pdf: 2382438 bytes, checksum: d3106e1ce3acaecc348d589d473d3411 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Resumo: Em nosso laboratório foram purificadas quatro isoformas de fosfatases ácidas, a partir de sementes de soja quiescentes, tendo sido também estudadas suas propriedades cinéticas e físico-químicas. Estudos físicos e estruturais destas enzimas requerem uma grande quantidade da proteína pura, o que exigiria várias purificações convencionais, que, em geral, são bastante trabalhosas. Devido a este fato e a existência de poucas de tais proteínas clonadas e expressas, nos propusemos a clonar e expressar uma proteína tirosina fosfatase (PTP) de soja. O estudo da cinética da PTP recombinante revelou que esta enzima possui características típicas de uma fosfatase e maior especificidade para tirosina-fosfato em relação a outros substratos analisados. Foi feito o estudo de desnaturação térmica da enzima, através de dicroísmo circular, que mostrou que a enzima recombinante apresenta baixa estabilidade térmica. Identificamos por western blot a presença da GmPTP nos diferentes tecidos de soja, germinados tanto no claro como no escuro. Estes resultados, confrontados com os obtidos no PCR quantitativo, mostram uma expressão aumentada do tecido raiz, quando comparada aos outros tecidos avaliados, que está em concordância com o encontrado na literatura, referente à importância fisiológica da enzima neste tecido. Níveis adequados de fósforo são necessários para o crescimento e desenvolvimento de todos os organismos para o bom funcionamento de funções como estrutura molecular, geração de energia e regulação metabólica. A demanda por fósforo e sua conseqüente absorção do solo pelas raízes, aumenta dramaticamente durante o período de rápido crescimento e divisão, por exemplo, na germinação de sementes. Sendo assim, como supridores importantes de fósforo para o metabolismo da planta, podemos citar as fitases e fosfatases, que, além de contribuírem para prover nutrientes, as fosfatases também desempenham papel importante no controle de diferentes funções da planta, particularmente na regulação das cascatas de transdução de sinal. Utilizamos microarranjos de quinases como ferramenta para avaliação do quinoma da raiz nas plântulas de soja germinadas na presença e ausência de luz. Assim, concluímos que fatores ambientais, como a presença de luz e disponibilidade de nutrientes fazem com que diferentes vias estejam ativas e que diferentes fitormônios estejam agindo predominantemente. Relacionando as condições de germinação das plântulas de soja com esses fatores e às quinases mais ativadas no chip, propomos um modelo de sinalização onde o hormônio ácido abscísico responde ao estresse através da ativação de vias como as de MAPKs e de cálcio, causando modulação da atividade de fosfatases e quinases, resultando em respostas como proliferação e rearranjo do citoesqueleto das raízes. Neste trabalho, nós descrevemos a clonagem, expressão de uma de soja, sua caracterização cinética, localização tecidual e investigação da possível relação com a sinalização disparada pela presença ou ausência de luz. A investigação e caracterização de PTPs em plantas podem fornecer informações relevantes no campo de pesquisa do metabolismo vegetal. Sendo assim, nós disponibilizamos dados bioquímicos relevantes os quais sugerem que as plântulas de soja contêm PTP típicas que são principalmente expressas em raízes e aparentemente desempenham papel importante durante a germinação da semente. / Abstract: Our group previously described the purification and characterization of four acid phosphatase isoforms obtained from mature soybean seeds, and determined the kinetic and physico-chemical properties of these enzymes. Structural and physical studies demand high amounts at purity levels of these enzymes, requiring efforts in laborious conventional purifications. Due to this fact and to the existence of few plant proteins that already has been cloned and expressed, we proposed to clone and express a protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) from soybean. The kinetic studies of the recombinant PTP revealed an enzyme with phosphatase typical features and higher specificity toward Tyr-phosphate when compared to other analysed substrates. The analysis of thermal inactivation of the enzyme was carried out by circular dichroism, which showed that GmPTP had low thermal stability. The immunolocalization of GmPTP, by western blot, identified the enzyme in different soybean tissues, which were germinated in the presence and absence of light. These results are in agreement with those obtained from the quantitative PCR results, that showed a higher expression of GmPTP in roots when compared with other evaluated tissues. The physiological importance of this tissue to the plant metabolism corroborates our results, because adequate levels of phosphorus are required for the good operation of metabolic functions, as growth and development. The phosphorus demand and the consequent soil absorption through the roots dramatically