Gene expression data from microarrays are being applied to predict preclinical and clinical endpoints, but the reliability of these predictions has not been established. In the MAQC-II project, 36 independent teams analyzed six microarray data sets to generate predictive models for classifying a sample with respect to one of 13 endpoints indicative of lung or liver toxicity in rodents, or of breast cancer, multiple myeloma or neuroblastoma in humans. In total, >30,000 models were built using many combinations of analytical methods. The teams generated predictive models without knowing the biological meaning of some of the endpoints and, to mimic clinical reality, tested the models on data that had not been used for training. We found that model performance depended largely on the endpoint and team proficiency and that different approaches generated models of similar performance. The conclusions and recommendations from MAQC-II should be useful for regulatory agencies, study committees and independent investigators that evaluate methods for global gene expression analysis.

Short interfering RNA (siRNA) is widely used for studying gene function and holds great promise as a tool for validating drug targets and treating disease. A critical assumption in these applications is that the effect of siRNA on cells is specific, i.e., limited to the specific knockdown of the target gene. In this article, we characterize the specificity of siRNA by applying gene expression profiling. Several siRNAs were designed against different regions of the same target gene for three different targets. Their effects on cells were compared by using DNA microarrays to generate gene expression signatures. When the siRNA design and transfection conditions were optimized, the signatures for different siRNAs against the same target were shown to correlate very closely, whereas the signatures for different genes revealed no correlation. These results indicate that siRNA is a highly specific tool for targeted gene knockdown, establishing siRNA-mediated gene silencing as a reliable approach for large-scale screening of gene function and drug target validation.DNA microarray ͉ RNA interference ͉ gene knockdown T he use of RNA interference for inhibiting gene expression represents a powerful tool for exploring gene function (1-7), identifying and validating new drug targets, and treating disease (8, 9). The process of RNA interference is mediated by doublestranded RNA, which is cleaved by the enzyme DICER into 21-to 23-nt duplexes containing a 2-nt overhang at the 3Ј end of each strand. These duplexes are incorporated into a protein complex called the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). Directed by the antisense strand of the duplex, RISC recognizes and cleaves the target mRNA (for recent reviews, see refs. 1 and 10-13). Although long double-stranded RNAs (Ͼ30 nt) invoke an interferon response, short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) that resemble the products produced by DICER have been reported to specifically inhibit gene expression in many different mammalian cell lines (1-7). It has been shown that even single nucleotide mismatches between the antisense strand of the siRNA and target mRNA can abolish RNA interference (14). In addition, mapping of mRNA cleavage sites has revealed no cleavage sites outside of the region of complementarity (10). However, the specificity of siRNA at the cellular level remains to be comprehensively studied.For siRNAs to be a useful tool in gene knockdown experiments, it is critical that siRNA-mediated transcriptional silencing be specific. It is not enough to simply show that a control siRNA with a scrambled nucleotide sequence fails to knock down the protein of interest or produce the same cellular phenotype. Ideally, the siRNA must not cause any effects other than those related to the knock down of the target gene. There are several types of nonspecific effects that siRNA could potentially display. In addition to the possibility for cross-hybridization of the antisense strand of the siRNA to different mRNAs, siRNAs could bind in a sequencedependent manner to various cellular proteins. I...

To delineate the function of adenovirus early region 4 (E4) gene products, we constructed a set of mutant viruses which carry defined lesions within this coding region. Deletion and insertion mutations within six of seven known E4 coding regions had no measurable effect on virus growth in cultured cells. A variant carryihg a deletion within the last coding region (encoding a 34,000-molecular-weight polypeptide) was modestly defective, and a mutant lacking the majority of the E4 region was severely defective for growth. The phenotypes of the two defective mutants are similar and complex. Both display perturbations in DNA replication, translation of the E2A mRNA, accumulation of late viral mRNAs, and host cell shutoff.

