Molecular assays for detection of ras oncogenes in human and animal tumors.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to E Santos.
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A human transforming gene present in T24 bladder carcinoma cells has been molecularly cloned. The transforming sequences have been located within a 4.6 kilo base pair (kbp) DNA fragment that transforms NIH/3T3 cells with a specific activity of 5 X 10(4) focus-forming units/pmol. Homologous sequences present in normal human DNA have also been molecularly cloned. Comparison of the restriction endonuclease maps of the normal and transforming genes did not reveal any significant differences. These results suggest that subtle molecular changes are responsible for the acquisition of malignant properties by this gene in T24 cells. The T24 oncogene was found to be unrelated to transforming genes present in a variety of human tumors other than bladder carcinomas. In contrast, the T24 oncogene is highly related to the onc genes of the BALB and Harvey strains of murine sarcoma viruses ( MSVs ). Preliminary characterization of the transcriptional and translational products of the T24 oncogene suggests that this gene is transcribed into a 1.2-kbp poly(A)-containing RNA whose translation yields a 23,000-dalton protein antigenically related to the transforming gene products of BALB and Harvey MSVs .
A single genetic alteration, a guanine-to-cytosine transversion, is responsible for the acquisition of malignant properties by K-ras genes of two human tumor cell lines established from carcinomas of the bladder (A1698) and lung (A2182). As a consequence, arginine instead of the normal glycine is incorporated into the K-ras-coded p21 proteins at amino acid position 12. This mutation creates a restriction enzyme polymorphism that can be used to screen human cells for transforming K-ras genes. This approach was used to identify the mutational event responsible for the malignant activation of a K-ras oncogene in a squamous cell lung carcinoma of a 66-year-old man; this point mutation was not present in either the normal bronchial or parenchymal tissue or in the blood lymphocytes. Hence, malignant activation of a ras oncogene appears to be specifically associated with the development of a human neoplasm.
The H-ras gene of the BALB murine sarcoma virus (BALB-MSV) was placed under the transcriptional control of the tightly regulated PL promoter of bacteriophage lambda in the expression vectors pEV-vrf-1 and pRC23. Upon derepression of the PL promoter, large amounts (10-20% of total cellular protein) of the H-ras gene product p21 are synthesized in Escherichia coli. We constructed three H-ras gene expression vectors, designated pJCL-H5, pJCL-E30, and pJCL-33. pJCL-H5 directs the synthesis of p21, a fusion protein whose four amino-terminal residues are replaced by eight amino acids coded for by plasmid sequences. The 13 5' coding nucleotides of the BALB-MSV H-ras gene missing in pJCL-H5 were regenerated in pJCL-E30 by inserting a pair of complementary synthetic oligodeoxynucleotides. As a result, pJCL-E30 encodes a p21 protein, p21T, of sequence identical to that of the transforming p21 protein of BALB-MSV. pJCL-33 is a derivative of pJCL-E30 in which the 12th codon, AAA, a lysine codon, was replaced by GGA, a glycine codon. Thus, pJCL-33 directs the synthesis of a p21 protein, p21N, whose sequence corresponds to that of a normal cellular p21 protein. We report the purification of H-ras p21 proteins to apparent homogeneity by a method involving solubilization with chaotropic agents followed by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography.
Impairment in T cell proliferation in response to E. coli and in CML to unrelated alloantigens was usually observed in patients early after marrow grafting and persisted in long-term patients with chronic GVHD but not in those without chronic GVHD. We analyzed various cellular functions in the pathway of T cell activation and found that in patients with immunodeficiency, (1) their M phi usually could process and present antigens to normal T cells, (2) their T cells did not proliferate even in the presence of normal antigen-pulsed M phi, (3) IL-2 production by T cells was deficient, and (4) exogenous IL-2 restored CML activity in cells of most patients early after grafting but not in cells of most patients with chronic GVHD. Therefore, failure to induce proliferation and cytotoxicity in T cells of marrow recipients is not likely due to M phi defects but because of ineffective communication among T cell subsets, probably related to impaired IL-2 production and/or unresponsiveness to IL-2.
