Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.4.22.36 (caspase-1)
 6,285 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) affects the growth of carcinoma cells, and we thus analyzed its underlying mechanisms. Carcinoma cells constitutively express LIF mRNA, and 23 lines (92.0%) and all (100%) of 25 lines express LIF receptor mRNAs of LIFRbeta and gp130, respectively. Exogenous addition of LIF promoted significant cell proliferation in 4 lines (MCF-7, ZR-75-1, Hs-700T and Panc-1) and suppressed cell growth in 3 lines (AZ-521, GBK-1 and HT-29). LIF significantly induced an immediate early response of genes c-fos and junB 3 hr after stimulation, but not of c-jun during the process of proliferation of MCF-7 and Hs-700T cells, with maximum levels at 30-60 min. The cell-cycle-related gene cyclin E was also induced in MCF-7 and Hs-700T cells, whereas cyclinA, cdk2, c-myc, c-myb and p53 mRNAs were not induced. On the other hand, LIF inhibited growth and increased the rate of cell death of AZ-521 and GBK-1 cells. LIF increased the number of TUNEL-positive cells in AZ-521 cells and DNA fragmentation in AZ-521 and GBK-1 cells. LIF induced apoptosis related genes c-myc and ICE during suppression of cell growth, but p53, p21, c-fos, cyclin A and cyclin E were not induced. Our results suggest that LIF is linked to cell proliferation and apoptosis in some human carcinoma cell lines. It is considered that this is related to differences in signal transduction and induction of oncogenes.
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PMID:Leukemia inhibitory factor induces apoptosis and proliferation of human carcinoma cells through different oncogene pathways. 925 11

Previous work identified a developmental timer that controls the stability of cyclin A protein in interphase-arrested Xenopus embryos. It was shown that cyclins A1 and A2 abruptly become unstable in hydroxyurea-treated embryos at the time that untreated embryos are beginning gastrulation (early gastrulation transition; EGT). We have demonstrated here that cyclins A1 and A2 are degraded at the equivalent of the EGT by the ICE-like caspases that are responsible for programmed cell death or apoptosis. Analysis of embryos treated with hydroxyurea or cycloheximide showed widespread cellular apoptosis coincident with cyclin A cleavage. Our data further indicate that the apoptotic pathway is present in Xenopus embryos prior to the EGT; however, it is maintained in an inactive state in early cleaving embryos by maternally encoded inhibitors. Characterization of the timing of the activation of apoptosis implicates the initiation of zygotic transcription at the mid-blastula transition (MBT) in the suppression of apoptosis in normal embryos. The decreased biosynthetic capacity of embryos treated with hydroxyurea or cycloheximide most likely interferes with the ability to maintain sufficient levels of apoptotic inhibitors and results in widespread apoptosis. Our results suggest a scenario whereby the apoptotic pathway is suppressed in the early cleaving embryo by maternally contributed inhibitors. Degradation at the EGT of maternal RNAs encoding these inhibitors is compensated for by new zygotic transcription beginning at the MBT. This indicates that the interval between the MBT and the EGT represents a critical developmental period during which the regulation of embryonic cellular processes is transferred from maternal to zygotic control.
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PMID:Developmentally regulated activation of apoptosis early in Xenopus gastrulation results in cyclin A degradation during interphase of the cell cycle. 927 59

A tumor-suppressor gene, p16(INK4), which is deleted or mutated in tumors, regulates cell-cycle progression through a G(1)-S restriction point by inhibiting CDK4(CDK6)/cyclin-D-mediated phosphorylation of pRb. We have found that ectopic p16(INK4) expression increased cellular sensitivity of human non-small-cell-lung-cancer (NSCLC) A549 cells to a selective growth-inhibitory effect induced by the topoisomerase-I inhibitor 11, 7-ethyl-10-[4-(1-piperidino)-1-piperidino] carbonyloxy camptothecin (CPT-11) in vitro. In this study, we observed enhanced apoptosis characterized by DNA fragmentation in A549 cells transfected with p16(INK4) cDNA (A549/p16-1) and treated with CPT-11. This apoptosis was suppressed by the inhibitor of interleukin-1beta-converting enzyme (ICE/caspase-1) or ICE-like proteases, Z-Asp-CH2-DCB, as determined by DNA fragmentation and proteolytic cleavage of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase, a natural substrate for CPP32/caspase-3. In A549/p16-1 cells, cytosolic peptidase activities that cleaved Z-DEVD-7-amino-4-trifluoromethylcoumarin increased during CPT-11-induced apoptosis and were suppressed by a highly specific caspase-3 and caspase-3-like inhibitor, Z-DEVD-fluoromethylketone. These findings indicate that p16(INK) is positively involved in the activation pathway of the caspase-3 induced by CPT-11. The increased delay in S-phase progression and subsequent induction of apoptosis were observed in CPT-11-treated A549/p16-1 cells on the basis of DNA histograms. Specific down-regulation of the cyclin-A protein level in A549/p16-1 cells was observed after CPT-11-treatment, whereas cyclin B, cdk2, and cdc2 protein levels were unaffected. These results suggest that ectopic p16(INK4) expression inappropriately decreases cyclin A and thereby terminates CPT-11-induced G(2)/M accumulation, which is followed by increased apoptosis in p16(INK4)-expressing A549 cells.
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PMID:Ectopic p16(ink4) expression enhances CPT-11-induced apoptosis through increased delay in S-phase progression in human non-small-cell-lung-cancer cells. 1073 46