increase in periods of high growth rate, for instance, during germination. Therefore, phytases and phosphatases are important suppliers for plant metabolism and besides the contribution to provide nutrients, phosphatases could play an important role in regulation of signal transduction cascades. Kinase microarrays were employed as a strong tool to analyse the root kinome in soybean plantlets germinated in light and dark conditions. We concluded that abiotic factors as light presence and nutrients availability were responsible for the activation of different pathways and different phytormones prevalence. Relating the germination conditions of soybean plantlets to these factors and to the analysis of the most activated kinases on the chip, we propose a signaling model to explain that, when the hormone abscisic acid is the main response of stress stimuli, it triggers the activation of MAPK and calcium signaling, and the resulting modulation of kinases and phosphatases activities led to proliferation and cytoskeleton rearrangement in roots. In this work, we described the cloning and expression of a soybean PTP, its kinetic characterization, tissue distribution and investigation of a putative relationship with the signaling pathway triggered by light and dark. The investigation and characterization of PTPs from plants can add relevant information in the plant metabolism research field. Therefore, we provided a wealth biochemical data which suggest that soybean plantlets contain typical PTP, which is mainly expressed in roots and apparently plays a critical role during germination. / Doutorado / Bioquimica / Doutor em Biologia Funcional e Molecular

The neuroendocrine (NE) cell is a minor cell population in normal human prostate glands. The number of NE cells is increased in advanced hormone-refractory prostate carcinomas (PCA). The mechanism of increased NE cell population in these advanced tumors is poorly understood. We examined molecular mechanisms which may be involved in the regulation of the transdifferentiation process of human PCA cells leading to a NE phenotype. We compared PCA cell lines LNCaP and PC-3 in the following medium conditions: steroid-reduced (SR), interleukin-6 (IL-6)-supplemented, or dibutyrate cAMP (db-cAMP)-supplemented. We found that androgen-responsive C-33 LNCaP cells responded to all treatments, having a neuronal-like morphology. In contrast, C-81 LNCaP cells, having a decreased androgen responsiveness, had a less pronounced effect although followed a similar trend. Androgen-unresponsive PC-3 cells showed little change in their morphology. Grown in the SR condition, the level of neuron-specific enolase (NSE), a marker of neuronal cells, was upregulated in C-33 LNCaP cells, while to a lesser degree in the presence of IL-6. In the presence of db-cAMP, the NSE level in C-33 cells was decreased, lower than that in control cells. An opposite effect was observed for C-81 LNCaP cells. Nevertheless, the NSE level was only elevated in db-cAMP-treated PC-3 cells, but no change was found in PC-3 cells grown in the SR- or IL-6-supplemented medium. Thus, a similar gross phenotypic change may correlate with differential molecular expressions. We also analyzed the expression of protein tyrosine phosphatase α (RPTPα) since it plays a critical role in normal neuronal differentiation and signaling. Our results showed that the expression of RPTPα correlates with the NE phenotypic change of LNCaP cells in the SR condition. In summary, our data clearly show that the molecular process by which cultured human prostate cancer cells undergo a transdifferentiation process to a NE cell-like phenotype is accompanied by differential expressions of different markers, and a gross NE cell-like phenotype can occur by exposing PCA cells to different pharmacological agents.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Phosphatase and tensin homolog, PTEN, is a key tumor suppressor. Mutation of PTEN is associated with both sporadic cancers and a cluster of familial cancer predisposition syndromes called PTEN hamaratoma syndromes. These germline mutations span the length of the PTEN gene with a mutational hot spot localized in exon 5. This exon encodes the catalytic domain of PTEN, which is critical for its tumor suppressor activity. PTEN function is most commonly attributed to lipid phosphatase activity on Phosphatidylinositol (3,4,5)-trisphosphate (PIP3) that leads to inhibition of a cascade with downstream pro-survival effectors including Akt, but PTEN also has phosphatase activity on a small number of proteins. Recently, a mutation, G129E, has been described as a gain of function (GOF) mutation in PTEN knockin mice. This mutant only retains protein phosphatase activity while it completely lacks lipid phosphatase activity. Collectively (in the mouse and in vitro studies), there is no clear mechanism to explain the GOF nature of this mutant. Understanding how mutants of PTEN function in the cells to provide a growth advantage will provide insight into what pathway to therapeutically target. Our central hypothesis is that mutations of PTEN promote tumorigenesis through gain of function activities that result in cell cycle progression. We will determine the signaling pathways that are affected by the gain of function mutant PTEN G129E to better understand the mechanism by which mutants of PTEN confer a growth advantage.