It has been recently shown that malignant activation of the c-has/bas proto-oncogene in T24 human bladder carcinoma cells was mediated by a single point mutation. A deoxyguanosine located at position 35 of the first exon of this proto-oncogene was substituted by thymidine. These findings predicted that the resulting oncogene would code for a structurally altered p21 protein containing valine instead of glycine as its 12th amino acid residue. We now report the spontaneous activation of the human c-has/bas proto-oncogene during transfection of NIH/3T3 cells. As in T24 cells, this in vitro activated oncogene also acquired malignant properties by a single point mutation. In this case we have detected a G leads to A transition, which occurred at the same position as the mutation responsible for the activation of the T24 oncogene. These results predict that the p21 protein coded for by the spontaneously activated c-has/bas gene will incorporate aspartic acid as its 12th amino acid residue. Computer analysis of the secondary structure of c-has/bas encoded p21 proteins indicates that substitution of the glycine residue located at position 12, not only by aspartic acid or valine but also by any other amino acid, would result in the same structural alteration. These findings indicate that a specific conformational change is sufficient to confer transforming properties to this p21 protein. Moreover, they predict that any mutation affecting the coding properties of the 12th codon of the c-has/bas proto-oncogene will lead to its malignant activation.
Forty patients with hematologic malignancy or aplastic anemia were given allogeneic marrow after conditioning with high-dose cyclophosphamide alone or in combination with total body irradiation. Between 28 and 3857 days after transplantation, their peripheral blood mononuclear leukocytes were tested for reactivity in indirect cell-mediated lympholysis against normal leukocytes from unrelated individuals, and the results were compared to those with cells from their healthy marrow donors. An impairment of cell-mediated lympholysis was found with cells from most patients with acute and chronic graft-vs-host disease (GVHD) whereas cells from most short-term and long-term patients without GVHD had cell-mediated lympholysis reactivity comparable to that of cells from the marrow donors. When interleukin 2 was added to the mixed leukocyte cultures during the sensitization phase, the impaired cell-mediated immunity of cells from most short-term patients with acute GVHD, but not that of cells from most patients with chronic GHVD, could be restored to normal levels. These results suggest the impairment of cell-mediated immunity seen in cells of short-term patients with acute GVHD is attributable to helper cell defects or to ineffective communication between antigen-presenting cells and helper T cells. The impairment in cell-mediated immunity seen in patients with chronic GVHD, however, may reside on the effector cells (or their precursors) or may be due to the presence of suppressor cell activity.
The development of DNA-mediated gene transfer techniques has made it possible to identify transforming genes present in certain human tumour cells. Such genes have been shown to induce morphological transformation when used to transfect suitable assay cells. Recently a transforming gene has been isolated by molecular cloning techniques from the T24 (ref. 11) and EJ (ref. 12) human bladder carcinoma cell lines. This bladder carcinoma oncogene has been shown to be of human origin, less than six kilobase pairs (kbp) in size, and closely related to the onc genes (v-bas and v-ras) of BALB and Harvey murine sarcoma viruses. These transforming retroviruses arose in nature by transduction of cellular genes from mouse and rat cells, respectively. To understand better the relationship of the T24 oncogene with other human cellular genes, we have determined the chromosomal location of its normal allele within the human genome. We show here that it is carried on chromosome 11 in normal cells.
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The genetic change that leads to the activation of the oncogene in T24 human bladder carcinoma cells is shown to be a single point mutation of guanosine into thymidine. This substitution results in the incorporation of valine instead of glycine as the twelfth amino acid residue of the T24 oncogene-encoded p21 protein. Thus, a single amino acid substitution appears to be sufficient to confer transforming properties on the gene product of the T24 human bladder carcinoma oncogene.
A transforming gene isolated from T24 human bladder carcinoma cells is closely related to the BALB murine sarcoma virus (MSV) onc gene (v-bas). This transforming gene is localized to a 4.6 kilobase pair (kbp) region and is expressed as a 1.2-kbp polyadenylated transcript, which contains v-bas related sequences. Moreover, antisera known to detect the immunologically related onc gene products of BALB- and Harvey-MSVs recognized elevated levels of a related protein in T24 cells. The normal human homologue of v-bas was found to be indistinguishable from the T24 oncogene by heteroduplex and restriction enzyme analysis. These results imply that rather subtle genetic alterations have led to the activation of the normal human homologue of v-bas as a human transforming gene.
