Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.4.22.56 (caspase-3)
35,750 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The bcl-2 protein plays an essential role in preventing cell death. Its activity is regulated through association with bcl-2 homologous and nonhomologous proteins and also by serine phosphorylation. We now report that bcl-2 can be proteolytically cleaved towards its N-terminus by a cysteine proteinase present in RL-7 lymphoma cell lysates, yielding a major product of apparent MW 20 kDa, different from the products of bcl-2 cleavage by HIV protease. Moreover, bcl-2 proteins mutated for Asp residues at positions 31 and 34 were efficiently cleaved by RL-7 cell lysates, indicating that this proteolytic activity is distinct from the caspase-3 that cleaves bcl-2 at Asp 34. This bcl-2 cleaving activity is inhibited by E-64 and is therefore distinct from the proteinases of the ICE/Ced-3 family (caspases), whereas reciprocally, ICE (caspase-1) is unable to cleave bcl-2. It is optimally active at pH 5, a feature distinguishing it from calpain, another non-ICE cysteine proteinase which has been associated with apoptosis. This novel bcl-2 cleaving protease, although constitutively present in RL-7 cells and resting peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) was upregulated following induction of apoptosis in RL-7 cells or mitogen activation in PBL. The N-terminus of bcl-2 which contains the BH4 domain that binds the kinase Raf-1 and the phosphatase calcineurin is essential for anti-apoptotic activity. Its cleavage might provide a novel post-translational mechanism for regulating bcl-2 function and could amplify ongoing programmed cell death.
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PMID:N-terminus cleavage of bcl-2 by a novel cellular non-ICE cysteine proteinase. 973 98

Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) is a nuclear enzyme, which is activated by DNA strand breaks. Although PARP is known to be cleaved by the cysteine protease, caspase-3/CPP32, during apoptosis, signal cascade which regulates the PARP activity has not been fully understood. In this study, we investigated post-translational modification of PARP. We found that PARP was phosphorylated by a serine kinase in vivo. PARP was activated temporarily and extensive auto-modification occurred on PARP, possibly by the fragmented DNA during apoptosis induced by etoposide in Jurkat cells. However, the phosphorylation level was not changed for up to 6 h, after PARP cleavage began in apoptosis by the treatment with etoposide. Furthermore, we showed the presence of a PARP-associated kinase in nuclear extracts of the HTLV-I infected T-cell lines but not in uninfected T-cell lines, whereas this kinase did not inhibit the PARP activity even in the presence of ATP. Taken together, in vivo phosphorylation of PARP might be independent of the activation or cleavage of PARP.
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PMID:In vivo phosphorylation of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase is independent of its activation. 978 97

p21-activated protein kinase gamma-PAK (Pak2, PAK I) is cleaved by CPP32 (caspase 3) during apoptosis and plays a key role in regulation of cell death. In vitro, CPP32 cleaves recombinant gamma-PAK into two peptides; 1-212 contains the majority of the regulatory domain whereas 213-524 contains 34 amino acids of the regulatory domain plus the entire catalytic domain. Following cleavage, both peptides become autophosphorylated with [gamma-32P]ATP. Peptide 1-212 migrates at 27,000 daltons (p27) upon SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and at 32,000 daltons following autophosphorylation on serine (p27P); the catalytic subunit migrates at 34,000 daltons (p34) before and after autophosphorylation on threonine. Following caspase cleavage, a significant lag (approximately 5 min) is observed before autophosphorylation and activity are detected. When gamma-PAK is autophosphorylated with ATP(Mg) alone and then cleaved, only p27 contains phosphate, and the enzyme is inactive with exogenous substrate. After autophosphorylation of gamma-PAK in the presence of Cdc42(GTPgammaS) or histone 4, both cleavage products contain phosphate and gamma-PAK is catalytically active. Mutation of the conserved Thr-402 to alanine greatly reduces autophosphorylation and protein kinase activity following cleavage. Thus activation of gamma-PAK via cleavage by CPP32 is a two-step mechanism wherein autophosphorylation of the regulatory domain is a priming step, and activation coincides with autophosphorylation of the catalytic domain.
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PMID:Cleavage and activation of p21-activated protein kinase gamma-PAK by CPP32 (caspase 3). Effects of autophosphorylation on activity. 978 69

