Neoplasias malignas das glândulas salivares são lesões raras e o mecanismo pelo qual esses tumores progridem ainda não está completamente esclarecido na literatura. A galectina-3 é uma proteína multifuncional expressa em uma grande quantidade de tecidos normais, mas que também tem sido associada à progressão tumoral de neoplasias malignas da tireóide, próstata e neoplasias gástricas. Estudos prévios demonstraram que a galectina-3 está também expressa em algumas neoplasias malignas das glândulas salivares como carcinoma adenóide cístico e adenocarcinoma polimorfo de baixo grau de malignidade. Recentemente foi sugerido que a superexpressão da galectina-3 controla alterações nos níveis de expressão de alguns reguladores do ciclo celular, dentre eles a ciclina D1. Além disso, outros estudos revelaram que a ciclina D1 é ativada pela -catenina de uma maneira dependente da galectina-3. O objetivo desse trabalho foi comparar a marcação imunoistoquímica nuclear e / ou citoplasmática da galectina-3 no carcinoma adenóide cístico e adenocarcinoma polimorfo de baixo grau tentando relacioná-la à marcação da -catenina e ciclina D1. Foram realizadas reações de imunoistoquímica para as três proteínas em 15 casos de carcinoma adenóide cístico e em 15 casos de adenocarcinoma polimorfo de baixo grau utilizando-se material parafinado. Para a galectina-3 os carcinomas adenóides císticos apresentaram marcação imunoistoquímica apenas nas células luminais, predominantemente no núcleo. Todos os casos de adenocarcinoma polimorfo de baixo grau revelaram uma marcação predominantemente citoplasmática para essa proteína. Ambos os tumores exibiram intensa marcação citoplasmática e/ou nuclear para a -catenina na maioria dos casos. Não houve imunorreatividade para a ciclina D1 em 14/15 casos de adenocarcinoma polimorfo de baixo grau. Em contraste, os carcinomas adenóides císticos revelaram marcação nuclear específica para a ciclina D1 em 10 de 15 casos estudados em mais de 5% das células neoplásicas e essa marcação estava associada à marcação citoplasmática e nuclear da galectina-3 (p<0,05). Esses resultados sugerem que nos carcinomas adenóides císticos a expressão da galectina-3 pode exercer uma função de proliferação celular e parece estar relacionada à diferenciação celular no adenocarcinoma polimorfo de baixo grau. Além disso, a perda de expressão da galectina-3 no carcinoma adenóide cístico pode estar associada a um comportamento clínico mais agressivo dessa lesão. Embora a -catenina pareça exercer algum papel no mecanismo de carcinogênese dessas duas lesões, ela não parece se ligar à galectina-3 para ativar a ciclina D1. / Salivary gland tumors are uncommon and the mechanism by which malignant tumors progresses is still undefined. In a previous study it was shown that galectin-3 is expressed in malignant salivary gland neoplasms as adenoid cystic carcinoma and polymorphous low-grade adenocarcinoma. Galectin-3 is a multifunctional protein of a group of galactoside-binding lectins expressed in a variety of normal cells, but also has been implicated in tumor progression of some malignancies as thyroid, prostate and gastric cancers. Recently, it has been suggested that galectin-3 may be an important mediator of the -catenin/Wnt pathway. Moreover, nuclear galectin-3 expression has been implicated in cell proliferation, promoting cyclin D1 activation. Thus, in the present study we aimed to correlate galectin-3 expression, either nuclear or cytoplasmic, with the expression of -catenin (nuclear/cytoplasmic) and cyclin D1 (nuclear) in 15 cases of adenoid cystic carcinoma and in 15 cases of polymorphous low-grade adenocarcinoma. For galectin-3, adenoid cystic carcinomas showed specific staining only in luminal cells, mainly in the nuclei. In the cases of polymorphous low-grade adenocarcinoma, all tumor cells revealed a positive, mostly cytoplasmic, reaction to galectin-3. Both tumors showed intense cytoplasmic/nuclear staining for -catenin in the majority of cases. Cyclin D1 immunoreactivity was not detected in 14 of the 15 polymorphous low-grade adenocarcinomas studied. In contrast, adenoid cystic carcinomas showed specific nuclear staining for cyclin D1 in 10 of 15 cases studied in more than 5% of the neoplastic cells. Cyclin D1 expression was correlated with cytoplasmic and nuclear galectin-3 expression in adenoid cystic carcinomas (p<0,05). These results suggest that in adenoid cystic carcinoma galectin-3 may play a role in cellular proliferation through cyclin D1 activation. In polymorphous low-grade adenocarcinoma gal-3 expression seems to be associated with cellular differentiation. In addition, loss of cytoplasmic expression of galectin-3 in adenoid cystic carcinomas may be related to a more aggressive behavior of these lesions. Although -catenin seems to play a role in carcinogenesis, in both lesions, it seems that it does not bind to galectin-3 for cyclin D1 stimulation.

