Ubiquitin in Medical News

Blocking molecular pathway with whimsical name possible therapeutic target for pancreatic cancer

... SINA produces a family of RING domain E3 ubiquitin ligases. In all creatures, ubiquitin ligases turn cell pathways on or off by degrading proteins. In humans, the SIAH ubiquitin ligases sit smack in the middle of the molecular ...

Penn scientists find a protein that inhibits Ebola from reaching out to infect neighboring cells

... host proteins such as tsg101 and Nedd4, an E3 ubiquitin ligase. ubiquitin itself is thought to be exploited by Ebola virus ... demonstrated that ISG15 interacts with Nedd4 ubiquitin ligase and inhibits ubiquitination of VP40, thus ...

Quality control mechanism tags defective sperm cells inside the body

... without a tag. A small protein called ubiquitin marks abnormal sperm cells, including cells that ... optimal chance of fertilization. High levels of ubiquitin in the sperm can indicate low-sperm count or ... In many cases, the cells that are tagged with ubiquitin are obviously abnormal with two tails or two ...

Cancer stem cell marker also drives transcription in normal cells

... that the newly identified subunits work together to remove the ubiquitin moiety from monoubiquitylated histone H2B, similarly to what has been previously described in yeast, but also remove the ubiquitin moiety from monoubiquitylated histone H2A. The latter modification is not ...

JCI table of contents: Sept. 4, 2007

... fibers. Furthermore, in slow fibers, class II HDACs were degraded by the ubiquitin proteasome system such that slow fiber identity was maintained. In the ... cardiomyopathy because degradation of their sarcomere proteins by the ubiquitin proteasome system was reduced. Inhibitors of MuRF proteins have been ...

Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation awards prestigious fellowships to 17 top young scientists

... St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, is studying how cell division is regulated, in part, by the attachment of a protein called ubiquitin to other proteins throughout the cell. Understanding how ubiqutin is attached to its targets and how this attachment is recognized by cellular ...

Protein that suppresses androgen receptors could improve prostate cancer diagnosis, treatment

... expression and activity went down. βarrestin2 locks up an androgen receptor by binding to it, then the pair bind to yet another protein, ubiquitin ligase, which tags the receptor as waste and the trio make their way to the cell's garbage dump. "The neat thing about it is βarrestin2 inhibits ...

Penn Medicine, CHOP researchers demonstrate first common genetic risk factors for autism

... deleted or duplicated genes along two major central nervous system gene networks in children with autism spectrum disorders. The changes were on the ubiquitin pathway, which is responsible for regulating synaptic operations and nervous system development. One ubiquitin-related gene studied, UBE3A, was ...

Gene helps protect tumor suppressor in breast cancer

... is destroyed when it is bound by the enzyme NEDD4-1, which attaches targeting molecules called ubiquitins that mark PTEN for destruction by the ubiquitin proteasome complex. Lin and colleagues showed that Rak saves PTEN from degradation by attaching a phosphate group to the protein, blocking ...

Proteasome inhibition affects epigenetic mechanisms

... and Western blot analysis were performed using isolated nuclei. They found that chronic ethanol feeding caused a significant inhibition of the ubiquitin proteasome pathway in the nucleus, which led to changes in the turnover of transcriptional factors, histone modifying enzymes, and, therefore, ...

JCI table of contents: Nov. 8, 2007

... muscle damage and that inhibiting atrogin-1 function might protect against this unwanted side effect of statins. TITLE: The muscle-specific ubiquitin ligase atrogin-1/MAFbx mediates statin-induced muscle toxicity AUTHOR CONTACT: Stewart H. Lecker, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, ...

JCI table of contents: Oct. 25, 2007

... by inducing their ubiquitylation a process whereby the function of a protein is modified by being tagged with a very small, protein known as ubiquitin at a specific amino acid, lysine 63. TITLE: Atrogin-1 inhibits Akt-dependent cardiac hypertrophy in mice via ubiquitin-dependent coactivation of ...

Advances in drug screening: building a better haystack for the needles of tomorrow

... Medicine, The James Birrell and Lilah Funds for Neuroblastoma Research, and the Sick Kids Foundation. Identification of inhibitors for MDM2 ubiquitin ligase activity from natural products by a novel high throughput electrochemiluminescent screen: Abstract C 55. Scientists laboring intensively ...

Cellular System Causing Destruction Of Faulty Proteins In Cystic Fibrosis Identified

... identified by the Cyr group are two different ubiquitin ligases, proteins that specifically recognize ... with a degradation signal known as ubiquitin. The ubiquitin tag tells the cell to destroy the marked CFTR, a ... the proteasome. This trash system is known as the ubiquitin proteasome pathway. "We've identified the ...

Understanding HIV Interference With Infected Cell Division

... Ubiquitination is a mechanism by which a small protein called ubiquitin is conjugated to cellular proteins in order to modulate their biological ... association of Vpr with this ubiquitinating complex, also called an E3 ubiquitin ligase complex, is essential for the defect in cell division induced by ...

Protein Targets for Carcinogenesis

... Misfolded and disused proteins are eliminated by a cellular shredder called the proteasome. The cell labels the proteins it wants to dispose with ubiquitin (Ub) in order to avoid the unwanted degradation of still needed proteins. Malfunctions in the ubiquitin-proteasome system can be fatal for the ...

Scientists Identify New Breast Cancer Gene

... fix DNA damage," he adds. The researchers say that Rap80 enables BRCA1 to be recruited to sites of damage by binding to specific types of the ubiquitin protein, which is tightly bound to DNA. Since BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations account for less than 50 per cent of inherited breast cancer, boffins ...

Researchers Find Two Biomarkers With Potential to Predict Breast Cancer Spread

... beta-10, a peptide that has already been associated with out-of-control growth and cell differentiation, and that 8,596 Da could represent an ubiquitin protein associated with a good prognosis in node-negative breast cancer. “Protein peaks found in our study may be useful as prognostic ...

Enzyme supply may improve Alzheimer’s condition.

... people with Alzheimer’s, when comes in contact with healthy brain cells results in a decrease of the enzyme responsible for protein disposal called ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1 (Uch-L1). This results in disruption of protein disposal and hence, they got accumulated in the brain cells of the ...

Gene Responsible For Metastasis Found By Korean Scientists

... of new drugs for various cancers. The study was mainly conducted on mice and the research team found that a carrier protein called E2-EPF ubiquitin is responsible for the cancer cells to metastasize. This protein facilitates the cancer cells to multiply and metastasize to different areas ...

Role Of Estrogen In Breast-Cancer

... proteins fell to 20 percent of normal, the level of N-CoR's messenger RNA went untouched. The reduction of N-CoR followed an up regulation of the ubiquitin ligase Siah2, an enzyme that targets certain proteins for degradation. This "secondary effect" may have broad implications for other important ...