Understanding the mechanisms of FHIT inactivation in cervical cancer for biomarker development.

Objective: Loss of the fragile histidine triad (Fhit) protein has been documented in cervical cancer and dysplasia. The goal of this study was to confirm the utility of homozygous deletions, aberrant methylation, and immunohistochemical evaluations of FHIT as functionally relevant determinants of FHIT expression.

Methods: We studied matched DNA, RNA, and protein from nine early-passage cervical cancer cell lines.

Expression of several genes in the human chromosome 3p21.3 homozygous deletion region by an adenovirus vector results in tumor suppressor activities in vitro and in vivo.

A group of candidate tumor suppressor genes (designated CACNA2D2, PL6, 101F6, NPRL2, BLU, RASSF1, FUS1, HYAL2, and HYAL1) has been identified in a 120-kb critical tumor homozygous deletion region (found in lung and breast cancers) of human chromosome 3p21.3. We studied the effects of six of these 3p21.

Epigenetic inactivation of RASSF1A in lung and breast cancers and malignant phenotype suppression.

Background: The recently identified RASSF1 locus is located within a 120-kilobase region of chromosome 3p21.3 that frequently undergoes allele loss in lung and breast cancers. We explored the hypothesis that RASSF1 encodes a tumor suppressor gene for lung and breast cancers.

Genomic organization and cloning of the human homologue of murine Sipa-1.

Murine Sipa-1 (signal-induced proliferation associated protein) is a mitogen induced GTPase activating protein (GAP). While mapping candidate genes for multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) at 11q13, we cloned the human homologue of Sipa-1. Herein, we report the complete cDNA sequence, expression, and genomic organization of SIPA-1.

PRIMO: A primer design program that applies base quality statistics for automated large-scale DNA sequencing.

PRIMO is a computer program that designs walking primers for large-scale DNA sequencing projects. Oligonucleotide primers are predicted automatically, using quality information associated with each base call, eliminating the need for manually viewing the sequence traces or inspecting contig assemblies to determine appropriate locations for primer design. This allows PRIMO to run in batch mode on an arbitrarily large number of templates.