No Brasil, como no mundo, o carcinoma epidermóide bucal está entre os dez tipos mais comum de câncer e acomete mais de 13 mil pessoas por ano. Apesar de ser um sério problema devido a sua morbidade e mortalidade, alguns casos desta doença têm um comportamento biológico menos agressivo. A proteína ciclina D1, depois que forma complexos com as proteínas CDK4 e CDK6, tem como principal função fosforilar a proteína Retinoblastoma. Após sua fosforilação, a proteína libera um fator de transcrição, o E2F, que leva a célula à progressão da fase G1 para fase S do ciclo celular. A proteína c-jun, que faz parte do fator de transcrição AP-1, tem participação ativa no ciclo celular, principalmente durante a transcrição da fase G0 a G1. O gene retinoblastoma é um supressor de tumor. Este gene codifica uma fosfoproteína nuclear, que recebe o mesmo nome. Essa proteína regula o ciclo celular através de múltiplas funções. Também regula outros processos que afetam a proliferação celular, a diferenciação terminal e a apoptose. O HPV é um vírus de DNA que é encontrado em vários tipos de câncer e é o principal agente etiológico do carcinoma de colo uterino. Este trabalho comparou a expressão das proteínas ciclina D1, c-jun e do retinoblastoma em carcinomas epidermóides de baixo e alto grau de malignidade e tentou analisar se o HPV é um fator etiológico desta neoplasia. Apesar das lesões de baixo grau de malignidade expressarem as proteínas num maior número de células que as lesões de alto grau, só houve diferença estatística, entre os dois grupos estudados, para a proteína do retinoblastoma. Não foi encontrado o DNA do HPV em nenhum dos casos estudados. De acordo com este trabalho e com a literatura, a proteína do retinoblastoma é expressa em um número menor de células em carcinomas epidermóides bucais mais agressivos e o HPV não é um agente etiológico de todos os casos desta doença / In Brazil, as in the world, the oral squamous cell carcinoma is among the ten more common types of cancer e affects more than 13 thousand of people by year. Even though it is a serious problem due to its morbidity and mortality, some cases of this disease have a less aggressive biological behavior. The cyclin D1 protein after it forms complexes with the CDK4 and CDK6 proteins has as main function phosphorylate the Retinoblastoma protein. After its prosphorylation, the protein releases a transcription factor, the E2F, that leads the cell to the progression from the phase G1 to the phase S of the cell cycle. The c-jun protein, that is part of the transcription factor AP-1, has active participation in the cell cycle, mainly during the transcription from the phase G0 to G1. The retinoblastoma gene is a tumour suppressor. This gene codifies a nuclear phosphoprotein that receives the same name. This protein regulates the cell cycle through multiple functions. It also regulates other processes that affect the cell proliferation, the terminal differentiation and apoptosis. The HPV is a DNA virus that is found in many types of cancer and is the main etiological agent of the cervical cancer. This study compared the protein expression of the cilin D1, c-jun and retinoblastoma in low and high grade squamous cell carcinoma and tried to analyze if the HPV is a etiological factor for this neoplasm. In spite of the low grade of malignancy lesions express the protein in a greater number of cells than in the high grade lesion, there only was statistical difference, among the two studied groups, for the retinoblastoma protein. It was not found DNA of the HPV in any of the studied cases. According with this study and with the literature the retinoblastoma protein is expressed in a lower number of cells in the more aggressive oral squamous cell carcinomas and the HPV is not the etiological agent in all of the cases of this disease.

