Disease relevance of CDH4

• Analysis of human primary tumors revealed that the CDH4 gene is methylated in 78% (38 of 49) of colorectal and 95% (20 of 21) of gastric carcinomas [1].
• Frequent aberrant methylation of the CDH4 gene promoter in human colorectal and gastric cancer [1].

Psychiatry related information on CDH4

• All cases of RCAD belonged to bipolar affective disorder [2].

High impact information on CDH4

• Our results indicate that CDH4 may act as a tumor suppressor gene in human gastrointestinal tumors and can potentially be used as an early diagnostic marker for gastrointestinal tumorigenesis [1].
• In this study, we show that inappropriate expression of R-cadherin in tumor cells results in decreased expression of endogenous cadherins (cadherin switching) and sustained signaling through Rho GTPases [3].
• R-cadherin influences cell motility via Rho family GTPases [3].
• In addition, our data suggest that R-cadherin is a specific diagnostic marker for RMS and is also an important factor of RMS cell proliferation [4].
• We show that a decrease of R-cadherin expression using RNA interference inhibits cell proliferation of the RD cell line [4].

Biological context of CDH4

• We also proved that CDH4 methylation can be revealed in the peripheral blood of cancer patients [1].
• These results are consistent with the zipper model, in which the extracellular domain 1 of Cdh4 has intrinsic strand dimer formation activity in addition to adhesion dimer formation activity, both of which are involved in cell adhesion activity [5].
• To clarify the structural basis of the cell adhesion activity of cadherins, we examined the effects of point mutations of well-conserved amino acid residues in the extracellular domain 1 of cadherin-4 (Cdh4) on the adhesion properties by alanine scanning mutagenesis [5].
• Assignment of cadherin-4 (R-cadherin, CDH4) to human chromosome band 20q13.3 [6].

Anatomical context of CDH4

• In addition, we show that R-cadherin induces cell motility when expressed in epithelial cells and that this increased motility is dependent upon Rho GTPase activity [3].
• In contrast, R-cadherin is found expressed in RMS, whereas it is normally absent in normal myoblasts [4].
• Here, we summarize experiments that probe the developmental expression and potential significance of a set of cadherins, including M-, N- and R-cadherin, for patterning of the cerebellar cortex [7].

Other interactions of CDH4

• T cadherin, R-cadherin and VE-cadherin 2 were found in specific regions of the vascular tree but their role in vascular development or angiogenesis is still unclear [8].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of CDH4

• RCAD when compared with non-rapid cycling bipolar affective disorder (BPAD) revealed a significantly longer mean duration of illness, greater number of total episodes, greater number of hospitalizations and stronger family loading of bipolar affective disorder [2].

References