We used gene targeting in mice to insert a His 6 -tagged mouse c-Myc cDNA, MycHis , head to head into the mouse immunoglobulin heavy-chain locus, Igh, just 5V of the intronic enhancer, EA. The insertion of Myc His mimicked both the human t(8;14)(q24;q32) translocation that results in the activation of MYC in human endemic Burkitt lymphomas and the homologous mouse T(12;15) translocation that deregulates Myc in certain mouse plasmacytomas. Beginning at the age of 6 months, MycHis transgenic mice developed Bcell and plasma neoplasms, such as IgM + lymphoblastic B-cell lymphomas, Bcl-6 + diffuse large B-cell lymphomas, and CD138 + plasmacytomas, with an overall incidence of 68% by 21 months. Molecular studies of lymphoblastic B-cell lymphoma, the most prevalent neoplasm (50% of all tumors), showed that the lymphomas were clonal, overexpressed Myc His , and exhibited the P2 to P1 promoter shift in Myc expression, a hallmark of MYC/Myc deregulation in human endemic Burkitt lymphoma and mouse plasmacytoma. Only 1 (6.3%) of 16 lymphoblastic B-cell lymphomas contained a BL-typical point mutation in the amino-terminal transactivation domain of Myc His , suggesting that most of these tumors are derived from naive, pregerminal center B cells. Twelve (46%) of 26 lymphoblastic B-cell lymphomas exhibited changes in the p19ArfMdm2-p53 tumor suppressor axis, an important pathway for Myc-dependent apoptosis. We conclude that Myc His insertion into Igh predictably induces B-cell and plasma-cell tumors in mice, providing a valuable mouse model for understanding the transformation-inducing consequences of the MYC/Mycactivating endemic Burkitt lymphoma t(8;14)/plasmacytoma T(12;15) translocation. (Cancer Res 2005; 65(4): 1306-15)

To elucidate the mechanism of the t(14;18)(q32;q21) chromosomal translocation found in follicular lymphoma, we examined the structure of both derivative (der) chromosomal breakpoints as well as their germ-line predecessors. We noted that chromosome segment 18q21 was juxtaposed with immunoglobulin heavy (H) chain gene diversity (DH) regions on all five der(18) chromosomes we examined, and we confirmed the juncture with immunoglobulin H-chain genejoining (JH) regions on the der(14) chromosome. However, the t(14;18) was not fully reciprocal in that chromosome 14 DNA between the DH andJH regions was deleted. Furthermore, extra nucleotides, reminiscent of "N" segments, were present at the der(14) and possibly der(18) junctions. This indicates that despite the mature B-cell phenotype of follicular lymphoma, the t(14;18) occurs during attempted DH-JH joining, the earliest event in immunoglobulin rearrangement in a pre-Bcell. Our detailed analysis of the germ-line 18q21 region indicated that most breakpoints clustered within a 150-basepair major breakpoint region. However, we found no evidence for evolutionarily conserved immunoglobulin-like recombinational signals at 18q21, arguing against a role for immunoglobulin recombinase in chromosome 18 breakage. Instead, a direct repeat duplication of chromosome 18 sequences was discovered at both chromosomal junctures, typical of the repair of a naturally occurring staggered double-stranded DNA break. These results prompt a translocation model with illegitimate pairing of a staggered double-stranded DNA break at 18q21 and an immunoglobulin endonuclease-mediated break at 14q32 and with N-segment addition, repair, and ligation to generate der(14) and der(18) chromosomes.Specific chromosomal translocations are highly associated with distinct neoplasms, implicating them in the origin or maintenance of malignancy (1, 2). These translocation breakpoints have been noted near previously identified oncogenes or new putative transforming genes, suggesting that they deregulate expression of these genes and play a direct role in tumor development (3). More than 80% of follicular B-cell lymphomas possess a t(14;18)(q32;q21) chromosomal translocation (4). Some of us and others (5-7) have cloned and characterized the site of chromosomal juncture on the derivative (der) chromosome 14 and identified a new transcriptional unit (BCL2) at 18q21. This interchromosomal recombination juxtaposed the immunoglobulin heavy (H) chain joining region (JH) with the potential transforming gene on chromosome 18.Despite the molecular cloning of the der(14) chromosomal breakpoint, the precise mechanism by which this interchromosomal recombination occurs remained unresolved.We approached this question in t(14;18) lymphomas by comparing both germ-line substrates at 14q32 and 18q21 with both derivative products of this recombination. The observation that the site of juncture on the der(14) chromosome occurred at the 5' ends of JH regions suggested that immunoglobulin recombinase may be mediating the breaka...