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / FMS-like tyrosine receptor kinase-internal tandem duplications (FLT3-ITDs) are the most frequent deleterious mutations found in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and portend a poor prognosis. Currently, AML patients typically achieve disease remission, yet undergo high rates of disease relapse, implying a residual post-treatment reservoir of resistant malignancy-initiating cells. This begs for new therapeutic approaches to be discovered, and suggests that targeting multiple cellular compartments is needed for improved therapeutic approaches. We have shown that the protein tyrosine phosphatase, Shp2, associates physically FLT3-ITD at tyrosine 599 (Y599) and positively regulates aberrant STAT5 activation and leukemogenesis. We also demonstrated that genetic disruption of Ptpn11, the gene encoding Shp2, increased malignancy specific survival of animals transplanted with FLT3-ITD-transduced cells, suggesting that Shp2 may regulate the function of the malignancy-initiating cell. Taken together, I hypothesized that inhibiting Shp2 can target both FLT3-ITD+ AML tumor cells as well as FLT3-ITD-expressing hematopoietic stem cells. To study this hypothesis, I employed two validation models including genetic inhibition of Shp2 interaction with FLT3-ITD in 32D cells or genetic disruption of Shp2 in FLT3-ITD-expressing HSCs. Using FLT3-ITD-expressing 32D cells as an AML tumor model, I found that mutating the Shp2 binding site on FLT3-ITD (Y599) reduced proliferation in vitro and increased latency to leukemia onset in vivo. Further, pharmacologic inhibition of Shp2 preferentially reduced proliferation of FLT3-ITD+ primary AML samples compared to FLT3-ITD- samples, and cooperated with inhibition of the lipid kinase, phospho-inositol-3-kinase (PI3K), and of the tyrosine kinase, Syk, to reduce proliferation of both FLT3-ITD+ and FLT3-ITD- AML samples. To evaluate the stem cell compartment, I crossed a murine locus-specific knock-in of FLT3-ITD with Shp2flox/flox; Mx1-Cre mice to generate FLT3-ITD; Shp2+/- mice and found that Shp2 heterozygosity dramatically inhibits hematopoietic stem cell engraftment in competitive transplant assays. Further, I found that lineage negative cells from FLT3-ITD; Shp2+/- mice demonstrated increased senescence compared to control mice, suggesting that Shp2 may regulate senescence in FLT3-ITD-expressing hematopoietic stem cells. Together, these findings indicate a cooperative relationship between the tyrosine phosphatase, Shp2, and the kinases PI3K and Syk in AML tumor cells, and indicate that Shp2 plays a positive role in the stem cell compartment to promote stem cell function of the malignancy-initiating cell in AML. Therefore, targeting Shp2 may hold therapeutic benefit for patients with FLT3-ITD+ AML.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder amongst older adults. Features of this disease include accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques, neurofibrillary tau tangles (NFT), neuroinflammation, and neurodegeneration. These result in a progressive decline in memory and executive function in patients. Anxiety-related behaviours are disparaging comorbidities of AD, but how they arise in patients remains elusive. Protein-tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) has been associated with Aβ pathology and with anxiety in separate paradigms, but whether PTP1B is involved in anxiety-related behaviours in AD mouse models is unknown. The objective of this project was to compare anxiety-related behaviours between the hAPP-J20 (Aβ pathology) and PS19 (Tau pathology) mouse models of AD and determine whether PTP1B is involved in these behaviours. Another major objective of this project was to investigate the role of PTP1B in tau pathology in the PS19 mouse model in anxiety-related brain regions, since this has not been previously examined. Using key anxiety-testing paradigms such as the elevated plus maze (EPM) and the open field test (OF), an age-based dimorphism in the onset of an inappropriately lowered anxiety response in the J20 and PS19 mouse models was identified. Furthermore, it was shown that this abnormal anti-anxiety baseline phenotype could be normalized with selective PTP1B inhibition by the drug trodusquemine and by genetic neuronal ablation. Finally, in PS19 mice at 8 months of age, it was shown that PTP1B blockade has the therapeutic effect of relieving neurotoxic phospho-tau burden and neuroinflammation. Together, these findings suggest that unleashed PTP1B may serve as a potential therapeutic target, with a possible role in AD-associated anxiety-related behaviours and AD pathology.

No description available.