Fabian cancer biology slide 41-80 Flashcards

1
Q

What drug can impact the targeting of BCR/ABL?
What does this drug do?
Where does the drug fit?

A

-imatinib (Gleevac)
-it prevents tyrosine kinase to activate the BCR-Abl protein which can prevent chronic myelogenous leukemia
-it fits into the ATP binding pocket which prevents activation

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2
Q

What does imatinib do to prevent Bcr-Abl activation?
What does it prevent, what does this lead to

A

-imatinib binds to the bcr-abl pocket, competitively binds to site and inhibits the protein
-this prevents downstream binding and the substrate cannot enter kinase site, so the tumor cannot proliferate

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3
Q

What is another cellular oncogene

A

-erbb2/HER2

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4
Q

What type of signaling molcule is erbB2?
What does it respond do?
What is it also known as?

A

-Receptor Tyrosine Kinase.
* Responds to epidermal growth factor.
-aka neuro/glioblastoma derived oncogene homolog (neu)
* Aka human epidermal growth
factor receptor 2 (HER2).

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5
Q

What activates erbB2?
What can it cause when activated?

A

Dimerization activates proliferation and survival gene expression signaling pathways
-can cause signal transduction cascades when activated, on growth/proliferaiton and survival paths

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6
Q

What is an RTK example (receptor tyrosine kinase)?
where does the ectodomain protrude into?

A

RTKs (e.g. epidermal growth factor receptor, EGFR).
* Ectodomain protrudes in extracellular space to recognize and bind ligand.

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7
Q

WHere does the hydrophobic domain of RTK thread through?
Where does kinase domain sit?

A
  • Hydrophobic transmembrane domain threads through plasma membrane lipid bilayer.
  • Kinase domain sits inside cell.
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8
Q

What leads to RTK dimerization?
What can mutations result in?

A
  • Hydrophobic transmembrane domain threads through plasma membrane lipid bilayer.
  • Kinase domain sits inside cell.
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9
Q

What can RTK overexpression cause?
What type of tumor can overespression lead to?

A

-RTK overexpression (e.g. ERBB2) may cause cell to become hyper-responsive to low growth factor concentrations and/or cause ligand-independent RTK dimerization due to mass action effect.
-leads to 30% of breat adenocarcinomas

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10
Q

What does amplification of erbB2 signaling cause/

A

-amplification decreases survival rate by alot

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11
Q

What method can we use to asses gene copy number?
What should we normally see when doing FISH analysis?
WHat about when we have ERBB2 amplification?

A

-by using fluorescense in situ hybridization (FISH)
-we should see 2 copies of chromosome per cell?
-there are many copies in the cell, which is sign of breat carcinoma

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12
Q

What can we use for analysis of ERBB2/HER2+ in breast cancer cells?
What does antibody bind to get staining?
How can we see the different stages of amplification of Her2 with IHC?

A

-we use immunohistochemistry (IHC) to visualize
-antibody bind to HER2 then secondary antibody binds on top to get staining
-the staining will appear alot more dark

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13
Q

What does trazuzumab (herceptin) do?
When should this drug be given?
What is this an example of?

A

-binds to an extracellular domain of this receptor and inhibits HER2
homodimerization, thereby preventing HER2-mediated signaling
-should only be givent patients with ErbB2 amplification
-a personalize medical approach, typically given to breat cancer patients

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14
Q

What is the 3rd type of cellular oncogene?

A

Ras

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15
Q

What are the 3 types of Ras?
What type of protein is Ras, when is it active?
What can lead to Ras only being active and not turning off?

A

Three Ras genes (K-Ras, H-Ras, N-Ras).
* Is a GTP (G) protein that is
activated when bound to GTP.
-point mutation change single amino acids which can only lead to Ras activation

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16
Q

How does ras use its GTPase function?
How does it turn itself on/off?

A

It then uses it’s GTPase function to hydrolyze (cleave) GTP to GDP thereby inactivating itself.
Turns itself on and off like a light

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17
Q

What can Ras regulate?
What activates and inactivates Ras?

