Disease relevance of WNT2B

• WNT2B functions as the stem cell factor for neural or retinal progenitor cells during embryogenesis, and also for gastric cancer, esophageal cancer and skin basal cell carcinoma during carcinogenesis [1].
• Anti-WNT2B monoclonal antibodies, WNT2B RNAi compounds, or small molecule WNT2B inhibitors could be developed as novel therapeutic agents for gastric cancer and esophageal cancer in the field of clinical oncology [1].
• Human Wnt-13 is developmentally regulated during the differentiation of NTERA-2 pluripotent human embryonal carcinoma cells [2].
• The results showed that the expression of Wnt5a (41/45), Wnt10b (37/45), and Wnt13 (35/45) were found in brain tumors, whereas Wnt1 (6/45) was shown to be less related [3].

Psychiatry related information on WNT2B

• These results suggest that the Wnt-13 gene may be involved in normal human development or differentiation as well as in human carcinogenesis [4].

High impact information on WNT2B

• To understand the molecular mechanism that controls the prolonged progenitor cell proliferation in the ciliary marginal zone, we employed a candidate molecule approach, focusing on Wnt2b (formerly know as Wnt13), which is expressed in the marginal most tip of the retina [5].
• Mitochondrial and nuclear forms of Wnt13 are generated via alternative promoters, alternative RNA splicing, and alternative translation start sites [6].
• Wnt13 nuclear forms increased the beta-catenin/T-cell factor activity in HEK293 cells and increased apoptosis in bovine aortic endothelial cells [6].
• Altogether our results demonstrate that, in addition to alternative promoters and RNA splicing, an alternative translation start in Wnt13B and Wnt13C mRNAs increases the complexity of both human wnt13 expression and functions [6].
• The time course of induction, its induction by HMBA, and its persistence in differentiated cells indicate that Wnt-13 expression is not dependent upon direct activation by retinoic acid [2].

Biological context of WNT2B

• Soluble WNT2B protein or small molecule WNT2B mimic compounds could be developed for stem cell expansion in the fields of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine [1].
• In addition, the present study first demonstrated that WNT2B residing in the middle of the HSA1 region was assigned to SSC18 with a high lod score (> 5), and that at least three intrachromosomal rearrangements occurred in the region in the process of swine and human evolution [7].
• WNT2 gene on human chromosome 7q31 is a paralog of the WNT2B gene on human chromosome 1p13 [8].
• These results indicate evolutional conservation of ST7R-WNT2B gene cluster [9].
• WNT2B1 and WNT2B2 mRNAs, generated from the WNT2B gene due to alternative splicing of the alternative promoter type, encode almost identical polypeptides with divergence in the N-terminal region [10].

Anatomical context of WNT2B

• Anti-WNT2B monoclonal antibody could be applied as selection marker of stem cells in the field of stem cell biology [1].
• The Wnt-13 mRNA of 2.5 kb in size was detected in heart, brain, placenta, lung, prostate, testis, ovary, small intestine and colon of adult human and also in brain, lung and kidney of fetal human [4].
• Among various cancer cell lines, the Wnt-13 mRNA was detected in HeLa (cervical cancer), MKN28 and MKN74 (gastric cancer) [4].
• We note that Wnt-13 maps to chromosome 1p13, a region reported to be subject to relatively frequent loss of heterozygosity in germ cell tumours [2].
• Within the eye, Wnt-13 is expressed in the proliferative epithelium of the lens and both pigmented and non-pigmented layers of the ciliary margin [11].

Associations of WNT2B with chemical compounds

• Mammalian WNT2B orthologs acquired the transmembrane domain and integrin-targeting RGD motif during vertebrate evolution [1].
• Nucleotide sequence analysis indicated that the Wnt-13 gene encodes the protein of 372 amino acids, including a signal peptide, two potential N-glycosylation sites and 24 cystein residues highly conserved among members of the Wnt gene family [4].

Other interactions of WNT2B

• Wnt13 and beta-catenin showed significant differential expression patterns between the 2 tumor subtypes, and the results were confirmed by semiquantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction [12].
• Northern analysis confirmed induction of Wnt-13 as a 2.4 kb mRNA during the early phases of retinoic acid-induced differentiation, and during differentiation along a non-neural pathway induced by hexamethylene bisacetamide (HMBA), but not in the terminally differentiated neurons [2].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of WNT2B

• We have previously reported molecular cloning of WNT-2B/WNT-13 [13].
• We isolated a Macaca monkey Wnt-13 PCR fragment, orthologous to the human and murine Wnt-13 and Xenopus Wnt-2b, and a chick Wnt13 cDNA [11].

References