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A range of genomics technologies are increasingly becoming integrated with existing scientific disciplines to broaden and strengthen existing capabilities and open new avenues of research in drug discovery and development. Examples of these new research fields are proteomics, pharmacogenomics, metabolomics and toxicogenomics. Here we review the application of toxicogenomics to improve the evaluation of drug safety, mechanism of action and toxicity in the drug discovery and development process.

In soluble protein extracts obtained from adenovirus productively infected cells, monoclonal antibodies directed against the early region 1B 58,000-dalton (E1B-58K) protein immunoprecipitated, in addition to this protein, a polypeptide of 25,000 molecular weight. An analysis of tryptic peptides derived from this 25K protein demonstrated that it was unrelated to the E1B-58K protein. The tryptic peptide maps of the 25K protein produced in adenovirus 5 (Ad5)-infected HeLa cells and BHK cells were identical, whereas Ad3infected HeLa cells produced a different 25K protein. The viral origin of this 25K protein was confirmed by an amino acid sequence determination of five methionine residues in two Ad2 tryptic peptides derived from the 25K protein. The positions of these methionine residues in the 25K protein were compared with the nucleotide sequence of Ad2 and uniquely mapped the gene for this protein to early region 4, subregion 6 of the viral genome. A mutant of Ad5 was obtained (AdS d1342) which failed to produce detectable levels of the E1B-58K protein. In HeLa cells infected with this mutant, monoclonal antibodies directed against the E1B-58K protein failed to detect the associated 25K protein. In 293 cells infected with Ad5 d1342, which contain an E1B-58K protein encoded by the integrated adenovirus genome, the mutant produced an E4-25K protein which associated with the E1B-58K protein derived from the integrated genome. Extracts of labeled Ad5 dl342-infected HeLa cells (E1B-58K-) were mixed in vitro with extracts of unlabeled Ad5 wild typeinfected HeLa cells or 293 cells (E1B-58K+). When the mixed extracts were incubated with the E1B-58K monoclonal antibody, a labeled E4-25K protein was coimmunoprecipitated. When extracts of Ad5 d1342infected HeLa cells and uninfected HeLa cells (both E1B-58K-) were mixed, the E1B-58K monoclonal antibody failed to immunoselect the E4-25K protein. These data provide evidence that the E1B-58K antigen is physically associated with an E4-25K protein in productively infected cells. This is the same E1B-58K protein that was previously shown to be associated with the cellular p53 antigen in adenovirus-transformed cells. At early times after adenovirus infection of human cells, five regions of the adenovirus genome are transcribed and produce cytoplasmic messenger RNAs (8, 28, 34, 36

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Region 1 DNA sequences (map positions 0 to 11% on the linear adenovirus 2 genome) are expressed both early and late in lytic infection and are required for transformation by the virus. During productive infection six distinct cytoplasmic RNAs are synthesized from this region. These RNAs comprise two families, each consisting of three size classes that share 3' sequences. Region 1 RNAs were purified by hybridization selection, using restriction fragments bound to nitrocellulose membranes, and by size fractionation. The isolated RNAs were then translated in cell-free systems derived from wheat gern and rabbit reticulocytes. The family of RNAs specified by 0 to 4.4 sequences includes two RNAs, which are 12S and 13S in size. These RNAs were partially separated by molecular weight and translated. The 13S RNA produced 53,000-dalton (53K) and 41K peptides, and the 12S RNA synthesized 47K and 35K products. The family of RNAs mapping from 4.4 to 11.0 encodes three separate polypeptides, each of which can be assigned to a specific RNA. A 12K product that comigrates with structural polypeptide IX is synthesized from the 9S RNA as previously reported (U. Pettersson and M. B. Mathews, Cell 12:741-750,1977). The 13S RNA encodes a 15K polypeptide that corresponds to a 15K polypeptide in infected cell extracts. The 22S RNA encodes a 52K protein distinct from the 0 to 4.4 polypeptides.