A

it can regulate growth, survival and proliferation
-GAP inactivates Ras into its GDP form
-GEF activates Ras into its GTP form

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18
Q

What is the most highly mutated gene in cancer?
What turns Ras from a protooncogen to an oncogene?
What type of feedback does the oncogene inactivate

A

-ras, the mutation is typically missense (causing point mutations along the way)
-Missense mutations in G12 and 61 turn Ras from a proto-oncogene into an oncogene.
* Lead to GTPase negative-feedback mechanism being
inactivated

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19
Q

What type of cancers are Ras mutations found in, what are some mutated Ras genes?
what causes this?

A

-Mutated RAS genes (KRAS, HRAS, NRAS) are found in many cancers, in particular 50% of colorectal cancers and 95% of pancreatic cancers
-Ras point mutation

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20
Q

What do proto oncogene function to regulate?
What do alterations that upregulate their expression lead to?
What do oncogenes drive?

A

Proto-oncogenes function to regulate normal cell proliferation and differentiation.
-Alterations that upregulate their expression or mutations that alter their structure can lead to overly active growth-promoting genes, which appear in cancer cells as activated oncogenes

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21
Q

What do oncogenes drive?

A

once formed, oncogenes drive cell proliferation
and play a central role in the pathogenesis of
cancer.

22
Q

What is a tumor supressor gene?

A

A gene that when inactivated or lost leads to an increase in the selective growth advantage of the cell in which it resides (e.g. Rb and p53)

23
Q

How does retinoblastoma arise?
When is it diagnosed/

A

Arises from photoreceptor cell precursors in 1 in 20,000 children.
* Diagnosed from birth to 8 years of age

24
Q

What can diagnosed people with no family history vs people who have family history have affected?

A

-Diagnosed children with no family history (Sporadic form) can have single tumor in one eye, with radiation and surgery generally being effective.
-Diagnosed children with family history (familial form) often have multiple foci of tumors in both eyes (bilateral retinoblastoma).

25
Q

What does bilateral retinoblastoma increase?
-what do children with retinoblastoma have ahigher risk of

A

-increases risk of cancer spreading
-While radiation/surgery can treat bilateral retinoblastoma, these children have higher risk of bone cancers (osteosarcomas) as well as other tumors later in life.

26
Q

What is the knudson 2 hit hypothesis?
What is a hit?

A

rate of appearance of familial was consistent with one random
event, whereas sporadic was consistent with two random events.–a hit is a mutation event that affects DNA

27
Q

What is the quiescent state?

A

-when cells decide not to replicate but are still metabolically active

28
Q

what is the restriction point in the cell cycle?
What is Rb?

A

restriction (R) point denotes the point in time when the cell must make the commitment to advance through the remainder of the cell cycle through M phase, to remain in G1, or to retreat from the active cell cycle into G0
–it is the cell cycle gate keeper

29
Q

What type of protein is Rb?
What can Rb act as?

A

-nuclear protein that can be phosphorylated by a number of mitogenic signaling pathways.
* Rb acts as a transcriptional repressor that determines if cells will enter S phase.

30
Q

What is the phosphorylation level in early/mid G1? In late g1? and in S phase?

A

-early/mid G1 is slightly phosphor.
-late G1 is very phosphor. which allows the cell cycle to proceed
-in S phase there is no E2F2/E2F1

31
Q

What is the mitogenic pathway and transcription factors?
What is an example of transcription factor?

A

Mitogenic pathways: pathways that regulate/stimulate mitosis.
Transcription factors: proteins involved in the process of converting, or transcribing, DNA into RNA
-E2f is a TF

32
Q

What happens if cells are no phoshphor in the cell cycle?
What happens if the cells are phosphor.?

A

-they cant bind transcription factors
-it can bind TF and doesnt bind E2F2 to go into S phase

33
Q

What happens in familial retinoblastoma?
What does the first somatic mutation event lead to in familial retinoblastoma?
what does bilateral retinoblastoma lead to more of?

A

-you are born with one mutant copy of Rb already, so the first hit has already occured
-you get 2 mutant Rb gene copies which leads to loss of heterozygosity (LOH)
-tumors will pop up quicker and will most likelt have bilateral and cancers outside of the eye

34
Q

How many mutations do you need to have 2 mutant Rb copies in sporadic retinoblastoma?