Synthesis of the membrane-bound, flavin-linked D-lactate dehydrogenase of Escherichia coli has been studied by using a recombinant plasmid containing the dld gene [Young, I. G., Jaworowski, A., & Poulis, M. (1982) Biochemistry (following paper in this issue)]. Expression of the cloned dld gene was achieved either in vivo with transformed minicells or in vitro with a fractionated transcription/translation system. In both instances, a product is observed that is specifically immunoprecipitated by gamma-globulin prepared against the purified enzyme and comigrates with authentic D-lactate dehydrogenase on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Furthermore, the product is catalytically active and binds to membrane vesicles during or after synthesis. Thus, it seems likely that the protein is synthesized in mature form and binds to the membrane without a leader peptide sequence. Interestingly, addition of flavin adenine dinucleotide to the in vitro reaction mixtures causes a 2-fold increase in the synthesis of the enzyme, suggesting that the cofactor plays a regulatory role in the synthesis of the apoprotein. Finally, L factor, a protein involved in regulation of protein elongation, has an inhibitory effect on the expression of the dld gene and a stimulatory effect on the expression of the ndh gene (encoding NADH dehydrogenase).
The molecular structure of the plasma membrane of the haploid strain Saccharomyces cerevisiae X-2180 1 A has been studied by means of sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Protein and glycoprotein components have been identified and their apparent Mr determined. A glycoprotein showing an apparent Mr of 27500 has been shown to be the main structural component. Treatment of the cells with cycloheximide prior to plasma membrane isolation resulted in a redistribution of the relative amounts of each protein band and a drastic reduction in the number of Schiff positive bands. It is postulated that treatment with this drug rids the plasma membrane of glycoprotein secretory components which are in the process of being secreted to the periplasmic space, thus allowing the study of the basic structural components of the organelle. The electrophoretic pattern of the internal membranes revealed close similarities with that of the plasma membrane and though two-dimensional electrophoresis might disclose greater differences, these similarities suggest a common origin for most of the components of both membranous systems. Finally, radioiodination techniques, have been used in studying the asymmetric disposition of some of the components of the plasma membrane. At least five polypeptides were identified as located to the outer layer of the plasma membrane and two more glycopeptides were shown to span across the bilayer.
DNAs isolated from a variety of human tumor cell lines as well as from naturally occurring human carcinomas and sarcomas were shown to induce morphologic transformation upon transfection into NIH/3T3 cells. All tested transformants contained human DNA sequences, some of which specifically cosegregated with the malignant phenotype in additional cycles of transfection. Southern blot analysis of second cycle transformants derived from T24 human bladder carcinoma cells showed the presence of a single 15 kbp EcoRI fragment of human DNA. These sequences were molecularly cloned utilizing lambda Charon 9A as the cloning vector. The resulting recombinant DNA molecule, designated lambda T24-15A, was shown to contain an internal 6.6 kbp Bam HI fragment of human DNA that transformed NIH/3T3 fibroblasts with a specific activity of 5 X 10(4) focus forming units per picomole. These results indicate that we have molecularly cloned an oncogene present in T24 bladder carcinoma cells. Comparison of molecular clones containing the T24 oncogene and its normal homologue did not reveal biochemical differences that helped to explain the malignant properties of this oncogene. Finally, we report preliminary results indicating that the T24 bladder carcinoma oncogene is highly related to the transforming gene of BALB-MSV, an acute transforming retrovirus.
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The presence of dominant transforming genes in human tumor cell lines has been investigated. High molecular weight DNAs isolated from cell lines established from carcinomas and sarcomas of various organs as well as from a glioblastoma and two melanomas were utilized to transfect NIH/3T3 mouse fibroblasts. The DNAs of T24 and A2182, two cell lines derived from a bladder and a lung carcinoma, respectively, and of HT-1080, a cell line established from a fibrosarcoma, were able to transform recipient NIH/3T3 cells. First-cycle transformants exhibited anchorage-independent growth and were tumorigenic in athymic and immunocompetent mice. Moreover, they contained human DNA sequences and were able to transmit their malignant phenotype in additional cycles of transfection. Southern blot analysis of T24-derived transformants showed that a single fragment of human DNA specifically cosegregated with the malignant phenotype, suggesting that it contained the T24 oncogene. Therefore, these human sequences were molecularly cloned with lambda Charon 9A as the cloning vector. The resulting recombinant DNA molecule, designated lambda T24-15A, was shown to contain a 15-kilobase-pair EcoRI insert of human cellular DNA. lambda T24-15A DNA (either intact or EcoRI digested) transformed NIH/3T3 fibroblasts with a specific activity of 20,000 focus-forming units per pmol of cloned DNA. Our results indicate that we have molecularly cloned a biologically active oncogene present in T24 human bladder carcinoma cells.
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