An accurate, nonsurgical diagnostic test for brain tumors is currently unavailable, and the methods of monitoring disease progression are not fully reliable. MicroRNA profiling of biological fluids has recently emerged as a diagnostic tool for several pathologic conditions. Here we tested whether microRNA profiling of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) enables detection of glioblastoma, discrimination between glioblastoma and metastatic brain tumors, and reflects disease activity. We determined CSF levels of several cancer-associated microRNAs for 118 patients diagnosed with different types of brain cancers and nonneoplastic neuropathologies by quantitative reverse transcription PCR analysis. The levels of miR-10b and miR-21 are found significantly increased in the CSF of patients with glioblastoma and brain metastasis of breast and lung cancer, compared with tumors in remission and a variety of nonneoplastic conditions. Members of the miR-200 family are highly elevated in the CSF of patients with brain metastases but not with any other pathologic conditions, allowing discrimination between glioblastoma and metastatic brain tumors. Quantification of as few as 7 microRNAs in CSF enables differential recognition of glioblastoma and metastatic brain cancer using computational machine learning tools (Support Vector Machine) with high accuracy (91%-99%) on a test set of samples. Furthermore, we show that disease activity and treatment response can be monitored by longitudinal microRNA profiles in the CSF of glioblastoma and non-small cell lung carcinoma patients. This study demonstrates that microRNA-based detection of brain malignancies can be reliably performed and that microRNAs in CSF can serve as biomarkers of treatment response in brain cancers.

No abstract

Transcriptional activation of p53-regulated genes is initiated by sequence-specific DNA binding of p53 to target binding sites. Regulation of sequence-specific DNA binding is complex and occurs at various levels. We demonstrate that DNA topology is an important parameter for regulating the selective and highly specific interaction of p53 with its target binding sites. Specific binding of wild-type p53 is greatly enhanced when cognate binding sites are present in a non-linear stem-loop conformation. The C-terminal domain plays a key role in regulating the specific interactions of p53 with target binding sites in a DNA conformation-dependent manner. The C-terminal domain is required for binding to target sites in a non-linear DNA conformation in contrast to the strong inhibitory effects of the C terminus on p53 interaction with linear DNA. We propose that selective binding of p53 to various promoters may be determined by the DNA conformation within p53 cognate sites.A major function of the tumor suppressor p53 is that of a pleiotropic transcription factor controlling the expression of target genes by either activating or inhibiting the activity of p53-responsive promoters. p53 has several DNA binding activities of which sequence-specific DNA binding (SSDB) 1 (1) is the most important because it is indispensable for the transcriptional activity of the protein. The importance of SSDB is highlighted by the fact that the most frequent p53 mutations found in human cancers are located within the DNA binding domain encoding region (2, 3) and abrogate the SSDB of p53. The specific interaction of p53 with target DNA is complex and tightly regulated. Promoter recognition by p53 is determined by the presence of p53-response elements (PREs), which share homology with the consensus sequence 5Ј-(PuPuPuC(A/T)(T/ A)GPyPyPy) n -3Ј (1). C-terminally unmodified p53 seems to be inactive in SSDB; however, modifications at the C terminus, like binding of the C-terminal-specific antibody PAb421, phosphorylation, or deletion of the 30 C-terminal amino acids, strongly enhance SSDB under certain in vitro conditions (4). The data indicate that the C terminus regulates binding of p53 to target DNA, although the underlying mechanisms are not entirely understood. Several models have been proposed to explain the influence of the C-terminal domain on SSDB by p53. The conformation model postulates that the p53 protein exists in two conformationally distinct forms termed latent (for DNA-binding inactive p53) and activated (for DNA-binding active p53). According to this model, the C-terminal domain in latent p53 interacts directly with the core domain and thereby inhibits SSDB of p53 (5). A conformational switch was proposed as the mechanism that relieves the allosteric inhibition by the C terminus and converts p53 from latent into an activated form. However, such a hypothesis is not supported by the results of structural studies that recently demonstrated that the conformation of DNA binding-inactive and DNA bindingactive p53 forms is largely iden...

