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:3.4.22.61 (caspase-8)
6,833 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Protein or RNA synthesis inhibitors are known to sensitize some resistant cells for death receptor-induced apoptosis. However, the molecular mechanism(s) involved in sensitization have not yet been defined exactly. Here, we report that metabolic inhibitors such as cycloheximide (CHX) or actinomycin D (ActD) sensitize for CD95-induced apoptosis by strongly down-regulating FLIP and RIP expression. Metabolic labeling studies revealed that CHX or ActD inhibited protein or RNA synthesis at concentrations required for sensitization. In contrast to Fas-associated death domain (FADD) or caspase-8, FADD-like interleukin 1-converting enzyme-inhibitory protein (FLIP) and RIP protein levels rapidly decreased upon treatment with CHX or ActD, indicating that both molecules have a high turnover rate. Selective down-regulation of FLIP expression by FLIP antisense oligonucleotides sensitized for CD95-induced apoptosis. Reduction of FLIP levels resulted in undetectable amounts of FLIP at the CD95 death-inducing signaling complex (DISC) upon CD95 stimulation, thereby enhancing the recruitment of caspase-8 to the DISC and caspase-8 activation. CHX- or ActD-mediated sensitization to CD95-induced apoptosis was predominantly found in type I cells in which FADD and caspase-8 are recruited to CD95 upon stimulation but not in type II cells in which no DISC formation is detected. Pretreatment with CHX or ActD sensitized for subsequent CD95 stimulation compared with cells without pretreatment. CHX or ActD also reduced XIAP expression and similarly sensitized for tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand- or tumor necrosis factor-alpha-induced apoptosis. Because blockade of death receptor triggering by FLIP overexpression has recently been implicated in tumorigenesis and treatment resistance in vivo, strategies to inhibit FLIP expression, e.g., by metabolic inhibitors, may prove to be a useful complementary tool for the treatment of cancer.
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PMID:Metabolic inhibitors sensitize for CD95 (APO-1/Fas)-induced apoptosis by down-regulating Fas-associated death domain-like interleukin 1-converting enzyme inhibitory protein expression. 1091 73

Defects in the apoptotic system are likely to play a role in tumorigenesis. Pancreatic carcinoma cells are extremely resistant to apoptosis induction by chemotherapy suggesting that the apoptosis machinery is faulty. We investigated the integrity of the cytochrome c-dependent apoptotic apparatus in 10 human pancreatic carcinoma cell lines. Expression of Apaf-1, caspase-3, -6, -7, -8 and -9, Hsp-70 and XIAP was detected in all cell lines. The expression levels of Apaf-1 and caspase-8 were homogenous in all cell lines whereas differences in expression of other caspases were seen. In cytosolic fractions, all investigated caspases were processed in response to cytochrome c but the extent of processing varied between the cell lines. No stringent correlation between the amount of processing of caspase-9 and effector caspases was seen. Cytochrome c-induced effector caspase activity was quantitated by enzyme assay. Especially at low concentrations of added cytochrome c, this response varied greatly between the cell lines. These data demonstrate that the apoptotic system downstream of the mitochondria is qualitatively intact in pancreatic carcinoma. They further show that the response to cytochrome c can be quantitated in a cell-free system and that determinants other than mere expression of apoptotic molecules can regulate cytochrome c-induced apoptosis.
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PMID:Analysis of the cytochrome c-dependent apoptosis apparatus in cells from human pancreatic carcinoma. 1195 20

Human cholangiocarcinoma is a malignancy with no effective therapy and a poor prognosis. Previously, we demonstrated that cultured human cholangiocarcinoma cell lines heterogeneously express Fas on their surface, resulting in 2 subpopulations, Fas-high and Fas-low cells. Fas-low cells are resistant to apoptosis induced by Fas antibody and the calmodulin antagonists tamoxifen and trifluoperazine and are tumorigenic in nude mice (Pan et al., Am J Pathol 1999;155:193-203). Here, we show that IFN-gamma enhances apoptosis in both Fas-high and Fas-low cells. IFN-gamma upregulates many apoptosis-related molecules, including Fas, caspase-3, caspase-4, caspase-7, caspase-8 and Bak, in both cell lines. Pretreatment with IFN-gamma facilitated Fas-mediated caspase cleavage, cytochrome c release and Bax translocation. The ability of IFN-gamma to inhibit tumorigenesis of Fas-low cells was demonstrated in nude mice. Intratumoral injection of IFN-gamma decreased tumor volumes by 78%. These findings indicate that IFN-gamma modulates the apoptotic pathway by upregulating apoptosis-related genes. This renders tumorigenic Fas-low cholangiocarcinoma cells nontumorigenic and sensitive to Fas apoptosis, thus representing a possible therapeutic modality.
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PMID:IFN-gammaupregulates apoptosis-related molecules and enhances Fas-mediated apoptosis in human cholangiocarcinoma. 1211 28

