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Updated: Aug 15, 2026

Repressing Gene Transcription by Redirecting Cellular Machinery with Chemical Epigenetic Modifiers
Published on: September 20, 2018
Mechanism of regulation of complement receptor type 1 transcription by cytosine arabinoside in a pre-erythroid model
1Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, USA.
Binding to erythrocyte complement receptor type 1 (CR1) clears immune complexes from blood and tissues, preventing complement-mediated pathological inflammation in disease. Previous work has demonstrated that Ara-C, a cytosine analogue, induces an 11-fold increase in CR1 mRNA expression in K-562 erythroleukaemia cells. In this work we therefore investigated whether the Ara-C/K-562 system could be used as a model for studying the pre-erythroid regulation of CR1. We demonstrated that increased CR1 expression could be induced independently of increased haemoglobin expression. Increases in CR1 mRNA levels produced by Ara-C treatment were not a function of increased stability of the message. However, Ara-C induced a protein synthesis-dependent increase in transcription initiation rate as early as 12h after treatment. Further data suggest that the effect of Ara-C on transcription is not a result of its direct DNA-damaging or DNA polymerase-inhibition activities. Induction of receptor transcription was inhibited by tyrosine kinase (TK) and protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitors. These data suggest that TK, PKC and dCTP-adducted phospholipid signalling pathways may all play a role in the mechanism of Ara-C-induced CR1 transcription.
Binding to erythrocyte complement receptor type 1 (CR1) clears immune complexes from blood and tissues, preventing complement-mediated pathological inflammation in disease. Previous work has demonstrated that Ara-C, a cytosine analogue, induces an 11-fold increase in CR1 mRNA expression in K-562 erythroleukaemia cells. In this work we therefore investigated whether the Ara-C/K-562 system could be used as a model for studying the pre-erythroid regulation of CR1. We demonstrated that increased CR1 expression could be induced independently of increased haemoglobin expression. Increases in CR1 mRNA levels produced by Ara-C treatment were not a function of increased stability of the message. However, Ara-C induced a protein synthesis-dependent increase in transcription initiation rate as early as 12h after treatment. Further data suggest that the effect of Ara-C on transcription is not a result of its direct DNA-damaging or DNA polymerase-inhibition activities. Induction of receptor transcription was inhibited by tyrosine kinase (TK) and protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitors. These data suggest that TK, PKC and dCTP-adducted phospholipid signalling pathways may all play a role in the mechanism of Ara-C-induced CR1 transcription.
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