Els oòcits de vertebrats es troben aturats a la profase I de la primera meiosi (PI). Durant el procés anomenat oogènesi, els oòctits sintetitzen i emmagatzemen grans quantitats d'ARN missatgers(ARNm)que els seran necessaris per la compleció de la meiosi.I,per posteriorment, aturar-se de nou a la metafase de la segona divisió meiòtica (MII) per l'activitat del factor citostàtic(CSF).D'aquestes divisions en destaca el fet que transcorren en absència de transcripció, i per tant depenen totalment en l'activació traduccional dels ARNm anteriorment esmentats que han estat acumulats durant l'oogènesi. L'activació traduccional d'aquests missatgers és principalment induïda per l'elongació de les cues d'adenines(cues de poli(A)), aquest procés és mediat per les seqüències de poliadenilació citoplasmàtiques (CPE)presents a la regió 3' no tradudïda (3'UTR)dels ARNm. El moment i la longitud de la poliadenilació dels ARNm que contenen CPEs estan finament regulats, de manera que en combinació amb la degradació de proteïnes, s'estableixen els patrons específics d'expresió de les proteïnes que condueixen la meiosi (Shmitt et al., 2002; de Moor and Richter, 1997; Ballantyne et al., 1997; Mendez et al., 2002; Charlesworth et al., 2002). Fins a la data, no s'havia descrit que la deadenilació (escurçament de la cua de poli(A)) fos necessària per la progressió meiòtica. En aquesta tesi s'ha descrit, a partir d'un cribatge d'abast genòmic, una ruta de retroalimentació negativa requerida per a la sortida de la primera metafase meiòtica. La nova ruta identificada, a més té la particularitat d'actuar a nivell traduccional regulant l'expressió de proteïnes que participen directament en la progressió meiòtica. L'element central d'aquesta nova ruta és la proteïna C3H-4, que a la vegada és regulada per poliadenilació citoplasmàtica. C3H-4 crea la retroalimentació negativa interaccionant amb elements ARE de les regions 3'UTR, promovent la deadenilació del ARNm al qual s'uneix. D'entre les seves dianes hem identificat Emi1 i Emi2, ambdós reguladors de l'activitat de l'APC/C, crítica per la divisió cel·lular.

Le cancer, qui est la deuxième cause de mortalité en France, est aujourd'hui un problème de santé publique majeur et fait l'objet de multiples recherches. De nombreuses molécules ont été synthétisées dans l'optique de trouver des médicaments plus efficaces, plus sélectifs et surtout présentant moins d'effets secondaires. Parmi ces molécules se trouve la famille des indolocarbazoles, dont la rébeccamycine et la staurosporine sont les représentants les plus connus. Les relations structure-activité (RSA) de cette famille ont été étudiées.<br />Dans le cadre de la recherche de nouveaux agents cytotoxiques et d'inhibiteurs de kinases toujours plus sélectifs, la structure principale des phénylcarbazoles, appartenant à la famille des indolocarbazoles, a été modifiée par introduction d'une tropone centrale, cycle à 7 chaînons porteur d'une fonction carbonyle. Les différentes voies de synthèse permettant d'accéder à cette nouvelle famille de composés appelés oxophénylarcyriaflavines ont été étudiées. La méthode de choix retenue pour l'étape finale de la synthèse est la cyclisation électrophile en position 2 de l'indole. Cette synthèse a ensuite été généralisée aux composés substitués par des groupements hydroxyles en position 5 de l'indole d'une part et en position 4' et 5' du noyau phényle d'autre part. Les 17 molécules finales ainsi synthétisées ont subi divers tests biologiques permettant d'établir les RSA de cette nouvelle famille de composés. Finalement, la méthodologie mise au point pour les oxophénylarcyriaflavines a été étendue à la synthèse de la toute première famille de composés bisindoliques possédant également une tropone centrale.