We have isolated Spike, a novel and evolutionary conserved BH3-only protein. BH3-only proteins constitute a family of apoptosis inducers that mediate proapoptotic signals. In contrast to most proteins of this family, Spike was not found to be associated with mitochondria. Furthermore, unlike the known BH3-only proteins, Spike could not interact with all tested Bcl-2 family members, despite its BH3 domain being necessary for cell killing. Our findings indicate that Spike is localized to the endoplasmic reticulum. The endoplasmic reticulum is an organelle that has only recently been implicated in regulation of apoptosis. At this locale, Spike interacts with Bap31, an adaptor protein for pro-caspase-8 and Bcl-XL. In doing so, Spike is able to inhibit the formation of a complex between Bap31 and the antiapoptotic Bcl-XL protein. Furthermore, Spike transmits the signal of specific death receptors. Its down-regulation in certain tumors suggests that Spike may also play a role in tumorigenesis. Our findings add new insight for how BH3-only and antiapoptotic Bcl-2 proteins regulate cell death.
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PMID:Spike, a novel BH3-only protein, regulates apoptosis at the endoplasmic reticulum. 1259 75

Induction of apoptosis is an approach to suppress carcinogenesis. The effects of a 12-week treatment of female Sprague-Dawley rats with indole-3-carbinol (I3C), beta-naphthoflavone or vehicle (40% ethanol in corn oil), by oral gavages starting 3 weeks after initiation of mammary tumorigenesis with 7,12-dimethylbenz[alpha]anthracene, on apoptotic activities in the mammary adenocarcinomas were examined. Apoptotic cells in tumor sections were detected by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling and quantitated by light microscopy and an Image-Plus Program. Activities of caspase-3, caspase-8 and caspase-9 were determined by colorimetric assays using the specific substrate and total tumor protein. There were no significant treatment-related effects on the numbers of apoptotic cells and caspase activities in the mammary adenocarcinomas. Likewise, protein expression levels of Bcl-2 and Bax genes in these tumors, determined by Western blot analysis, showed no treatment-related stimulation of apoptotic process. In the absence of tumorigenesis, the activities of caspase-3, caspase-8 and caspase-9 were increased up to approximately 3.6-fold in the mammary gland of rats treated with I3C at 5 or 25 mg/kg of body weight for 4 or 10 days. The I3C-effected induction of caspase-3 activity in the mammary gland was further confirmed by the cleavage of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase. Treatment of rats with 3,3'-diindolylmethane, a major product of I3C in vivo, at the dose levels equimolar to those of I3C above, did not increase the caspase activities in the mammary gland. Thus, this I3C dimer does not seem to account for the increases of apoptotic activities in the mammary gland observed with I3C. The results suggest that increase of apoptosis in the mammary gland induced by I3C before initiation of tumorigenesis may contribute to suppression of tumor development.
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PMID:Effects of treatment of rats with indole-3-carbinol on apoptosis in the mammary gland and mammary adenocarcinomas. 1289 30

Type-2A protein phosphatase (PP2A) is a key regulator in many different cell signaling pathways and an important determinant in tumorigenesis. One of the signaling targets of PP2A is the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK/ERK) cascade. In this study, we wanted to determine whether PP2A could be involved in regulation of death receptor activity through its capacity to regulate MAPK/ERK. To this end, we studied the effects of two different routes of protein phosphatase inhibition on death receptor-mediated apoptosis. We demonstrated that the apoptosis mediated by Fas, TNF-alpha, and TRAIL in U937 cells is suppressed by calyculin A, an inhibitor of type-1 and type-2A protein phosphatases. The inhibition of the protein phosphatase activity was shown to subsequently increase the MAPK activity in these cells, and the level of activation corresponded to the degree of suppression of cytokine-mediated apoptosis. A more physiological inhibitor, the intracellular PP2A inhibitor protein I2(PP2A), protected transfected HeLa cells in a similar way from Fas-mediated apoptosis and induced activation of MAPK in I2(PP2A) transfected cells. A corresponding inhibition could also be obtained by stable transfection with a constitutively active form of the MAPK kinase, MKK1 (also referred to as MEK1). The inhibitor-mediated protection was highly efficient in preventing early stages of apoptosis, as no caspase-8 cleavage occurred in these cells. The observed apoptosis suppression is likely to facilitate the tumor-promoting effect of a range of different type-2A protein phosphatase inhibitors, and could explain the reported tumor association of I2(PP2A).
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PMID:Type-2A protein phosphatase activity is required to maintain death receptor responsiveness. 1457 31

Aberrant expression of the apoptosis inhibitor bcl-2 provides a survival advantage throughout oncogenesis and can facilitate chemotherapeutic resistance in a variety of human cancers. Follicular lymphoma (FL) for example, is characterized by the chromosomal translocation t(14;18), which results in bcl-2 overexpression and initiates lymphomagenesis. Although FL cells possess ample amounts of bcl-2, they respond remarkably well to standard first-round chemotherapy. However, the vast majority of patients relapses and becomes progressively resistant to therapy. We obtained cell lines derived from chemosensitive and chemoresistant FL patients, that are characterized by the chromosomal translocation t(14;18) and expression of bcl-2, to investigate how chemotherapeutic drugs can circumvent bcl-2 anti-apoptotic function and to identify alterations in those pathways that may facilitate resistance to DNA damaging drugs. In chemosensitive FL cells, we found that DNA damaging drugs promote apoptosis through p53-dependent upregulation of the TRAIL-DR5 receptor, resulting in activation of caspase-8 and downstream executioner caspases, thereby evading bcl-2 mediated suppression of apoptosis. Examination of drug resistant FL cell lines revealed that at least two defects in this pathway can contribute to chemotherapeutic resistance: 1. p53 gene mutations that disable the transcriptional response to DNA damaging drugs, including expression of the TRAIL-DR5 receptor, and 2. transcriptional repression of the cell-death executioner enzyme caspase-3.
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PMID:Activation and suppression of the TRAIL death-receptor pathway in chemotherapy sensitive and resistant follicular lymphoma cells. 1461 23

