Overexpression of mutant p53 is a common theme in tumors, suggesting a selective pressure for p53 mutation in cancer development and progression. To determine how mutant p53 expression may lead to survival advantage in human cancer cells, we generated stable cell lines expressing p53 mutants p53-R175H, -R273H, and -D281G by use of p53-null human H1299 (lung carcinoma) cells. Compared to vector-transfected cells, H1299 cells expressing mutant p53 showed a survival advantage when treated with etoposide, a common chemotherapeutic agent; however, cells expressing the transactivation-deficient triple mutant p53-D281G (L22Q/W23S) had significantly lower resistance to etoposide. Gene expression profiling of cells expressing transcriptionally active mutant p53 proteins revealed the striking pattern that all three p53 mutants induced expression of approximately 100 genes involved in cell growth, survival, and adhesion. The gene NF-B2 is a prominent member of this group, whose overexpression in H1299 cells also leads to chemoresistance. Treatment of H1299 cells expressing p53-R175H with small interfering RNA specific for NF-B2 made these cells more sensitive to etoposide. We have also observed activation of the NF-B2 pathway in mutant p53-expressing cells. Thus, one possible pathway through which mutants of p53 may induce loss of drug sensitivity is via the NF-B2 pathway.Mutation in the p53 tumor suppressor gene is a common event in human cancer (6,36,40,43,44,65,71,72). Unlike what is seen for other tumor suppressors, in the majority of human carcinomas with p53 mutations, a protein with one amino acid substitution is overexpressed, suggesting the existence of a selection pressure for maintaining expression of the mutant protein (6,36,40,43,44,65,71,72). This also is perhaps indicative of an active role played by p53 mutants in oncogenesis and follows the gain-of-function hypothesis, which predicts not only that mutations in the p53 gene destroy the tumor suppressor function of the wild-type (WT) protein but that the mutant proteins may also gain oncogenic functions. The gain-of-function hypothesis also predicts that tumors with mutant p53 proteins may be more aggressive or that patients with tumors harboring mutant p53 have poorer prognoses than patients with tumors lacking the p53 protein. This has been found to be true for various types of cancers (10,28,29,81,82,88).WT p53 is a sequence-specific transactivator of promoters containing p53-binding sites. Elevated levels of WT p53 in response to cellular stress situations, such as DNA damage, can lead to apoptosis or induce cell cycle arrest (26,53,60,68,84,89,91) by inducing expression of genes involved in various aspects of cellular growth regulation (21,26,27,49,50,53,60,63,68,84,89,91). A mutation in one allele of p53 generates a stable mutant protein with compromised tumor suppressor function. However, there is compelling evidence to suggest that apart from loss of growth suppressor function, p53 mutants can confer oncogenic properties even in the absence of WT p53...

Despite the advances in immunosuppression, renal allograft attrition over time remains unabated due to chronic allograft dysfunction (CAD) with interstitial fibrosis (IF) and tubular atrophy (TA). We aimed to evaluate microRNA (miRNA) signatures in CAD with IF/TA and appraise correlation with paired urine samples and potential utility in prospective evaluation of graft function. MicroRNA signatures were established between CAD with IF/TA vs. normal allografts by microarray. Validation of the microarray results and prospective evaluation of urine samples was performed using RT-qPCR. Fifty-six miRNAs were identified in samples with CAD-IF/TA. Five miRNAs were selected for further validation based on: array fold change, p-value and in silico predicted mRNA targets. We confirmed the differential expression of these 5 miRNAs by RT-qPCR using an independent set of samples. Differential expression was detected for miR-142-3p, miR-204, miR-107, and miR-211 (P<0.001) and miR-32 (p<0.05). Furthermore, differential expression of miR-142-3p (p<0.01), miR-204 (p<0.01) and miR-211 (p<0.05) was also observed between patient groups in urine samples. A characteristic miRNA signature for IF/TA that correlates with paired urine samples was identified. These results support the potential use of miRNAs as non-invasive markers of IF/TA and for monitoring graft function.

We have studied the mechanism of mutant p53-mediated oncogenesis using several tumor-derived mutants. Using a colony formation assay, we found that the majority of the mutants increased the number of colonies formed compared to the vector. Expression of tumor-derived p53 mutants increases the rate of cell growth, suggesting that the p53 mutants have 'gain of function' properties. We have studied the gene expression profile of cells expressing tumor-derived p53-D281G to identify genes transactivated by mutant p53. We report the transactivation of two genes, asparagine synthetase and human telomerase reverse transcriptase. Quantitative real-time PCR confirms this upregulation. Transient transfection promoter assays verify that tumor-derived p53 mutants transactivate these promoters significantly. An electrophoretic mobility shift assay shows that tumor-derived p53-mutants cannot bind to the wild-type p53 consensus sequence. The results presented here provide some evidence of a possible mechanism for mutant p53-mediated transactivation.

ABSTRACTp53 mutants with a single amino acid substitution are overexpressed in a majority of human cancers containing a p53 mutation. Overexpression of the mutant protein suggests that there is a selection pressure on the cell indicative of an active functional role for mutant p53. Indeed, H1299 cells expressing mutant p53-R175H, p53-R273H or p53-D281G grow at a faster rate compared with a control cell line. Using p53-specific small interfering RNA, we show that the growth rate of mutant p53-expressing cells decreases as mutant p53 level decreases, demonstrating that the increased cellular growth is dependent on p53 expression. Increased growth rate is not observed for H1299 cell clones expressing mutant p53-D281G (L22Q/ W23S), which has been shown to be defective in transactivation in transient transcriptional assays. This shows that the increased growth rate imparted by mutant p53 in H1299 cells requires the transactivation function of mutant p53. By performing microarray hybridization analyses, we show that constitutive expression of three common p53 mutants (p53-R175H, p53-R273H, and p53-D281G) in H1299 human lung carcinoma cells evokes regulation of a common set of genes, a significant number of which are involved in cell growth regulation. Predictably, H1299 cells expressing p53-D281G (L22Q/W23S) are defective in upregulating a number of these genes. The differences in expression profiles induced by individual p53 mutants in the cells may be representative of the p53 mutants and how they can affect gene expression resulting in the observed "gain of function" phenotypes (i.e., increased growth rate, decreased sensitivity to chemotherapeutic agents, and so forth).

