Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.4.22.62 (caspase-9)
 7,507 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The expression of DCC (deleted in colorectal cancer) is often markedly reduced in colorectal and other cancers. However, the rarity of point mutations identified in DCC coding sequences and the lack of a tumor predisposition phenotype in DCC hemizygous mice have raised questions about its role as a tumor suppressor. DCC also mediates axon guidance and functions as a dependence receptor; such receptors create cellular states of dependence on their respective ligands by inducing apoptosis when unoccupied by ligand. We now show that DCC drives cell death independently of both the mitochondria-dependent pathway and the death receptor/caspase-8 pathway. Moreover, we demonstrate that DCC interacts with both caspase-3 and caspase-9 and drives the activation of caspase-3 through caspase-9 without a requirement for cytochrome c or Apaf-1. Hence, DCC defines an additional pathway for the apoptosome-independent caspase activation.
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PMID:The dependence receptor DCC (deleted in colorectal cancer) defines an alternative mechanism for caspase activation. 1124 93

DCC (deleted in colorectal cancer) is a putative tumor suppressor gene whose expression is lost in numerous cancers. DCC also encodes the main receptor for the neuronal navigation cue netrin-1. It has been shown that DCC belongs to the so-called family of dependence receptors. Such receptors induce apoptosis when their ligand is absent, thus conferring a state of cellular dependence on ligand availability. We recently proposed that DCC is a tumor suppressor because it induces the death of tumor cells that grow in settings of ligand unavailability. Moreover, it seems that the DCC/netrin-1 pair may also regulate neuron survival during nervous system development. However, the mechanisms by which DCC triggers cell death are still unknown. We show here that the localization of DCC to lipid rafts is a prerequisite for its proapoptotic activity, both in immortalized cells and in primary neurons. The presence of DCC in lipid rafts probably allows the formation of an adequate submembrane complex, because the interaction of caspase-9 with DCC is inhibited by the disorganization of lipid rafts. Thus, dependence receptors may require lipid raft localization for cell death signaling.
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PMID:The dependence receptor DCC requires lipid raft localization for cell death signaling. 1653 96