Methylation of promoter regions of CpG-rich sites is an important mechanism for silencing of tumor suppressor genes (TSG). To evaluate the role of tumor suppressor genes caspase-8 (CASP8), TIMP-3, E-cadherin (CDH1), p16INK4A, and MGMT in medulloblastoma tumorigenesis, 51 medulloblastomas (46 primary tumor specimens, 5 cell lines) were screened for methylation of promoter linked CpG-islands. For CASP8, we examined the 5' UTR region that has been shown to be associated with expression of CASP8. As detected by methylation specific PCR, methylation rate was low for TIMP-3 (3% of tumor samples; 1/5 cell lines), for MGMT (0% of tumor samples; 1/5 cell lines), for p16INK4A (2% of tumor samples; 2/5 cell lines) and for CDH1 (8% of tumor samples; 1/4 cell lines). CASP8, however, was methylated in 90% of tumor samples and 4/5 cell lines examined. Screening other tumor entities for CASP8 methylation, we found a similarly high level in 6 neuroblastoma cell lines in contrast to 5 osteosarcoma-, 4 Ewing's sarcoma- and 6 non-embryonic tumor cell lines without any increased promoter methylation. From our results we conclude that methylation of the CASP8 5' UTR region may play a role in inactivation of CASP8 in neural crest tumors.
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PMID:Promoter methylation pattern of caspase-8, P16INK4A, MGMT, TIMP-3, and E-cadherin in medulloblastoma. 1502 56

Human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV 16) plays an etiological role in human laryngeal carcinoma. Apoptosis is closely associated with various biological processes including oncogenesis. This study investigated how HPV 16 oncoproteins E6 and E7 affect apoptosis in human laryngeal cancer cells. We established two human laryngeal cancer cell lines that expressed HPV 16 E6 and E7, respectively. Using these two cell lines, we found that both E6 and E7 exhibited an inhibitive effect on apoptosis induced by tumor necrosis factor alpha and cycloheximide. In both transfected cell lines, the expression of pro-apoptotic Bak was reduced and that of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 was over-expressed. However, the expression of caspase-3 and caspase-8 was not significantly different between the E6- and E7-transfected cells and the control cells without HPV 16. p53 Protein was not detected in either the transfected or the non-transfected cells. Our study indicates that: (1) HPV 16 E6 and E7 oncoproteins are capable of inhibiting apoptosis in laryngeal squamous carcinoma cells; (2) the mechanism modulated by E6 and E7 involves the over-expression of Bcl-2 and the down-regulation of Bak; (3) the anti-apoptotic pathway is not related to the level of p53, caspase-3, or caspase-8. These results suggest that the dysregulation of apoptotic molecules Bak and Bcl-2 by HPV 16 E6 and E7 plays a role in the prolongation of cell survival, which may subsequently contribute to the development of human laryngeal cancer.
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PMID:Resistance to apoptosis of HPV 16-infected laryngeal cancer cells is associated with decreased Bak and increased Bcl-2 expression. 1503 64

Defects in apoptosis signaling pathways contribute to tumorigenesis and drug resistance, and these defects are often a cause of failure of chemotherapy. Thus, a major goal in chemotherapy is to find cytotoxic agents that restore the ability of tumor cells to undergo apoptosis. We previously found that an Ent-kaurene diterpene, Ent-11alpha-hydroxy-16-kauren-15-one (KD), induced apoptosis in human promyelocytic leukemia HL-60 cells. Here, we found that caspase-8, an apoptotic factor, is involved in KD-induced apoptosis. Although treatment of HL-60 cells with KD resulted in the activation of caspase-8 and -9, a caspase-8-specific inhibitor but not a caspase-9-specific inhibitor attenuated KD-induced apoptosis. Expression of a catalytically inactive caspase-8 partly attenuated KD-induced apoptosis. Treatment with KD led to a time-dependent cleavage of Bid, a substrate of caspase-8, as well as to the proteolytic processing of procaspase-8, indicating that KD treatment induces apoptosis through a caspase-8-dependent pathway. Moreover, overexpression of the drug resistance factor Bcl-2, which is frequently overexpressed in many tumors, failed to confer resistance to KD-induced cytotoxicity. Thus, KD may be a promising experimental cytotoxic agent that possibly points to new strategies to overcome a drug resistance.
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PMID:Kaurene diterpene induces apoptosis in human leukemia cells partly through a caspase-8-dependent pathway. 1516 36


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