When normal cells come under stress, the wild-type (WT) p53 level increases resulting in the regulation of gene expression responsible for growth arrest or apoptosis. Here we show that elevated levels of WT p53 or its homologue, p73, inhibit expression of a number of cell cycle regulatory and growth promoting genes. Our analysis also identified a group of genes whose expression is differentially regulated by WT p53 and p73. We have infected p53-null H1299 human lung carcinoma cells with recombinant adenoviruses expressing WT p53, p73 or b-galactosidase, and have undertaken microarray hybridization analyses to identify genes whose expression profile is altered by p53 or p73. Quantitative real-time PCR verified the repression of E2F-5, centromere protein A and E, minichromosome maintenance proteins (MCM)-2, -3, -5, -6 and -7 and human CDC25B after p53 expression. 5-Fluorouracil treatment of colon carcinoma HCT116 cells expressing WT p53 results in a reduction of the cyclin B2 protein level suggesting that DNA damage may indeed cause repression of these genes. Transient transcriptional assays verified that WT p53 repressed promoters of a number of these genes. Interestingly, a gain-of-function p53 mutant instead upregulated a number of these promoters in transient transfection. Using promoter deletion mutants of MCM-7 we have found that WT p53-mediated repression needs a minimal promoter that contains a single E2F site and surrounding sequences. However, a single E2F site cannot be significantly repressed by WT p53. Many of the genes identified are also repressed by p21. Thus, our work shows that WT p53 and p73 repress a number of growth-related genes and that in many instances this repression may be through the induction of p21.

Non-invasive, cost-effective biomarkers that allow accurate monitoring of graft function are needed in kidney transplantation. Since microRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as promising disease biomarkers we sought to establish an miRNA signature in urinary cell pellets comparing kidney transplant patients diagnosed with chronic allograft dysfunction (CAD) with interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy and those recipients with normal graft function. Overall, we evaluated 191 samples from 125 deceased donor primary kidney transplant recipients in the discovery, initial validation and the longitudinal validation studies for non-invasive monitoring of graft function. Of 1,733 mature miRNAs studied using microarrays, 22 were found to be differentially expressed between groups. Ontology and pathway analyses showed inflammation as the principal biological function associated with these miRNAs. Twelve selected miRNAs were longitudinally evaluated in urine samples of an independent set of 66 patients, at two time-points post-kidney transplant. A subset of these miRNAs was found to be differentially expressed between groups early post-kidney transplant before histological allograft injury was evident. Thus, a panel of urine miRNAs was identified as potential biomarkers for monitoring graft function and anticipating progression to CAD in kidney transplant patients.

Important progress has been made in improving short term outcomes in solid organ transplantation. However, long-term outcomes have not improved during the last decades. There is a critical need for biomarkers of donor quality, early diagnosis of graft injury and treatment response. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small single stranded noncoding RNAs that function through translational repression of specific target mRNAs. MiRNA expression has been associated with different diseases and physiological conditions. Moreover, miRNAs have been detected in different biological fluids and these circulating miRNAs can distinguish diseased individuals from healthy controls. The noninvasive nature of circulating miRNA detection, their disease specificity, and the availability of accurate techniques for detecting and monitoring these molecules has encouraged a pursuit of miRNA biomarker research and the evaluation of specific applications in the transplant field. miRNA expression might develop as excellent biomarkers of allograft injury and function. In this minireview, we summarize the main accomplishments of recently published reports focused on the identification of miRNAs as biomarkers in organ quality, ischemia-reperfusion injury, acute rejection, tolerance and chronic allograft dysfunction emphasizing their mechanistic and clinical potential applications and describing their methodological limitations.

Tumor-derived p53 mutants activate transcription from promoters of various growth-related genes. We tested whether this transactivation function of the mutant protein is sufficient to induce tumorigenesis ('gain of function'). Tumor-derived mutant p53-281G transactivates the promoters of human epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and human multiple drug resistance gene (MDR-1). To determine whether the C-terminal domain functions only as an oligomerization domain in mutant p53-mediated transactivation, we have replaced the tetramerization domain of p53 by a heterologous tetramerization domain; although this mutant protein formed tetramers in solution, it failed to transactivate significantly. Therefore, for successful mutant p53-mediated transactivation, sequences near the C-terminus of mutant p53 are required to perform functions in addition to tetramerization. We also demonstrate that co-expression of a deletion mutant of p53 (p53 del 1-293), which retains the p53 oligomerization domain, inhibits this transactivation. p53 del 1-293 co-immunoprecipitates with p53-281G suggesting that hetero-oligomers of p53-281G and p53 del 1-293 are defective in transactivation. We also show that a cell line stably transfected with p53-281G expresses higher levels of endogenous NF-kappaB and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) compared to that transfected with vector alone. On co-expression, p53 del 1-293 lowered the levels of NF-kappaB and PCNA in p53-281G-expressing cells. However, on co-expression, p53 del 1-293 did not inhibit the tumorigenicity and colony forming ability of p53-281G expressing cells. Our earlier work showed that a deletion of the C-terminal sequences of p53-281G overlapping the oligomerization domain obliterates 'gain of function'. Taken together, the above information suggests that the C-terminal sequences have some critical role in 'gain of function' in addition to transactivation.