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)

Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) are able to kill target cells bearing foreign antigen through two distinct mechanisms: granule- and Fas-mediated cytotoxicity. The exact events involved in the induction of target cell apoptosis remain elusive, but research indicates a role for members of the interleukin-1beta converting enzyme (ICE)/Ced-3 family of cysteine proteases. The exact nature of the protease(s) involved is yet to be determined. Here we use activity assays and peptide inhibitors of ICE/Ced-3 proteases to study their role in Fas-mediated killing. We find that while certain inhibitors block DNA fragmentation and chromium release, others do not. Most notably, potent inhibitors of CPP32 and ICE could not inhibit DNA fragmentation during all cases of Fas-mediated cytotoxicity although an "ICE" inhibitor could suppress 51Cr release. Additionally, we find that CPP32 is not cleaved in all target cells during Fas killing. Although ICE activity (as measured by a fluorogenic substrate) is present in cell lysates from anti-Fas-treated cells, we found no pro-IL-1beta-cleaving activity in these lysates. Taken together, our results suggest that an alternate pathway to DNA fragmentation exists, which does not involve CPP32 activity, and that CPP32 and ICE activities are not essential to Fas-mediated killing.
J Biol Chem 1996 Sep 06
PMID:An interleukin-1beta converting enzyme-like protease is a key component of Fas-mediated apoptosis. 870 62

Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) are able to recognize and destroy target cells bearing foreign antigen using one of two distinct mechanisms: granule- or Fas-mediated cytotoxicity. The exact mechanisms involved in the induction of apoptotic cell death remain elusive; however, it seems likely that a family of cysteine proteases related to interleukin-1beta converting enzyme are involved. One family member, CPP32, has been identified as an intracellular substrate for granzyme B, a CTL-specific serine protease responsible for the early induction of target cell DNA fragmentation. Here we use cytolytic cells from granzyme B-deficient mice to confirm that cleavage and activation of CPP32 represents a nonredundant role for granzyme B and that this activation plays a role in the induction of DNA fragmentation in target cells, a signature event for apoptotic cell death. A peptide inhibitor of CPP32-like proteases confirmed the function of these enzymes in fragmentation. 51Cr release was not suppressed under these conditions, suggesting that granzyme B cleavage of CPP32 is primarily involved in the induction of DNA fragmentation and not membrane damage during CTL-induced apoptosis.
J Biol Chem 1996 Sep 06
PMID:Cleavage of CPP32 by granzyme B represents a critical role for granzyme B in the induction of target cell DNA fragmentation. 870 64

The ICE/CED-3 family of proteases has been implicated in playing a fundamental role in programmed cell death. Bcl-2 protein represses a number of apoptotic death programs, but the biochemical mechanism of its action is not known. We investigated the activation of ICE/CED-3 proteases induced by three apoptotic stimuli (staurosporine, ceramide, and serum withdrawal) in the neuronal cell line GT1-7 and in cells overexpressing Bcl-2. Rapid activation of a 17 kDa subunit of an activated member of the ICE/CED-3 family is demonstrated by affinity-labeling GT1-7 extracts from apoptotic controls cells with a biotinylated ICE/CED-3 inhibitor. This activation corresponds to an increased ICE/CED-3-like protease activity in extracts measured by a fluorogenic substrate assay. In a cell-free system, these extracts induce apoptotic morphological changes in intact nuclei. All three activities are readily inhibited by treatment of control extracts with ICE/CED-3-like protease inhibitors. Overexpressed Bcl-2 inhibits the activation of the 17 kDa protein, the ICE/CED-3-like protease activity in the fluorogenic assay, and the induction of apoptotic morphological changes in HeLa nuclei in the cell-free system, similar to results obtained with ICE/CED-3 protease inhibitors. At the mRNA level, overexpression of Bcl-2 did not alter expression of five members of the ICE/CED-3 family: CPP32, ICE, Mch 2, Nedd 2, and TX. Overexpression of Bcl-2 prevented the apoptosis-induced processing of pro-Nedd 2 to the cleaved form. These data suggest that Bcl-2 participates upstream from the function of ICE/CED-3 proteases and may inhibit apoptosis by preventing the post-translational activation of ICE/CED-3 proteases.
J Neurosci 1996 Sep 15
PMID:Bcl-2 expression in neural cells blocks activation of ICE/CED-3 family proteases during apoptosis. 879 21

DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) is composed of a 460-kDa catalytic component (p460) and a DNA-binding component Ku protein. Immunoblot analysis after treatment of Jurkat cells with anti-Fas antibody demonstrated the cleavage of p460 concomitantly with an increase in CPP32/Yama/apopain activity. Recombinant CPP32/Yama/apopain specifically cleaved p460 in the DNA-PK preparation that had been purified from Raji cells into 230- and 160-kDa polypeptides, the latter of which was detected in anti-Fas-treated Jurkat cells. The regulatory component Ku protein was not significantly affected by CPP32/Yama/apopain. DNA-PK activity was decreased with the disappearance of p460 in the incubation of DNA-PK with CPP32/Yama/apopain. These results suggest that the catalytic component of DNA-PK is one of the target proteins for CPP32/Yama/apopain in Fas-mediated apoptosis.
FEBS Lett 1996 Sep 09
PMID:CPP32/Yama/apopain cleaves the catalytic component of DNA-dependent protein kinase in the holoenzyme. 880 12

Apoptosis may involve a specialized proteolytic cascade catalyzed by interleukin-1beta-converting enzyme-like proteases. We have recently identified three new members of this family (CPP32, MCH2, MCH3) and shown that they play an important role in promoting cell death. Here we report the chromosomal mapping of CPP32 to 4q34, MCH2 to 4q25, and MCH3 to 10q25.
Genomics 1996 Sep 01
PMID:Chromosomal mapping of cell death proteases CPP32, MCH2, and MCH3. 881 67

The response of human myeloid leukemia cells to treatment with 1-beta-arabinofuranosylcytosine (ara-C) includes the induction of apoptosis. Ara-C induced apoptosis is associated with proteolytic cleavage of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) and protein kinase C (PKC) delta. However, the signals involved in this response are unknown. The present studies show that ara-C treatment of U-937 cells is associated with induction of a protease activity that cleaves the tetrapeptides Ac-DEVD-pNA and Ac-DMOD-pNA found at the cleavage sites of PARP and PKC delta, respectively. The ara-C-induced protease activity was sensitive to overexpression of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-xL and the baculovirus protein p35. By contrast, overexpression of the cowpox virus protein CrmA blocked apoptosis induced by engagement of the Fas receptor but not that induced by ara-C. CrmA overexpression also had no detectable effect on ara-C-induced cleavage of PKC delta. The results further show that ara-C induces activation of the CPP32 protease by a CrmA-insensitive and p35-sensitive mechanism. Similar results were obtained with cisplatinum, etoposide, and camptothecin. These findings indicate that ara-C and other DNA-damaging agents activate a CrmA-insensitive apoptotic pathway involving CPP32 and that these signals differ from those associated with apoptosis induced by the Fas receptor.
Blood 1996 Sep 15
PMID:Activation of the CPP32 protease in apoptosis induced by 1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine and other DNA-damaging agents. 882 10

Previously we have shown that oxidized low density lipoprotein (Ox-LDL) induced apoptosis in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) and that this apoptosis contributed to oxysterol, 7-ketocholesterol. The aim in this present study was to identify the mechanism by which oxysterols induced apoptosis in VSMCs. We show that both 7-ketocholesterol and 25-hydroxycholesterol induced apoptosis, followed by a rapid decrease in bcl-2 protein in the cells. CPP32/Yamma inhibitor prevented apoptosis induced by 7-ketocholesterol and 25-hydroxycholesterol in VSMCs, whereas the exogenous cholesterol, which itself did not have any apoptotic activity, inhibited 25-hydroxycholesterol induced apoptosis but the 7-ketocholesterol-induced apoptosis was not affected. These results suggest that 25-hydroxycholesterol induced-apoptosis occurs by a different mechanism than 7-ketocholesterol induced-apoptosis.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun 1996 Sep 24
PMID:Oxysterols induced apoptosis in cultured smooth muscle cells through CPP32 protease activation and bcl-2 protein downregulation. 883 13

