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Cells from some tumors use an altered metabolic pattern compared with that of normal differentiated adult cells in the body. Tumor cells take up much more glucose and mainly process it through aerobic glycolysis, producing large quantities of secreted lactate with a lower use of oxidative phosphorylation that would generate more adenosine triphosphate (ATP), water, and carbon dioxide. This is the Warburg effect, which provides substrates for cell growth and division and free energy (ATP) from enhanced glucose use. This metabolic switch places the emphasis on producing intermediates for cell growth and division, and it is regulated by both oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes in a number of key cancer-producing pathways. Blocking these metabolic pathways or restoring these altered pathways could lead to a new approach in cancer treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although bladder cancer represents a serious health problem worldwide, relevant mouse models for investigating disease progression or therapeutic targets have been lacking. We show that combined deletion of p53 and Pten in bladder epithelium leads to invasive cancer in a novel mouse model. Inactivation of p53 and PTEN promotes tumorigenesis in human bladder cells and is correlated with poor survival in human tumors. Furthermore, the synergistic effects of p53 and Pten deletion are mediated by deregulation of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling, consistent with the ability of rapamycin to block bladder tumorigenesis in preclinical studies. Our integrated analyses of mouse and human bladder cancer provide a rationale for investigating mTOR inhibition for treatment of patients with invasive disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses five studies on tumor suppressor p53, published in "Nature." All studies have demonstrated the influence of reducing the activity of tumor suppressor p53 in mouse embryonic fibroblast on the efficiency and kinetics of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. They have show that iPS cells have similar developmental potential as embryonic stem cells. According to the author, the studies have significant implications for research on stem cells, p53 and cancer because they emphasize the function of the p53 pathway. He added that the studies linked p53 with stem cell hypothesis of cancer initiation and maintenance.

Recent studies have demonstrated abundant transcription of a set of noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) preferentially within tumors as opposed to normal tissue. Using an approach from statistical physics, we quantify global transcriptome-wide motif use for the first time, to our knowledge, in human and murine ncRNAs, determining that most have motif use consistent with the coding genome. However, an outlier subset of tumor-associated ncRNAs, typically of recent evolutionary origin, has motif use that is often indicative of pathogenassociated RNA. For instance, we show that the tumor-associated human repeat human satellite repeat II (HSATII) is enriched in motifs containing CpG dinucleotides in AU-rich contexts that most of the human genome and human adapted viruses have evolved to avoid. We demonstrate that a key subset of these ncRNAs functions as immunostimulatory "self-agonists" and directly activates cells of the mononuclear phagocytic system to produce proinflammatory cytokines. These ncRNAs arise from endogenous repetitive elements that are normally silenced, yet are often very highly expressed in cancers. We propose that the innate response in tumors may partially originate from direct interaction of immunogenic ncRNAs expressed in cancer cells with innate pattern recognition receptors, and thereby assign a previously unidentified danger-associated function to a set of dark matter repetitive elements. These findings potentially reconcile several observations concerning the role of ncRNA expression in cancers and their relationship to the tumor microenvironment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Li–Fraumeni syndrome (LFS) and its variant form (LFL) is a familial predisposition to multiple forms of childhood, adolescent, and adult cancers associated with germ-line mutation in the TP53 tumor suppressor gene. Individual disparities in tumor patterns are compounded by acceleration of cancer onset with successive generations. It has been suggested that this apparent anticipation pattern may result from germ-line genomic instability in TP53 mutation carriers, causing increased DNA copy-number variations (CNVs) with successive generations. To address the genetic basis of phenotypic disparities of LFS/LFL, we performed whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of 13 subjects from two generations of an LFS kindred. Neither de novo CNV nor significant difference in total CNV was detected in relation with successive generations or with age at cancer onset. These observations were consistent with an experimental mouse model system showing that trp53 deficiency in the germ line of father or mother did not increase CNV occurrence in the offspring. On the other hand, individual records on 1,771 TP53 mutation carriers from 294 pedigrees were compiled to assess genetic anticipation patterns (International Agency for Research on Cancer TP53 database). No strictly defined anticipation pattern was observed. Rather, in multigeneration families, cancer onset was delayed in older compared with recent generations. These observations support an alternative model for apparent anticipation in which rare variants from noncarrier parents may attenuate constitutive resistance to tumorigenesis in the offspring of TP53 mutation carriers with late cancer onset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The AKT/mammalian target of rapamycin (AKT/mTOR) and ERK MAPK signaling pathways have been shown to cooperate in prostate cancer progression and the transition to androgen-independent disease. We have now tested the effects of combinatorial inhibition of these pathways on prostate tumorigenicity by performing preclinical studies using a genetically engineered mouse model of prostate cancer. We report here that combination therapy using rapamycin, an inhibitor of mTOR, and PD0325901, an inhibitor of MAPK kinase 1 (MEK; the kinase directly upstream of ERK), inhibited cell growth in cultured prostate cancer cell lines and tumor growth particularly for androgen-independent prostate tumors in the mouse model. We further showed that such inhibition leads to inhibition of proliferation and upregulated expression of the apoptotic regulator Bcl-2-interacting mediator of cell death (Bim). Furthermore, analyses of human prostate cancer tissue microarrays demonstrated that AKT/mTOR and ERK MAPK signaling pathways are often coordinately deregulated during prostate cancer progression in humans. We therefore propose that combination therapy targeting AKT/mTOR and ERK MAPK signaling pathways may be an effective treatment for patients with advanced prostate cancer, in particular those with hormone-refractory disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mice with a homozygous p53 gene deletion develop thymic lymphomas by 9 wk of age. Using the sequence of the rearranged T-cell receptor gene from each clone of cells in the thymus, one can determine the number of independent transformation events. These tumors are oligoclonal, occurring at a frequency of 0.13-0.8 new cancer clones per day. By 20 wk only a few clones are detected, indicating competition among transformed cell clones. DNA sequencing of these tumors demonstrates a point mutation frequency of one per megabase and many genes that are consistently amplified or deleted in independent tumors. The tumors begin with an inherited p53 gene deletion. Next is a PTEN mutation in a stem cell or progenitor cell, before the rearrangement of the T-cell receptor. After that, the T-cell clone selects gene amplifications in cyclin D and cdk-6, and in Ikaros in the Notch pathway. Humans heterozygous for the p53 mutant gene in the germline (Li-Fraumeni syndrome) develop cancers at an early age. The penetrance of heterozygous p53 mutations is ~93% of individuals developing tumors over their lives. At older ages the remaining 7% of this Li-Fraumeni population actually have a lower risk of developing tumors than the population at large with wild-type p53 genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]