Removal of nerve growth factor (NGF) from sympathetic neurons initiates a neuronal death program and apoptosis. We show that pituitary adenylyl cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) prevents apoptosis in NGF-deprived sympathetic neurons. PACAP (100 nM) added to culture medium at the time of plating failed to support neuronal survival. However, in neurons grown for 2 days with NGF and then deprived of NGF, PACAP prevented cell death for the next 24-48 h. Uptake of [3H]norepinephrine ([3H]NE) was used as an index of survival and decreased >50% in NGF-deprived cultures within 24 h. PACAP (1-100 nM) restored [3H]NE uptake to 92 +/- 8% of that of NGF-supported controls. Depolarization-induced [3H]NE release in neurons rescued by PACAP was the same as that in NGF-supported neurons. PACAP rescue was not mimicked by forskolin or 8-bromo-cyclic AMP and was not blocked by the protein kinase A inhibitor Rp-adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphothioate. Mobilization of phosphatidylinositol by muscarine failed to support NGF-deprived neurons. Thus, PACAP may use novel signaling to promote survival of sympathetic neurons. The apoptosis-associated caspase CPP32 activity increased approximately fourfold during 6 h of NGF withdrawal (145 +/- 40 versus 38 +/- 17 nmol of substrate cleaved/min/mg of protein) and returned to even below the control level in NGF-deprived, PACAP-rescued cultures (14 +/- 7 nmol/min/mg of protein). Readdition of NGF or PACAP to NGF-deprived cultures reversed CPP32 activation, and this was blocked by lactacystin, a potent and specific inhibitor of the 20S proteasome, suggesting that NGF and PACAP target CPP32 for destruction by the proteasome. As PACAP is a preganglionic neurotransmitter in autonomic ganglia, we propose a novel function for this transmitter as an apoptotic rescuer of sympathetic neurons when the supply of NGF is compromised.
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PMID:Pituitary adenylyl cyclase-activating polypeptide and nerve growth factor use the proteasome to rescue nerve growth factor-deprived sympathetic neurons cultured from chick embryos. 979 12

Exposure of the two related human leukemic cell lines U937 and TUR to chemotherapeutic compounds resulted in opposite effects on induction and resistance to apoptosis. Incubation of U937 cells with 1-beta-d-arabinofuranosylcytosine or the etoposide VP-16 was accompanied by growth arrest in G0/G1 of the cell cycle and an accumulation of a population in the sub-G1 phase which exhibited characteristics typical for the apoptotic pathway. In contrast, human TUR leukemia cells demonstrated no significant effects after a similar treatment with Ara-C and VP-16. Thus, TUR cells continued to proliferate in the presence of these anti-cancer drugs and the number of apoptotic cells as evaluated by propidium iodide staining and the detection of internucleosomal DNA fragmentation was significantly reduced when compared to the parental U937 cells. Similar effects were observed upon serum-starvation demonstrating resistance to apoptosis in TUR cells. Whereas induction of apoptosis is regulated by a network of distinct factors including the activation of proteolytically active caspases, we investigated these pathways in both cell lines. U937 cells demonstrated activation of the 32-kDa caspase-3 upon drug treatment by cleavage into the 20-kDa activated form. However, there was no 20-kDa caspase-3 fragment detectable in TUR cells. Simultaneously, the enzymatic activity of caspase-3 was significantly increased in drug-treated U937 cells as measured in vitro by enhanced metabolization of a fluorescence substrate and in vivo by cleavage of an appropriate substrate for caspase-3, namely, protein kinase Cdelta. In contrast, there was little if any caspase-3 activation detectable in drug-treated TUR cells. Taken together, these data suggest a signaling defect in the activation of the caspase-3 proteolytic system in TUR cells upon treatment with chemotherapeutic compounds which is associated with resistance to apoptosis in these human leukemia cells.
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PMID:Signaling defect in the activation of caspase-3 and PKCdelta in human TUR leukemia cells is associated with resistance to apoptosis. 1006 81