The apoptotic machinery has been intensively investigated, and interleukin-1-beta-converting enzyme (ICE) and its homologs directly mediate apoptosis by means of their unique protease activity. Fas/Apo1 (CD95), a member of the TNF-receptor family, mediates apoptosis by binding to its ligand, which is mainly expressed on lymphocytes. Here, we investigated the expression and function of both molecules in renal-cell cancer (RCC). The expression of Fas was examined in 6 RCC cell lines by immunoblotting and all of them expressed Fas. ICE and CPP32/YAMA were also identified among the cell lines. We earlier examined ACHN cells expressing low levels of BCL-2, as well as KRC/Y cells with high levels of BCL-2. Here, we found that the anti-Fas monoclonal antibody, CH-11, induced apoptosis in a dose-dependent fashion more remarkably in ACHN cells. Pre-incubation with the tetrapeptide YVAD-chloromethyl-ketone or DEVD-aldehyde inhibited Fas-mediated apoptosis. These findings suggest that, in RCC, apoptosis is induced by lymphocytes bearing Fas-L, and that it is achieved through the proteolytic action of CPP32/YAMA and/or ICE, or another member of the ICE/ced-3 protease family.
Int J Cancer 1996 Sep 27
PMID:Tetrapeptide DEVD-aldehyde or YVAD-chloromethylketone inhibits Fas/Apo-1(CD95)-mediated apoptosis in renal-cell-cancer cells. 889 53

Resistance to stress-induced apoptosis was examined in cells in which the expression of hsp70 was either constitutively elevated or inducible by a tetracycline-regulated transactivator. Heat-induced apoptosis was blocked in hsp70-expressing cells, and this was associated with reduced cleavage of the common death substrate protein poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP). Heat-induced cell death was correlated with the activation of the stress-activated protein kinase SAPK/JNK (c-Jun N-terminal kinase). Activation of SAPK/JNK was strongly inhibited in cells in which hsp70 was induced to a high level, indicating that hsp70 is able to block apoptosis by inhibiting signaling events upstream of SAPK/JNK activation. In contrast, SAPK/JNK activation was not inhibited by heat shock in cells with constitutively elevated levels of hsp70. Cells that constitutively overexpress hsp70 resist apoptosis induced by ceramide, a lipid signaling molecule that is generated by apoptosis-inducing treatments and is linked to SAPK/JNK activation. Similar to heat stress, resistance to ceramide-induced apoptosis occurs in spite of strong SAPK/JNK activation. Therefore, hsp70 is also able to inhibit apoptosis at some point downstream of SAPK/JNK activation. Since PARP cleavage is prevented in both cell lines, these results suggest that hsp70 is able to prevent the effector steps of apoptotic cell death. Processing of the CED-3-related protease caspase-3 (CPP32/Yama/apopain) is inhibited in hsp70-expressing cells; however, the activity of the mature enzyme is not affected by hsp70 in vitro. Caspase processing may represent a critical heat-sensitive target leading to cell death that is inhibited by the chaperoning function of hsp70. The inhibition of SAPK/JNK signaling and apoptotic protease effector steps by hsp70 likely contributes to the resistance to stress-induced apoptosis seen in transiently induced thermotolerance.
Mol Cell Biol 1997 Sep
PMID:Role of the human heat shock protein hsp70 in protection against stress-induced apoptosis. 927 9

The mdm2 oncogene encodes a 90-kDa protein that can bind to the p53 tumor suppressor protein and negatively regulate its functions in transcription, cell cycle arrest, and apoptosis. The mdm2 gene is frequently amplified in human sarcomas, which may be responsible for the malignant transformations. We present evidence that the mdm2 oncoprotein is cleaved by an interleukin 1beta-converting enzyme-like protease (caspase) during p53-mediated apoptosis. The protease that cleaves mdm2 has a specificity similar to that of CPP32 (caspase-3), and recombinant caspase-3 is able to cleave mdm2 in vitro. The protease cleavage site has been mapped to between residue 361 and 362 of human mdm2. The proteolytic cleavage removes the COOH-terminal RING finger domain of mdm2, resulting in the loss of RNA binding activity. The p53 binding and inhibition functions of mdm2 are not affected by the cleavage. The cleavage site sequence of mdm2 is evolutionarily conserved, suggesting that regulation by caspase cleavage during apoptosis is an important feature of mdm2.
J Biol Chem 1997 Sep 05
PMID:Proteolytic cleavage of the mdm2 oncoprotein during apoptosis. 927 61


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