Consistent with this result, ZAR1-depleted NB cells showed well-differentiated phenotypes with elongated neurites and upregulated expression of TRKA and RET, which are markers for differentiated NB.
In addition, there was strong evidence against linkage to two Hirschsprung disease susceptibility genes (RET and EDNRB), a condition that can cosegregate with neuroblastoma as in one of the kindreds tested here.
Identification and analysis of the ret proto-oncogene promoter region in neuroblastoma cell lines and medullary thyroid carcinomas from MEN2A patients.
Taken together, these results indicate that GDNF up-regulates the expression of the TH gene by promoting the transcription of the TH gene and the stability of TH mRNA with the Ret receptor dependency in some neuroblastoma cell lines.
The level of tyrosine phosphorylation of the 150 kDa proto-Ret protein was approximately 10-fold higher than that of the 170 kDa proto-Ret protein, although both proteins were expressed at similar levels in neuroblastoma cells.
Furthermore, there is strong evidence against linkage to two Hirschsprung disease (a condition that can cosegregate with neuroblastoma) susceptibility genes, RET and EDNRB.
The anti-RET antibodies were reactive with 64-kDa (p64ptc-1) and 81-kDa (p81ptc-2) proteins from lysates of ptc-1 and ptc-2 transformed cells, respectively, and identified two proteins of 140 kDa and 160 kDa from extracts of SK-N-SH, a neuroblastoma cell line previously shown to express two differently glycosylated forms of the normal RET product.
In the present study, we generated a novel monoclonal antibody (NBL-1) to RET, a receptor tyrosine kinase expressed in both neuroblastoma cells and cells present in substantia nigra, a responsive locus of Parkinson's disease.
We demonstrate that ETV5 is regulated both at the protein and mRNA levels upon ALK activation or inhibition in neuroblastoma cell lines and that this regulation precedes RET modulation.
These analyses were performed using both RET cDNA cloned from a pheochromocytoma library and reverse transcriptase PCR products generated using RNA from a neuroblastoma cell line (LA-N-2).
Furthermore, the antibodies detected a unique 190 kd protein as well as 150 kd protein in a cell lysate from THP-1 human monocytic leukemia cell line, suggesting that glycosylated forms of the c-ret protein are different between neuroblastoma and leukemia cells.
Inhibitors of the RET kinase and the RAS-MAPK pathway have previously been shown to be effective against neuroblastoma, suggesting that combined inhibition may have increased efficacy.
Altogether, our findings demonstrate the critical role of activated ALK in SNS development and pathogenesis and identify RET as a therapeutic target in ALK mutated neuroblastoma.
Taken together these data suggest that abnormalities of the RET signalling pathway, rather than oncogenic, MEN2-type RET activation by mutation, may play a role in neuroblastoma tumorigenesis.
RET expression is enhanced in vitro by several differentiating agents, including retinoic acid (RA), which up-regulates RET expression in neuroblastoma cell lines.
In summary, our study suggests that RET is a potential therapeutic target in NB, and that using a novel RET inhibitor, like regorafenib, should be investigated as a therapeutic treatment option for children with NB.
We have also demonstrated by the in vitro premethylation of a RET promoter-chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) gene construct and transient transfection experiments into neuroblastoma cells that the transcriptional activity of the RET promoter is decreased by HpaII (5'-CCGG-3') methylation and abolished by SssI (5'-CG-3') methylation.