The genes encoding broadly HIV-1-neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) are highly divergent from their germ line counterparts. We have hypothesized that such high levels of somatic hypermutation could pose a challenge for elicitation of the broadly neutralizing (bn) Abs and that identification of less somatically mutated bn Abs may help in the design of effective vaccine immunogens. In a quest for such bn Abs, phage-and yeast-displayed antibody libraries, constructed using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from a patient with bn serum containing Abs targeting the epitope of the bn MAb 2F5, were panned against peptides containing the 2F5 epitope and against the HIV-1 gp140 JR-FL . Two MAbs (m66 and m66.6) were identified; the more mutated variant (m66.6) exhibited higher HIV-1-neutralizing activity than m66, although it was weaker than 2F5 in a TZM-bl cell assay. Binding of both MAbs to gp41 alanine substitution mutant peptides required the DKW 664-666 core of the 2F5 epitope and two additional upstream residues (L 660,663 ). The MAbs have long (21-residue) heavy-chain third complementarity-determining regions (CDR-H3s), and m66.6 (but not m66) exhibited polyspecific reactivity to self-and non-self-antigens. Both m66 and m66.6 are significantly less divergent from their germ line Ab counterparts than 2F5-they have a total of 11 and 18 amino acid changes, respectively, from the closest VH and V germ line gene products compared to 25 for 2F5. These new MAbs could help explore the complex maturation pathways involved in broad neutralization and its relationship with auto-and polyreactivity and may aid design of vaccine immunogens and development of therapeutics against HIV-1 infection.

The rate constant for the catalytic transfer of the active-site PO3 group from rabbit muscle phosphoglucomutase to the hydroxyl group of a water molecule is about 3 x 10(-8) s-1 under optimal reaction conditions, but in the absence of the normal substrate, viz., at pH 7.5 and 30 degrees C, in the presence of saturating Mg2+; the corresponding constant for transfer to the 6-hydroxyl group of glucose 1-phosphate under analogous conditions, about 1000 s-1, is larger than this by some 3 x 10(10)-fold. Since no single factor appears to be capable of providing a rationale for a majority of this "substrate-induced rate effect" (Ray, jr., W.J., and Long, J.W. (1976), Biochemistry, the preceding paper in this issue), the change in the PO3-transfer rate produced by binding various parts of the phosphoglucosyl moiety to the enzyme, both separately and concurrently, was investigated. The rate of PO3 transfer to water is increased by up to 1000-fold by binding entities that provide the active site with a second PO3 group, e.g., ethyl phosphate or inorganic phosphite. Using an alcoholic acceptor further increases transfer efficiency (in the presence of bound phosphite): increase with methanol, about 2000-fold on a molar basis. The reactivities of ten other primary aliphatic alcohols vary by nearly 600-fold as the acidity of the PO3 acceptor is varied over a 4000-fold range. Although no straightforward relationship is observed between the efficiency of an alcohol as an acceptor and its acidity - presumably because of complications due to steric effects, for example - an increased transfer rate of 100-fold, relative to the water reaction, is estimated for a simple primary alcohol with a pKa similar to that expected for the 6-hydroxyl group of glucose 1-phosphate, when the alcohol is present at a concentration of 1 M. Joining an alcoholic acceptor and a PO3 group via five apparently inert bridging units changes PO3 transfer to an intramolecular process; in the case of 1,4-butanediol monophosphate the rate of transfer also increases by 240-fold, relative to the analogous reaction in the presence of 1 M propanol and bound inorganic phosphite. Comparable values also are obtained in comparisons of PO3 transfer rates for trans- 1,4-butenediol and 1,4-butynediol monophosphates relative to 1 M allyl and propargyl alcohols, respectively, in the presence of bound phosphite. An increased rate of transfer also is produced by binding the xylosyl part of the glucose ring, either when the acceptor is an hydroxyl group attached to the ring or when it is the hydroxyl group of a water molecule, e.g., as in the water reaction facilitated by bound xylose 1-phosphate. These and other results suggest that most of the differences between the rates of the water reaction and the glucose 1-phosphate reaction can be rationalized in terms of four fairly discrete factors whose approximate values are as follows: the PO4 factor, 1000-fold; the C-OH/H-OH factor, 100-fold; the nucleophile-binding factor, 250-fold; and the (CHOH)3-bridging factor, 200-fold...

BackgroundGene expression profiling by microarray analysis of cells enriched by laser capture microdissection (LCM) faces several technical challenges. Frozen sections yield higher quality RNA than paraffin-imbedded sections, but even with frozen sections, the staining methods used for histological identification of cells of interest could still damage the mRNA in the cells. To study the contribution of staining methods to degradation of results from gene expression profiling of LCM samples, we subjected pellets of the mouse plasma cell tumor cell line TEPC 1165 to direct RNA extraction and to parallel frozen sectioning for LCM and subsequent RNA extraction. We used microarray hybridization analysis to compare gene expression profiles of RNA from cell pellets with gene expression profiles of RNA from frozen sections that had been stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E), Nissl Stain (NS), and for immunofluorescence (IF) as well as with the plasma cell-revealing methyl green pyronin (MGP) stain. All RNAs were amplified with two rounds of T7-based in vitro transcription and analyzed by two-color expression analysis on 10-K cDNA microarrays.ResultsThe MGP-stained samples showed the least introduction of mRNA loss, followed by H&E and immunofluorescence. Nissl staining was significantly more detrimental to gene expression profiles, presumably owing to an aqueous step in which RNA may have been damaged by endogenous or exogenous RNAases.ConclusionRNA damage can occur during the staining steps preparatory to laser capture microdissection, with the consequence of loss of representation of certain genes in microarray hybridization analysis. Inclusion of RNAase inhibitor in aqueous staining solutions appears to be important in protecting RNA from loss of gene transcripts.