Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts: Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound   Target Concepts: Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound

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Query: EC:3.4.22.56 (caspase-3)
35,750 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Villous trophoblast in the human placenta consists of a population of proliferating stem cells which differentiate and individually fuse into the syncytiotrophoblast. We studied the apoptotic cascade in this complex epithelial layer by immunohistochemical localization of Fas, FasL, Bcl-2, Mcl-1, pro-caspase-3 and caspase-3, T-cell-restricted intracellular antigen-related protein (TIAR), poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), lamin B, topoisomerase IIalpha, and transglutaminase II in cryostat and paraffin-fixed tissue sections from normal human first-trimester and term placental villi. The relationship between the apoptotic cascade and syncytial fusion was studied by coincubation of intact villi with FITC-coupled annexin-V, to detect the phosphatidylserine flip, and propidium iodide, to detect plasma membrane permeability. The final events of the apoptotic cascade were studied by the TUNEL reaction and ultrastructural appearance of the trophoblast. The phosphatidylserine flip was identified in some of the villous cytotrophoblastic cells, but the presence of both Bcl-2 and Mcl-1 proteins presumably prevented continuation of the apoptotic cascade. The syncytiotrophoblast demonstrated heterogeneous findings, suggesting variable progression along the apoptotic cascade. In some areas Bcl-2 and Mcl-1 predominated, with preservation of the nuclear proteins PARP, lamin B, and topoisomerase IIalpha; in other areas, especially in and around syncytial sprouts, Bcl-2 and Mcl-1 were absent, accompanied by loss of nuclear proteins, presence of phosphatidylserine flip, and TUNEL positivity. These data suggest that the apoptotic cascade is initiated in the villous cytotrophoblast, which in turn promotes syncytial fusion. Donation of anti-apoptotic proteins into the syncytium, such as Bcl-2 and Mcl-1, focally inhibits further progression along this cascade. Completion of the apoptotic cascade takes place in and around syncytial sprouts, providing further evidence that these are the sites of trophoblast shedding into the maternal circulation.
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PMID:Villous cytotrophoblast regulation of the syncytial apoptotic cascade in the human placenta. 982 29

The induction of apoptosis in T cells is one of several mechanisms by which tumors escape immune recognition. We have investigated whether tumors induce apoptosis in dendritic cells (DC) by co-culture of murine or human DC with different tumor cell lines for 4-48 h. Analysis of DC morphological features, JAM assay, TUNEL, caspase-3-like and transglutaminase activity, Annexin V binding, and DNA fragmentation assays revealed a time- and dose-dependent induction of apoptosis in DC by tumor-derived factors. This finding is both effector and target specific. The mechanism of tumor-induced DC apoptosis involved regulation of Bcl-2 and Bax expression. Double staining of both murine and human tumor tissues confirmed that tumor-associated DC undergo apoptotic death in vivo. DC isolated from tumor tissue showed significantly higher levels of apoptosis as determined by TUNEL assay when compared with DC isolated from spleen. These findings demonstrate that tumors induce apoptosis in DC and suggest a new mechanism of tumor escape from immune recognition. DC protection from apoptosis will lead to improvement of DC-based immunotherapies for cancer and other immune diseases.
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PMID:Tumor's other immune targets: dendritic cells. 1044 78

Tissue transglutaminase is a unique member of the transglutaminase family as it not only catalyzes a transamidating reaction, but also binds and hydrolyzes GTP and ATP. Tissue transglutaminase has been reported to be pro-apoptotic, however, conclusive evidence is still lacking. To elucidate the role of tissue transglutaminase in the apoptotic process human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells were stably transfected with vector only (SH/pcDNA), wild-type tissue transglutaminase (SH/tTG) and tissue transglutaminase that has no transamidating activity but retains its other functions (SH/C277S). In these studies three different apoptotic stimuli were used osmotic stress, staurosporine treatment and heat shock to delineate the role of tissue transglutaminase as a transamidating enzyme in the apoptotic process. In SH/tTG cells, osmotic stress and staurosporine treatments resulted in significantly greater caspase-3 activation and apoptotic nuclear changes then in SH/pcDNA or SH/C277S cells. This potentiation of apoptosis in SH/tTG cells was concomitant with a significant increase in the in situ transamidating activity of tissue transglutaminase. However, in the heat shock paradigm, which did not result in any increase in the transamidating activity in SH/tTG cells, there was a significant attenuation of caspase-3 activity, LDH release and apoptotic chromatin condensation in SH/tTG and SH/C277S cells compared with SH/pcDNA cells. These findings indicate for the first time that the effect of tissue transglutaminase on the apoptotic process is highly dependent on the type of the stimuli and how the transamidating activity of the enzyme is affected. Tissue transglutaminase facilitates apoptosis in response to stressors that result in an increase in the transamidating activity of the enzyme. However, when the stressors do not result in an increase in the transamidating activity of tissue transglutaminase, than tissue transglutaminase can ameliorate the apoptotic response through a mechanism that is independent of its transamidating function. Further, neither the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase pathway nor the extracellular-regulated kinase pathway is downstream of the modulatory effects of wild-type tissue transglutaminase or C277S-tissue transglutaminase in the apoptotic cascade.
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PMID:Tissue transglutaminase differentially modulates apoptosis in a stimuli-dependent manner. 1206 37

Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder caused by an abnormally expended polyglutamine domain. There is no effective treatment for HD; however, inhibition of caspase activity or prevention of mitochondria dysfunction delays disease progression in HD mouse models. Similarly administration of cystamine, which can inhibit transglutaminase, prolonged survival of HD mice, suggesting that inhibition of transglutaminase might provide a new treatment strategy. However, it has been suggested that cystamine may inhibit other thiol-dependent enzymes in addition to transglutaminase. In this study we show that cystamine inhibits recombinant active caspase-3 in a concentration-dependent manner. At low concentrations cystamine is an uncompetitive inhibitor of caspase-3 activity, becoming a non-competitive inhibitor at higher concentrations. The IC(50) for cystamine-mediated inhibition of caspase-3 activity in vitro was 23.6 microm. In situ cystamine inhibited in a concentration-dependent manner the activation of caspase-3 by different pro-apoptotic agents. Additionally, cystamine inhibited caspase-3 activity to the same extent in cell lines stably overexpressing wild type tissue transglutaminase (tTG), a mutant inactive tTG, or an antisense for tTG, demonstrating that cystamine inhibits caspase activity independently of any effects it may have on the transamidating activity of tTG. Finally, treatment with cystamine resulted in a robust increase in the levels of glutathione. These findings demonstrate that cystamine may prolong neuronal survival and delay the onset of HD by inhibiting caspases and increasing the level of antioxidants such as glutathione.
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PMID:Cystamine inhibits caspase activity. Implications for the treatment of polyglutamine disorders. 1245 11

Although the precise role of transglutaminase in cell death is unknown, several findings demonstrate that tissue transglutaminase selectively accumulates in cells undergoing apoptosis both in vivo and in vitro. Calcium-dependent transglutaminase reactions are also implicated in several neurodegenerative diseases, including alterations in the release of excitatory amino acids. One prevalent theme in cell damage induced by excitotoxic stimuli in different regions of the CNS is that apoptosis may be executed by intracellular caspase proteases. Furthermore, the presence of functional ion channel-gated receptors in glial cells suggests that also astrocytes can be susceptible to glutamate's toxic effects. In this study, we demonstrated that prolonged exposure to glutamate (100 microM) of cultured astrocytes caused an increase in the expression of tissue transglutaminase (tTG). This effect was prevented by preincubation with GYKI 52466, an antagonist of AMPA/KA receptors. Glutamate exposure also promoted an increase in caspase-3 compared with control cultures. Confocal laser microscopy analysis demonstrated the presence of activated caspase-3 in the cytoplasm as well as in the nucleus. The inhibition of TG-catalyzed reactions by cystamine (1 mM) blocked the activation pathway of caspase-3, with an evident reduction of enzyme cleavage. These results suggest that glutamate increased both TG and caspase-3 in astroglial cells early in the excitotoxin-induced events.
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PMID:Cystamine inhibits transglutaminase and caspase-3 cleavage in glutamate-exposed astroglial cells. 1313 May 5

Cultured epidermal autografts (CEA) have been used in the treatment of burns for almost two decades but the clinical results are still inconsistent. In a group of 37 patients with extensive burn wounds admitted to the University Hospital of Lausanne, CEA take ranged between 10 and 100% with a mean of 65%. To investigate CEA efficacy in burns, twelve CEA preparations were tested for their biological properties with particular emphasis on the balance between cell viability and apoptosis. Apoptosis was evaluated by in situ end-labeling (TUNEL), detection of DNA fragments in CEA extracts and analysis of caspase-3 activity. All CEA samples displayed a high cell viability (> 90%) and a low apoptosis rate (< 6%). However, several biological parameters including the activity of transglutaminase showed wide interindividual variability suggesting that CEA therapeutic efficacy could be partly determined by intrinsic biological factors.
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PMID:Quantitative assessment of cell viability and apoptosis in cultured epidermal autografts: application to burn therapy. 1465 59

