Replication-conditional viruses destroy tumors in a process referred to as viral oncolysis. An important prerequisite for this cancer therapy strategy is use of viruses that replicate preferentially in neoplastic cells. In this study the DF3/MUC1 promoter/enhancer sequence is used to regulate expression of gamma(1)34.5 to drive replication of a Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) mutant (DF3gamma34....

Adenoviruses are efficient gene delivery agents for a variety of neoplasms. In the present study, we have investigated the use of adenoviruses for the delivery of the thymidine kinase (tk) gene into multiple myeloma (MM) cells. We first demonstrated that MM cell lines and MM patient cells express both adenovirus receptors as well as the DF3/MUC1 protein, thus providing a rationale for using ade...

We have monitored the effects of sodium butyrate on expression of a human breast tumor-associated antigen defined by a murine monoclonal antibody designated DF3. This cell surface antigen has a molecular weight of approximately 300,000 and is related to a higher-molecular-weight antigen detectable in human milk. The results demonstrate that butyrate increases the membrane expression of the DF3 ...

The DF3/MUC1 mucin-like glycoprotein is aberrantly overexpressed in human hreast carcinomas. Although the precise functional role of this protein remains unclear, the cytoplasmic tail contains potential l\ rosine phosphorylation sites for binding to Src homology 2 (SH2) domains. In the present studies using human \KT-7 breast cancer cells, we show that l\ rosine phosphorylated DP~3 directly int...

The BAX proapoptotic protein is capable of inducing cell death either directly, through its effects on mitochondrial function, or indirectly, by lowering the apoptotic threshold in response to certain chemotherapy agents. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that selective expression of BAX in human ovarian cancer through adenoviral gene transfer might represent a novel approach to eradicati...

The gene for the human DF3 breast carcinoma-associated antigen contains a conserved (G + C)-rich 60-base pair tandem repeat and maps to chromosome 1q21-24. In the present study we isolated and characterized 1220 base pairs of nonrepetitive adjacent sequences. Multiple alleles were identified by fragment size. Signal intensity of hybrids with the tandem and unique sequence probes indicated that ...

BACKGROUND Pleomorphic adenoma of the salivary gland (PA) is essentially a benign neoplasm. However, patients with recurrent PA are difficult to manage. There are rare reports on useful immunohistochemical markers to detect a high risk of recurrence when the primary lesions are resected. AIMS To find a new marker to predict the recurrence of PA. METHODS Primary lesions of PA were collected ...

To investigate why responses of mast cells to antigen-induced IgE receptor (FcεRI) aggregation depend nonlinearly on antigen dose, we characterized a new artificial ligand, DF3, through complementary modeling and experimentation. This ligand is a stable trimer of peptides derived from bacteriophage T4 fibritin, each conjugated to a hapten (DNP). We found low and high doses of DF3 at which degra...

The DF3/MUC1 gene is aberrantly overexpressed in human breast and other carcinomas. Previous studies have demonstrated that the DF3/MUC1 promoter/enhancer confers selective expression of diverse transgenes in MUC1-positive breast cancer cells. In this study, we show that an adenoviral vector (Ad.DF3-E1) in which the DF3/MUC1 promoter drives expression of E1A selectively replicates in MUC1-posit...

Human epithelial mucin, MUC-1, is commonly expressed in adenocarcinoma including 80% of breast cancers. erbB-2 is overexpressed in approximately 30% of breast cancers. Expression of MUC-1 and erbB-2 may be partially overlapping but discoordinate. Therefore, combined use of antibodies directed against these two antigens might increase the number of patients who benefit from immunotherapy. Monocl...