The focus of this research was to investigate the role of protein kinase C-iota (PKC-é) in the regulation of Bad function, a pro-apoptotic member of the Bcl-2 family and Cdk7 function, a master cell cycle regulator in glioblastoma. The results were obtained from the human glial tumor derived cell lines, T98G and U87MG. In these cells, PKC-é co-localized and directly associated with Bad as shown by immunofluorescence, immunoprecipitation, and Western blotting. Furthermore, in-vitro kinase activity assay showed that PKC-é directly phosphorylated Bad at phospho specific residues, S112, S136 and S155 which in turn induced inactivation of Bad and disruption of the Bad/Bcl-XL dimer. Knockdown of PKC-é by siRNA exhibited a corresponding reduction in Bad phosphorylation suggesting that PKC-é may be a Bad kinase. Since, PKC-é is an essential downstream mediator of the PI (3)-kinase, we hypothesize that glioma cell survival is mediated via a PI (3)-kinase/PDK1/PKC-é/Bad pathway. Treatment with PI(3)-kinase inhibitors Wortmannin and LY294002, as well as PDK1 siRNA, inhibited PKC-é activity and subsequent phosphorylation of Bad suggesting that PKC-é regulates the activity of Bad in a PI (3)-kinase dependent manner. Robust expression of PKC-é is a hallmark of human glioma and benign and malignant meningiomas, however, little is understood about its role in glioma cell proliferation. The cyclin dependent kinase activating kinase complex (CAK), comprises of cyclin dependent kinase 7 (Cdk7), cyclin H and MAT1, is the master cell regulator. Cdk7 phosphorylates its downstream cyclin dependent kinases (cdks) and promotes cell proliferation. Results show that PKC-é directly associated and phosphorylated Cdk7 at T170. Furthermore, Cdk7 phosphorylated its downstream target, cyclin dependent kinase 2 (cdk2) at T160. Purified PKC-é was also observed to phosphorylate endogenous as well as exogenous Cdk7. PKC-é knockdown with siRNA, PDK1 siRNA and (PI) 3-kinase inhibitors, Wortmannin and LY294002 treatment exhibited corresponding reduction in phosphorylation of Cdk7 and subsequently cdk2. In addition, PKC-é knockdown reduced cell proliferation; led to cell cycle arrest and also induced apoptosis. Thus, these findings suggest the presence of a novel PI (3)-kinase/PKC-é/BAD mediated cell survival and PI (3)-kinase/PKC-é/Cdk7 mediated cell proliferation pathway.

