Cancer I & II: Lect 17 and 18 Flashcards
Cancers are of what origin?
- manifestation of mutation, usually of somatic origin.
- inherited in a mendelian fashion but may exhibit non-mendelian family clustering (multifactorial causation).
- accumulation of genetic alterations.
Tumor progression;
- normal > hyperplastic > dysplastic > neoplastic > metastatic.
- result of clonal expansion
Malignant transformation:
Survival and growth
- self sufficiency
- insensitive to growth inhib signals
- evades apoptosis
- escape immune attack
- limitless replicative potential
Metastasis
- loss of contact inhib
- loss of cell-cell adhesion
- invades other tissues
Incr. mutation rate
-breakdown in DNA repair and genomic stability
Energy supply
-sustained angiogenesis
Are cancers derived from a single cell?
- yes; monoclonal tumors.
ex: 1. all cells from cancers have same copy of the X inactivated
2. all cells in the tumor contain the abberration.
3. multiple myelomas produce monoclonal Ig.
Multiple myeloma
- malignancy of B-cell.
- all myeloma cells in a pt produce the same Ab mx. “evidence of monoclonality”
Cancer causing genes;
3 types
-imbalance of cell birth and cell death.
Oncogenes - stimulate growth.
Supressor genes - inhibit growth
Repair genes - limit mutations
Proto-oncogenes
- produce proteins which promote cell growth or prevent apoptosis.
- mutation/mis-expression = cell growth
- gain of function mutation
Tumor suppressor genes
- produce proteins that inhibit the cell cycle preventing proliferation
- loss of function mutation
Mutations in DNA repair genes
-increase the frequency of mutations in cells.
Cellular growth control
- GF bind to GF rcp trk = autophosphrylation in cytoplasmic side.
- activation of GTPase proteins which activate TF in the nucleus.
- activate gene exp to drive DNA replication.
Oncogenes
-mutant or misregulated form of proto-oncogenes.
Transmembrane proteins:
Cytoplasmic:
Nuclear:
- erbB, neu, fms, ras
- abl
- myc, fos, jun.
GF receptors:
G protein/signal transduction:
Intracellular tyrosine kinase:
Transcription factors:
- c-erbB
- c-ras
- c-abl
- c-myc, c-fos, c-jun
MAP Kinase pathway
- cell prolif pathway
- initiated by GF interacting w/ rcp
- triggers activation of kinases = phos. of ser/thr residues.
- activates gene driving cell division.
Tyrosine kinase rcp activation
- receptor trk binds to ligand sites
- dimerization and phosph. of activation lip tyrosines.
- phos. of additional tyr. residues downstream.
What renders a receptor constitutively active?
- Point mutations or truncation.
- rcp dimerizes w/o the signal and starts to activate downstream signals.
Oncogenically activate a receptor by?
- Point mutation: single AA change w/o the presence of a GF. ex: Her2 rcp
- Truncation/deletion: ErbB oncoprotein.
Oncogenic activation by translocations;
- exchange of genetic material btwn non-homologous chrom “illegitimate recombination”
- Burkitt lymphoma -> activation of myc
- Chronic Myeloid Leukemia -> activation of abl.
Burkitt lymphoma
- myc oncogene(chrom 8) is fused to Ig locus(chrom 14). (t8:14)
- oncogene expression increases as myc is under regulation of IgH promoter = incr. myc production.
- lymphocyte fail to differentiate
Bcr-Abl translocation and Chronic Myeloid Leukemia:
- Philadelphia chrom t(9;22)
- abl on chrom9 fuses to bcr region of chrom22 = unregulated cytosolic trk so abl.
Gleevec/Imatinib mesylate
- powerful trk inhibitor specific for a few TKs including Abl.
- very effective against the BCR/ABL by binding to active site.
Point Mutations
- activation of the Ras proto-oncogene
- Ras activated by binding GTP; initiates cell proliferation. It is inactivated by GTPase activity (GTP->GDP)