Despite the loss of sequence-specific DNA binding, mutant p53 (mutp53) proteins can induce or repress transcription of mutp53-specific target genes. To date, the molecular basis for transcriptional modulation by mutp53 is not understood, but increasing evidence points to the possibility that specific interactions of mutp53 with DNA play an important role. So far, the lack of a common denominator for mutp53 DNA binding, i.e. the existence of common sequence elements, has hampered further characterization of mutp53 DNA binding. Emanating from our previous discovery that DNA structure is an important determinant of wild-type p53 (wtp53) DNA binding, we analyzed the binding of various mutp53 proteins to oligonucleotides mimicking non-B DNA structures. Using various DNA-binding assays we show that mutp53 proteins bind selectively and with high affinity to non-B DNA. In contrast to sequence-specific and DNA structure-dependent binding of wtp53, mutp53 DNA binding to non-B DNA is solely dependent on the stereo-specific configuration of the DNA, and not on DNA sequence. We propose that DNA structure-selective binding of mutp53 proteins is the basis for the well-documented interaction of mutp53 with MAR elements and for transcriptional activities mediates by mutp53.

No abstract

The dominant oncogenic properties of mutant p53 have been recognized as a phenomenon associated with tumor progression a long time ago, even before it was realized that the major function of wild type p53 is that of a tumor suppressor. Recent advances in this fascinating area in tumor cell biology reveal that the community of mutant p53 proteins is comprised of proteins that are extremely diverse both structurally and functionally, and elicit a multitude of cellular responses that not only are entirely distinct from those mediated by wild type p53, but also vary among different mutant p53 proteins. Aberrant regulation of transcription is one of the mechanisms underlying the ability of some mutant p53 proteins to act as oncogenic factors. Systematic analyses of the transcriptional activities of mutant p53 suggest that not the loss of transcriptional activity as such, but alterations of target DNA selectivity may be the driving force of mutant p53 specific transcription underlying the growth-promoting effects of mutant p53. This article focuses on mechanistic aspects of mutp53 "gain-of-function" with the emphasis on possible mechanisms underlying transcriptional activation by mutp53.

High resolution multiphoton tomography and fluorescence lifetime imaging differentiates glioma from adjacent brain in native tissue samples ex vivo. Presently, multiphoton tomography is applied in clinical dermatology and experimentally. We here present the first application of multiphoton and fluorescence lifetime imaging for in vivo imaging on humans during a neurosurgical procedure. We used a MPTflex™ Multiphoton Laser Tomograph (JenLab, Germany). We examined cultured glioma cells in an orthotopic mouse tumor model and native human tissue samples. Finally the multiphoton tomograph was applied to provide optical biopsies during resection of a clinical case of glioblastoma. All tissues imaged by multiphoton tomography were sampled and processed for conventional histopathology. The multiphoton tomograph allowed fluorescence intensity- and fluorescence lifetime imaging with submicron spatial resolution and 200 picosecond temporal resolution. Morphological fluorescence intensity imaging and fluorescence lifetime imaging of tumor-bearing mouse brains and native human tissue samples clearly differentiated tumor and adjacent brain tissue. Intraoperative imaging was found to be technically feasible. Intraoperative image quality was comparable to ex vivo examinations. To our knowledge we here present the first intraoperative application of high resolution multiphoton tomography and fluorescence lifetime imaging of human brain tumors in situ. It allowed in vivo identification and determination of cell density of tumor tissue on a cellular and subcellular level within seconds. The technology shows the potential of rapid intraoperative identification of native glioma tissue without need for tissue processing or staining.

Sequence-speci®c transactivation of target genes is one of the most important molecular properties of the tumor suppressor p53. Binding of p53 to its target DNAs is tightly regulated, with modi®cations in the carboxyterminal regulatory domain of the p53 protein playing an important role. In this study we examined the possible in¯uence of DNA structure on sequence-speci®c DNA binding by p53, by analysing its binding to p53 consensus elements adopting di erent conformations. We found that p53 has the ability to bind to consensus elements which are present in a double-helical form, as well as to consensus elements which are located within alternative non-B-DNA structures. The ability of a consensus element to adopt either one of these conformations is dependent on its sequence symmetry, and is strongly in¯uenced by its sequence environment. Our data suggest a model according to which the conformational status of the target DNA is an important determinant for sequence-speci®c DNA binding by p53. Modi®cations in the carboxy-terminal regulatory region of p53 possibly determine the preference of p53 for a given DNA conformation.