The stimulation of caspases is a critical event in apoptotic cell death. Several kinases critically involved in cell proliferation pathways have been shown to be cleaved by caspase-mediated mechanisms. Thus, the degradation of delta protein kinase C (PKC) and MEKK-1 by caspase-3 generates activated fragments corresponding to their catalytic domains, consistent with the observations that both enzymes are important for apoptosis. In contrast, other kinases reported to have anti-apoptotic properties, such as Raf-1 and Akt, are inactivated by proteolytic degradation by the caspase system. Since the atypical PKCs have been shown to play critical roles in cell survival, in the study reported here we have addressed the potential degradation of these PKCs by the caspase system in UV-irradiated HeLa cells. Herein we show that although zetaPKC and lambda/iotaPKC are both inhibited in UV-treated cells, only zetaPKC but not lambda/iotaPKC is cleaved by a caspase-mediated process. This cleavage generates a fragment that corresponds to its catalytic domain that is enzymatically inactive. The sequence where caspase-3 cleaves zetaPKC was mapped, and a mutant resistant to degradation was shown to protect cells from apoptosis more efficiently than the wild-type enzyme.
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PMID:Cleavage of zetaPKC but not lambda/iotaPKC by caspase-3 during UV-induced apoptosis. 1019 49

Cerebellar granule neurons cultured in medium containing a physiological concentration of KCl (5 mM) undergo apoptosis. The cells can be rescued by the in vitro addition of NMDA. The protective effect of NMDA is thought to reflect the in vivo innervation of developing cerebellar granule neurons by glutamatergic afferents. In the current work, we investigated the mechanism of the anti-apoptotic (protective) effect of NMDA. NMDA treatment reduced caspase-3-like activity in cerebellar granule neurons, and the time course and concentration dependence of the protective effect of NMDA mirrored the ability of NMDA to induce brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression. Furthermore, a Trk receptor antagonist, K252a, as well as a blocking antibody to BDNF, attenuated the protective effects of both NMDA and BDNF. These results suggest that NMDA-induced BDNF expression mediates the anti-apoptotic effect of NMDA. The protective effects of NMDA and BDNF were reduced by inhibitors of the phosphatidylinositol 3'-OH kinase (PI 3-kinase) signal transduction cascade (wortmannin and LY29004) but not by a MAP kinase kinase (MEK) inhibitor (PD98059) or a protein kinase A inhibitor (Rp-cAMPS). BDNF increased phosphorylation of Akt, a target of PI 3-kinase, and NMDA also induced Akt phosphorylation, but only after an exposure that was long enough to induce BDNF expression. Furthermore, ethanol, which interferes with NMDA receptor function, inhibited the NMDA-induced increase in BDNF levels but did not block the protective effect of BDNF. These findings further support the role of BDNF in the anti-apoptotic effect of NMDA in cerebellar granule neurons and suggest that the NMDA-BDNF interaction may play a key role in in vivo cerebellar granule neuron development, as well as in the deleterious effects of ethanol on the developing cerebellum.
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PMID:Brain-derived neurotrophic factor mediates the anti-apoptotic effect of NMDA in cerebellar granule neurons: signal transduction cascades and site of ethanol action. 1021 87

Exposure of human keratinocyte HaCaT cells to ultraviolet B-irradiation induced apoptotic morphologic changes. In this study, we found that the ultraviolet B irradiation (0.25 J per cm2) induced phosphorylation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase and c-jun N-terminal protein kinase, and also significant activation of caspase-3 (CPP32-like protease) and a small increase of caspase-1 (ICE-like protease) activity in the early stages of ultraviolet B-induced apoptosis. Pretreatments of the cells with a p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase inhibitor, SB203580, and a caspase-3 inhibitor, Ac-Asp-Met-Gln-Asp-1-aldehyde, suppressed the ultraviolet B irradiation-induced apoptosis by approximately 60% as estimated by nuclear staining and DNA laddering. Pretreatment with caspase-1 inhibitor, Ac-Tyr-Val-Lys-Asp-aldehyde was without effect. Ultraviolet B-induced caspase-3 activation resulted in cleavage of poly(ADP) ribose polymerase, which was abolished by the caspase-3 inhibitor. SB203580 pretreatment prevented activation of caspase-3 and caspase-1, and also suppressed the cleavage of poly(ADP) ribose polymerase. Neither ceramide generation nor sphingomyelinase activation (neutral and acid) was observed in the ultraviolet B-irradiated HaCaT cells. Also various antioxidants did not affect the caspase activation induced by ultraviolet B irradiation. These results indicated that activation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase upstream of caspases may play an important part in the apoptotic process of keratinocytes exposed to ultraviolet B irradiation.
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PMID:Activation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase and caspases in UVB-induced apoptosis of human keratinocyte HaCaT cells. 1023 70