A

-you need 2 somatic mutations to have loss of hetereozygosity in sporadic retino.

35
Q

What can many familial cancers be explained by?
-What does early stage cancer find ways to eliminate, by doing what?

A

-Many familial cancers can be explained by inheritance of
mutant tumor suppressor genes.
* Early stage cancer cells find ways to eliminate wild-type copies of TSGs (e.g. mitotic recombination can lead to LOH)

36
Q

in what phase can loss of wild type copies of tumor suppressor genes be done?

A

-Can occur during G2 phase of the cell cycle.
– Subsequent segregation of chromatics may yield a pair daughter cells that have undergone LOH

37
Q

What are some of the mechanisms of LOH and inactivation of TSG?

A

-

38
Q

What can chromatin do?

A

-chromatin can come in and transcribe genes

39
Q

What is heterochromatin and euchromatin?
What is methylation used for?

A

-heterochromatin is transcriptionally silent and can be caused by DNA methylation
-euchromatin is transcriptionally active and does not have lots of methlation and RNA pol can bind+transcribe
-methylation is used for genetic control

40
Q

what can lead to TSG inactivation?
What is this an example of?
What does epigentic mean?
What does hypermethylation cause?

A

-Promoter methylation can lead to TSG inactivation without mutation.
* Example of EPIGENETIC SILENCING
-control gene activity without changing the DNA sequence
-it causes inactivation of TSG which is a property of tumoral cells

41
Q

What does promoter methylation lead to?
What does DNMT1 and DNMT3b cooperate to do?

A

Promoter methylation can lead to TSG inactivation without
mutation
-it silences genes in human cancer cells

42
Q

What does 5-methylcytosine cause?
What can prevent DNA methylation?
What does high levels of DNMT3B (methyltransferase) causes

A

-causes inactivation when it is in DNA
-azacitibine and decitabine
-the more that is present the more aggressive the cancers

43
Q

What does p53 regulate?
What leads to p53 stabilization?
what does p53 form to function?

A

regulates cell cycle control, and it is relatively unstable
-DNA damage and dysregulated growth signals lead to p53 stabilization.
p53 forms a homotetramer to function

44
Q

What does p53 function as?
What do p53 targets include?

A

-Functions as a transcription factor that halts cell cycle.
p53 target genes include growth arrest genes, DNA repair genes, regulators of apoptosis

45
Q

What does cell cycle arrest lead to?
What does p53 not follow?

A

senescense or return to proliferation
-does not follow the knudson-2 hit model

46
Q

What is tumor suppressor (TSG) haploinsuffiency?

A

-when one gene is not enough becasue loss of single TSG allele yields to abnormal phenotypes

47
Q

What does dominant negative mean?
When does this usually occur?

A

A mutation whose gene product adversely affects the normal, wild-type gene product within the same cell .
-This usually occurs if the product can still interact with the same elements as the wild-type product, but block some aspect of its function

48
Q

What does p53 work as?
What happens when one unit of p53 is mutated?
What does mutant p53 normally carry?

A

-p53 normally works as a tetramer.
-if you have one unit thay is mutant, it will affect the whole tetramer (dominant negative)
* mutant p53 found in many human tumors usually carries amino acid substitutions in its DNA-binding domain.

49
Q

What do TSG regulate?
What is the theme that unites the TSG mechanisms?
What does TSG act as?

A

TSGs regulate cell proliferation through many mechanisms
-Only theme that unites them is the fact that the loss of any one of them increases a cell’s selective growth advantage.
-acts as the gatekeepers

50
Q

What does TSG loss usually affect, and when?

A

-Tumor suppressor gene loss usually affects cell
phenotype only when both copies of such a gene are lost (although there are exceptions)

51
Q

What type of pharmocoligical approach would you use to target tumor suppressor gene mutants?

A

would use a synthetic lethal approach to killing cancer cells

52
Q

what is the concept of synthetic lethality?
What was it developed from?

A

-the combined effects of two alleles, each of which is nonlethal but which, when acting in combination, result in lethality (when there are 2 mutants)
-developed from genetic studies in model organisms (yeast, fruit flies)