Ischemic stroke occurs as a result of a lack or severe reduction of blood supply to the brain. Presently therapeutic interventions are limited and there is a need to develop new and efficacious stroke treatments. To this end, a great deal of research effort has been devoted to studying the potential molecular mechanisms involved in ischemic neuronal death. Correlative evidence demonstrated a paradoxical activation of the cell cycle machinery in ischemic neurons. The levels and activity of key cell cycle regulators including cyclin D1, Cdk2 and Cdk4 are upregulated following ischemic insults. However, the functional relevance of these various signals following ischemic injury was unclear. Accordingly, the research described in this thesis address the functional relevance of the activation of the cell cycle machinery in ischemic neuronal death. The data indicate that the inhibition of Cdk4 protects neurons from ischemia-induced delayed death, whereas abrogation of Cdk5 activity prevents excitotoxicity-induced damage in vitro and in vivo. Examination of upstream activators of mitotic-Cdks showed that Cdc25A is a critical mediator of delayed ischemic neuronal death. Investigation of the potential molecular mechanism by which cell cycle regulators induced neuronal death revealed perturbations in the levels and activity of key downstream targets of Cdk4. The retinoblastoma protein family members, pRb and p130 are increasingly phosphorylated following ischemic stresses. Importantly, p130 and E2F4 proteins are drastically reduced following ischemic insults. Additionally, E2F1 association with promoters of pro-apoptotic genes are induced while that of E2F4 is reduced. These changes appear to be important determinants in ischemic neuronal death. Cumulatively, the data supports the activation of the cell cycle machinery as a pathogenic signal contributing to ischemic neuronal death. The development of neuroprotectant strategies for stroke has been hampered in part by its complex pathophysiology. Previous research indicated that flavopiridol, a general CDK-inhibitor, is unable to provide sustained neuroprotection beyond one week following cerebral ischemia. The potential benefit of combining flavopiridol with another neuroprotectant, minocycline, was explored. The data indicate that while this approach provided histological protection 10 weeks after insult, the protected neurons are not functional due to progressive dendritic degeneration. This evidence indicates that targeting cell cycle pathways in stroke while important must be combined with other therapeutic modalities to fully treat stroke-induced damage.

La quantité de données générée dans le cadre d'étude à grande échelle du réseau d'interaction protéine-protéine dépasse notre capacité à les analyser et à comprendre leur sens; d'une part, par leur complexité et leur volume, et d'un autre part, par la qualité du jeu de donnée produit qui semble bondé de faux positifs et de faux négatifs. Cette dissertation décrit une nouvelle méthode de criblage des interactions physique entre protéines à haut débit chez Saccharomyces cerevisiae, la complémentation de fragments protéiques (PCA). Cette approche est accomplie dans des cellules intactes dans les conditions natives des protéines; sous leur promoteur endogène et dans le respect des contextes de modifications post-traductionnelles et de localisations subcellulaires. Une application biologique de cette méthode a permis de démontrer la capacité de ce système rapporteur à répondre aux questions d'adaptation cellulaire à des stress, comme la famine en nutriments et un traitement à une drogue. Dans le premier chapitre de cette dissertation, nous avons présenté un criblage des paires d'interactions entre les protéines résultant des quelques 6000 cadres de lecture de Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Nous avons identifié 2770 interactions entre 1124 protéines. Nous avons estimé la qualité de notre criblage en le comparant à d'autres banques d'interaction. Nous avons réalisé que la majorité de nos interactions sont nouvelles, alors que le chevauchement avec les données des autres méthodes est large. Nous avons pris cette opportunité pour caractériser les facteurs déterminants dans la détection d'une interaction par PCA. Nous avons remarqué que notre approche est sous une contrainte stérique provenant de la nécessité des fragments rapporteurs à pouvoir se rejoindre dans l'espace cellulaire afin de récupérer l'activité observable de la sonde d'interaction. L'intégration de nos résultats aux connaissances des dynamiques de régulations génétiques et des modifications protéiques nous dirigera vers une meilleure compréhension des processus cellulaires complexes orchestrés aux niveaux moléculaires et structuraux dans les cellules vivantes. Nous avons appliqué notre méthode aux réarrangements dynamiques opérant durant l'adaptation de la cellule à des stress, comme la famine en nutriments et le traitement à une drogue. Cette investigation fait le détail de notre second chapitre. Nous avons déterminé de cette manière que l'équilibre entre les formes phosphorylées et déphosphorylées de l'arginine méthyltransférase de Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Hmt1, régulait du même coup sont assemblage en hexamère et son activité enzymatique. L'activité d'Hmt1 a directement un impact dans la progression du cycle cellulaire durant un stress, stabilisant