Treatment of neutrophils with tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) in the presence of cycloheximide induced apoptosis within 3 h, as evaluated by the occurrence of morphological nuclear changes characteristic of apoptosis. Pretreatment of neutrophils with dibutyryl cyclic AMP (dbcAMP) suppressed the TNF-alpha/cycloheximide-induced apoptosis in neutrophils in a concentration-dependent manner, while dbcAMP by itself did not induce any morphological changes. Forskolin, or a phosphodiesterase inhibitor, also produced a concentration-dependent inhibition on apoptosis. This inhibition by dbcAMP was completely reversed by pretreatment with the protein kinase A inhibitor, N-[2-(p-bromocinnamylamino) ethyl]-5-isoquinoline sulphonamide (H-89). DbcAMP also inhibited the TNF-alpha/cycloheximide-induced activation of caspase-3, but it had no effect on the activation of caspase-8 in human neutrophils. Furthermore, dbcAMP did not directly inhibit activated caspase-3 activity. Inhibitor of protein kinase C, phosphatidylcholine-specific phospholipase C, tyrosine kinase, nitric oxide synthase, or granulocyte colony-stimulating factor or granulocyte monocyte colony-stimulating factor did not affect apoptosis. These results indicate that the elevation of levels of endogenous intracellular cyclic AMP and subsequent activation of protein kinase A play a crucial role in the prevention of apoptosis triggered by TNF-alpha/cycloheximide in human neutrophils, and that the possible target of cyclic AMP is a product in the metabolic pathway between caspase-8 and caspase-3.
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PMID:Inhibition of tumor necrosis factor-alpha induced neutrophil apoptosis by cyclic AMP: involvement of caspase cascade. 1035 95

To define the signaling pathways during NO-induced apoptotic events and their possible modulation by two protein kinase systems, we explored the involvement of three structurally related mitogen-activated protein kinase subfamilies. Exposure of HL-60 cells to sodium nitroprusside (SNP) strongly activated p38 kinase, but did not activate c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK). In addition, SNP-induced apoptosis was markedly blocked by the selective p38 kinase inhibitor (SB203580) but not by MEK1 kinase inhibitor (PD098059), indicating that p38 kinase serves as a mediator of NO-induced apoptosis. In contrast, treatment of cells with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) strongly activated not only JNK but also ERK, while not affecting p38 kinase. However, although SNP by itself weakly activated CPP32-like protease, SNP in combination with PMA markedly increased the extent of CPP32-like protease activation. Interestingly, N6,O2-dibutylyl cAMP (DB-cAMP) significantly blocked SNP- or SNP plus PMA-induced activation of CPP32-like protease and the resulting induction of apoptosis. DB-cAMP also blocked PMA-induced JNK activation. Collectively, these findings demonstrate the presence of specific up- or down-modulatory mechanisms of cell death pathway by NO in which (1) p38 kinase serves as a mediator of NO-induced apoptosis, (2) PKC acts at the point and/or upstream of JNK and provides signals to potentiate NO-induced CPP32-like protease activation, and (3) PKA lies upstream of either JNK or CPP32-like protease to protect NO- or NO plus PMA-induced apoptotic cell death in HL-60 cells.
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PMID:Modulation of nitric oxide-induced apoptotic death of HL-60 cells by protein kinase C and protein kinase A through mitogen-activated protein kinases and CPP32-like protease pathways. 1035 79


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