cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the Western world. It is a disease of insidious progression and high lethality, with a 5 year survival rate of only 6%. In spite of significant advances in pancreatic cancer research, current therapies are ineffective and fail to significantly extend lifespan. Thus, there is an urgent need for novel and improved therapies for this disease. A...

The majority of the GTP-binding proteins of the Ras superfamily hydrolyze GTP to GDP very slowly. A notable exception to this are the Rac proteins, which have intrinsic GTPase rates at least 50-fold those of Ras or Rho. A protein (or proteins) capable of inhibiting this GTPase activity exists in human neutrophil cytosol. Since Rac appears to exist normally in neutrophils as a cytosolic protein ...

Rho family GTPases are important regulators of the actin cytoskeleton. Activation of these proteins can be promoted by guanine nucleotide exchange factors containing Dbl and Pleckstrin homology domains resulting in membrane insertion of a Rho family member, whereas the inactive GDP-bound form is sequestered primarily in the cytoplasm, bound to the guanosine dissociation inhibitor RhoGDI. Domina...

Rho GTPases regulate the morphology of cells stimulated by extracellular ligands. Their activation is controlled by guanine exchange factors (GEF) that catalyze their binding to GTP. The multidomain Trio protein represents an emerging class of &Rgr; regulators that contain two GEF domains of distinct specificities. We report here the characterization of Rho signaling pathways activated by the N...

The ARF6 GTPase, the least conserved member of the ADP ribosylation factor (ARF) family, associates with the plasma membrane and intracellular endosome vesicles. Mutants of ARF6 defective in GTP binding and hydrolysis have a marked effect on endocytic trafficking and the gross morphology of the peripheral membrane system. Here we report that expression of the GTPase-defective mutant of ARF6, AR...

ownload huosis is a unique form of nonapoptotic cell death triggered by alterations in the trafficking of clathrinndent endosomes, ultimately leading to extreme vacuolization and rupture of the cell. Methuosis can be d in glioblastoma cells by expression of constitutively active Ras. This study identifies the small GTPases, nd Arf6, and the Arf6 GTPase-activating protein, GIT1, as key downstrea...

Tiam1 (T-lymphoma invasion and metastasis 1) is one of the known guanine nucleotide (GDP/GTP) exchange factors (GEFs) for Rho GTPases (e.g., Rac1) and is expressed in breast tumor cells (e.g., SP-1 cell line). Immunoprecipitation and immunoblot analyses indicate that Tiam1 and the cytoskeletal protein, ankyrin, are physically associated as a complex in vivo. In particular, the ankyrin repeat do...

rho GDP dissociation inhibitor (GDI) is an inhibitory GDP/GTP exchange protein for a group of small GTP-binding proteins including at least rhoA p21, rhoB p21, rac1 p21, rac2 p21, and G25K. Microinjection of rho GDI into Swiss 3T3 cells made the cells round and refractile. This morphological change was accompanied by the disappearance of stress fibers. The rho GDI action was prevented by comicr...

Rho GTPases are critical for actin cytoskeletal regulation, and alterations in their activity may contribute to altered cytoskeletal organization that characterizes many pathological conditions, including ischemia. G protein activity is a function of the ratio of GTP-bound (active) to GDP-bound (inactive) protein, but the effect of altered energy metabolism on Rho protein activity has not been ...

Activation of the superoxide-generating NADPH oxidase of phagocytes is the result of the assembly of a membrane-localized flavocytochrome (cytochrome b(559)) with the cytosolic components p47(phox), p67(phox), and the small GTPase Rac. Activation can be reproduced in an in vitro system in which cytochrome b(559)-containing membranes are mixed with cytosolic components in the presence of an anio...