les transcrits de CLB2 et permettant la synthèse de Cln3p. Nous avons utilisé notre criblage afin de déterminer les régulateurs de la phosphorylation d'Hmt1 dans un contexte de traitement à la rapamycin, un inhibiteur de la kinase cible de la rapamycin (TOR). Nous avons identifié la sous-unité catalytique de la phosphatase PP2a, Pph22, activé par l'inhibition de la kinase TOR et la kinase Dbf2, activé durant l'entrée en mitose de la cellule, comme la phosphatase et la kinase responsable de la modification d'Hmt1 et de ses fonctions de régulations dans le cycle cellulaire. Cette approche peut être généralisée afin d'identifier et de lier mécanistiquement les gènes, incluant ceux n'ayant aucune fonction connue, à tout processus cellulaire, comme les mécanismes régulant l'ARNm. / The quantity of data generated within the framework of protein-protein interaction network large-scale studies exceeds our capacity to analyze them and to understand their meaning; on one hand, by their complexity and their number, and on the other hand, by the quality of the produced data, which are populated with spurious interactions. This dissertation describes new applications of a protein-fragments complementation assay (PCA) to screen for interactions among all proteins in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This approach is carried out in intact cells, with proteins expressed in their native contexts and under their endogenous promoter, thus assuring correct post-translational modifications and subcellular localization. A further novel application of PCA is described for investigating proteome wide changes in response to cellular adaptation to stresses, such as nutrient starvations and drug treatments. Finally, as a result of the latter strategy applied to characterizing proteome-wide response to the immunosuppressant drug, rapamycin, I describe the discovery of an unforeseen mechanism of modulating cell cycle progression through control of cyclin mRNA stability. In the first chapter of this dissertation, I present a pairwise screen of interactions among proteins resulting from the ~6000 open reading frames in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We identified 2770 interactions among 1124 proteins. We estimated the quality of our screen by comparing our results to curated gold standard data and coverage of known interactions to all previous studies. The majority of our interactions were novel, but overlap with data from previous studies was as high as 40%. PCA is based on refolding of the reporter protein from complementary N- and C- terminal fragments following interaction of the two proteins to which they are fused. Thus, reporter activity is sterrically limited to interactions in which the termini of the proteins to which the complementary reporter fragments are fused are sufficiently close in space. In the case of our reporter, this limit was 8 nm. Thus PCA is a molecular ruler, providing information on both direct protein-protein interactions and sterrically restricted distances between proteins in complexes. We benchmarked and demonstrated correct topological relationships for a number of known complexes, including the proteasome, RNA polymerase II and the nuclear pore complex. Thus our study provided, for the first time, a topological map of complex organization in a living cell. The integration of the results from such efforts with those of gene regulation dynamics and protein modifications will lead to a fuller understanding of how complex cellular processes are orchestrated at a molecular and structural level in the living cell. In chapter 2, I describe the results of an application of PCA to study the dynamic rearrangement of the proteome under a specific stress; treatment of cells with rapamycin. The results of these efforts were the identification of a novel mechanism of cell cycle control at the level of cyclin mRNA. Specifically, we discovered that the balance between the phosphorylated and dephosphorylated forms of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae arginine methyltransferase, Hmt1, regulates both its assembly into a hexamer and its enzymatic activity. The Hmt1 activity modulates cell cycle progression through stabilizing the B cyclin CLB2 mRNA. We then used PCA to identify the Hmt1 regulators under rapamycin treatment. We identified the catalytic subunit of the PP2a phosphatase, Pph22, activated by the inhibition of TOR, and the kinase Dbf2, activated during entry into mitosis, as the phosphatase and the kinase responsible for the modification of Hmt1 and for its regulatory functions in the cell cycle. I thus, in the end close the circle I began in this summary, going from large-scale discovery of protein-protein interactions, to mapping dynamics of proteome changes during an adaptation and finally to mechanistic insight into a primordial control mechanism in cellular dynamics. The strategies that we devised to discover this mechanism can be generalized to identify and mechanistically link genes together, including those of unknown function, to any cellular process.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2005. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--University of South Florida, 2006. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 166-187). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed Feb. 18, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.