Purpose: This study examined the effectiveness of early and prolonged mu4D5 (the murine form of trastuzumab/ Herceptin) treatment in transgenic mice that overexpress human HER2 (huHER2), under the murine mammary tumor virus promoter, as a model of huHER2-overexpressing breast cancer.Experimental Design: Mice were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups and received i.p. injections from 17 weeks of age until either 52 weeks of age or morbidity. Fourteen mice received 100 mg/kg mu4D5, 14 mice received 100 mg/kg antiherpes simplex virus glycoprotein D control antibody, and 11 mice received a diluent control.Results: High levels of huHER2 expression were detectable in mammary glands of young virgin founder mice. Mammary adenocarcinomas were frequently found in female founders and progeny at an average age of 28 weeks, with some progressing to metastatic disease. The incidence of mammary tumors was significantly reduced, and tumor growth inhibition was observed in mice receiving mu4D5 compared with control mice. In addition, Harderian gland neoplasms, highly associated with overexpression of hu-HER2 in this transgenic line, were entirely absent in the mu4D5 treatment group, indicating down-regulation of hu-HER2 in vivo activity.Conclusions: Early intervention with mu4D5 was of benefit in our transgenic mice at high risk for developing huHER2-overexpressing breast cancer. This study suggests a potential benefit of early treatment with Herceptin in HER2-positive primary breast cancer.

E1 ubiquitin activating enzyme catalyzes the initial step in all ubiquitin-dependent processes. We report the isolation of uba1-204, a temperature-sensitive allele of the essential Saccharomyces cerevisiae E1 gene, UBA1. Uba1-204 cells exhibit dramatic inhibition of the ubiquitin-proteasome system, resulting in rapid depletion of cellular ubiquitin conjugates and stabilization of multiple substrates. We have employed the tight phenotype of this mutant to investigate the role ubiquitin conjugates play in the dynamic interaction of the UbL/UBA adaptor proteins Rad23 and Dsk2 with the proteasome. Although proteasomes purified from mutant cells are intact and proteolytically active, they are depleted of ubiquitin conjugates, Rad23, and Dsk2. Binding of Rad23 to these proteasomes in vitro is enhanced by addition of either free or substrate-linked ubiquitin chains. Moreover, association of Rad23 with proteasomes in mutant and wild-type cells is improved upon stabilizing ubiquitin conjugates with proteasome inhibitor. We propose that recognition of polyubiquitin chains by Rad23 promotes its shuttling to the proteasome in vivo. INTRODUCTIONActivation of ubiquitin by ubiquitin-activating enzyme (E1) is the requisite first step in all ubiquitin-dependent pathways, including regulated proteolysis. The process begins with an ATP-dependent reaction in which the ubiquitin moiety forms a high-energy thioester bond with the active site cysteine of E1. E1 can then transfer the activated ubiquitin to a conjugating enzyme (E2), which acts alone or in conjunction with a ubiquitin ligase (E3) to covalently link ubiquitin to lysine residues on specific target proteins (Haas and Siepmann, 1997). Through successive ligation reactions, a polyubiquitin chain can form on the substrate and serve as a signal for targeting to the multisubunit 26S proteasome. Composed of a cylindrical 20S proteolytic core complex capped at one or both ends by 19S regulatory complexes, the proteasome deubiquitinates and unfolds substrates before translocating them into its core for proteolysis (Amerik and Hochstrasser, 2004;Pickart and Cohen, 2004).The existence of mammalian cell lines that carry temperature-sensitive alleles of E1 has been of great importance to the study of the functions of the ubiquitin system in animal cells Finley et al., 1984;Kulka et al., 1988;Salvat et al., 2000). Ironically, no tight, rapid-acting conditional mutation has been described for the budding yeast UBA1 gene that encodes E1 despite the availability of sophisticated molecular genetic techniques in this organism.Although a temperature-sensitive allele of UBA1 exists, this allele results in only moderate stabilization of tested substrates and possible defects in ubiquitination were not examined (McGrath, 1991;Gandre and Kahana, 2002). A second allele resulting from a transposon insertion upstream of the UBA1 coding sequence reduced wild-type Uba1 protein function, causing inefficient degradation of some proteins (Swanson and Hochstrasser, 2000). Additional alleles were later en...

Heregulins bind directly to ErbB3 and ErbB4 receptors, leading to multiple dimerization possibilities including heterodimerization with the ErbB2 receptor. We have generated ErbB3-, ErbB2- and heregulin-deficient mice to assess their roles in development and differentiation. Heregulin(−/−) and ErbB2(−/−) embryos died on E10.5 due to a lack of cardiac ventricular myocyte differentiation; ErbB3(−/−) embryos survived until E13.5 exhibiting cardiac cushion abnormalities leading to blood reflux through defective valves. In ErbB3(−/−) embryos, the midbrain/hindbrain region was strikingly affected, with little differentiation of the cerebellar plate. Cranial ganglia defects, while present in all three nulls, were less severe in ErbB3(−/−) embryos. The cranial ganglia defects, along with a dramatic reduction in Schwann cells, enteric ganglia and adrenal chromaffin cells, suggests a generalized effect on the neural crest. Numerous organs, including the stomach and pancreas also exhibited anomalous development.

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