The purpose of this study was to determine whether expression of tissue transglutaminase (TG2) and caspase-3 proteins in drug-resistant breast carcinoma MCF-7/DOX cells would render these cells selectively susceptible to apoptotic stimuli. Despite high resistance to multidrug resistance (MDR)-related drug, doxorubicin (> or =150-fold), the MCF-7/DOX cells were extremely sensitive to apoptotic stimuli. Thus, calcium ionophore, A23187 (A23187) and the protein kinase C inhibitor staurosporine (STS) each induced rapid and time-dependent apoptosis in MCF-7/DOX cells. The apoptosis induced by either agent was accompanied by caspase-3 activation and other downstream changes that are typical of cells undergoing apoptosis. The alterations upstream of caspase-3 activation, however, such as loss in mitochondrial membrane potential (DeltaPsi), release of cytochrome c, and activation of caspase-8, and caspase-9, were detected only in STS-treated cells. The A12387 failed to induce any of the caspase-3 upstream changes, implying that A23187-induced apoptosis may utilize one or more novel upstream pathways leading to the activation of caspase 3. In summary, these data demonstrate that MCF-7/DOX cells are much more sensitive to apoptotic stimuli than previously thought and that A23187-induced apoptosis may involve some novel, yet unidentified, upstream pathway that leads to the activation of caspase-3 and other downstream events.
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PMID:Drug-resistant breast carcinoma (MCF-7) cells are paradoxically sensitive to apoptosis. 1517 92

A novel paradigm of keratinocyte (KC) regulation via nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) has been discovered in studies of SLURP (secreted mammalian Ly-6/urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor-related protein)-1 in Mal de Meleda. We cloned human SLURP-1 and produced recombinant protein and the monoclonal antibody 336H12-1A3 that visualized native SLURP-1. SLURP-1 ligated the conventional ligand-binding site of KC nAChR, showing a higher affinity to the [(3)H]nicotine-, compared with the [(3)H]epibatidine-sensitive nAChR. SLURP-1 significantly (p<0.05) increased the activities of caspases 3 and 8, and the number of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end-labeling-positive cells. The pro-apoptotic activity of SLURP-1 exceeded that of tumor necrosis factor-alpha, suggesting the involvement of separate pathways. In a series of real-time PCR and in-cell western experiments, SLURP-1 significantly (p<0.05) upregulated expression of transglutaminase type I cytokeratin 10, p21, and caspase-3. In the presence of the agonist carbachol, the effects of SLURP-1 on gene expression were augmented, which is in keeping with the notion that SLURP-1 acts as an allosteric agonist at the KC nAChR. Thus, the changes in the cell state induced by SLURP-1 could result from nAChR-mediated effects on the KC gene expression. These results suggest that the biological role of SLURP-1 in the epidermis is to provide fine tuning of the physiologic regulation of KC functions through the cholinergic pathways.
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PMID:Biological effects of SLURP-1 on human keratinocytes. 1635 94

We analyzed the protective effect of 17beta-estradiol (17beta-ED) injection against delayed neuronal death in the hippocampus tissue of the brain in Mongolian gerbils after transient ischemia/recirculation treatment, especially in relation with bcl-2 gene expression and enzymatic activity changes of caspase-3 and tissue transglutaminase (tTGase). Daily intraperitoneal injection of 17beta-ED to the animal after the ischemia stimulated the expression of an apoptosis suppressor gene, bcl-2, in the hippocampal tissue for a week. The gradually increasing apoptotic enzyme activity of caspase-3 and increased number of TUNEL positive fragmented neuronal nuclei caused by ischemic attack in the gerbil brain were clearly suppressed by 17beta-ED administration. The reduced activity and enzyme protein of tTGase, a neurodegenerative marker of apoptosis in the hippocampus after ischemia, were also restored to nearly normal levels by 17beta-ED injection. These results suggest that daily 17beta-ED administration to the gerbil after transient ischemic insult with progressing neuronal deteriorative changes in hippocampus tissue can effectively prevent apoptotic changes through a molecular cascade involving gene expression regulation.
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PMID:Protective effect against 17beta-estradiol on neuronal apoptosis in hippocampus tissue following transient ischemia/recirculation in mongolian gerbils via down-regulation of tissue transglutaminase activity. 1687 59

3-Amino-2-keto-7H-thieno[2,3-b]pyridin-6-one derivatives were discovered as moderately potent inhibitors of ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase-L1 (UCH-L1) utilizing an assay that measures hydrolysis of the fluorogenic substrate Ub-AMC. SAR studies revealed that both the carboxylate at the 5-position and the 6-pyridone ring were critical for inhibitory activity. Furthermore, activity was dependent on the nature of the ketone substituent at the 2-position, with 4-Me-Ph and 2-naphthyl being best. Kinetic mechanism studies revealed that these compounds were uncompetitive inhibitors of UCH-L1, binding only to the Michaelis-complex and not to free enzyme. The active compounds were selective for UCH-L1, exhibiting neither inhibition of other cysteine hydrolases (e.g., UCH-L3, papain, isopeptidase T, caspase-3, and tissue transglutaminase) nor cytotoxicity in N2A cells.
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PMID:Structure-activity relationship, kinetic mechanism, and selectivity for a new class of ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase-L1 (UCH-L1) inhibitors. 1744 48


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