Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0027819 (neuroblastoma)
 27,800 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Primary or acquired resistance to current treatment protocols remains a major concern in clinical oncology and may be caused by defects in apoptosis programs. Since recent data suggest that TRAIL can bypass apoptosis resistance caused by Bcl-2, we further investigated the role of Bcl-2 in TRAIL-induced apoptosis. Here we report that overexpression of Bcl-2 conferred protection against TRAIL in neuroblastoma, glioblastoma or breast carcinoma cell lines. Bcl-2 overexpression reduced TRAIL-induced cleavage of caspase-8 and Bid indicating that caspase-8 was activated upstream and also downstream of mitochondria in a feedback amplification loop. Importantly, Bcl-2 blocked cleavage of caspases-9, -7 and -3 into active subunits and cleavage of the caspase substrates DFF45 or PARP. Also, Bcl-2 blocked cleavage of XIAP and overexpression of XIAP conferred resistance against TRAIL indicating that apoptosis was also amplified through a feedforward loop between caspases and XIAP. In contrast, in SKW lymphoblastoid cells, TRAIL-induced activation of caspase-8 directly translated into full activation of caspases, cleavage of XIAP, DFF45 or PARP and apoptosis independent of Bcl-2 overexpression, although Bcl-2 similarly inhibited loss of mitochondrial membrane potential and the release of cytochrome c, AIF and Smac from mitochondria in all cell types. By demonstrating a cell type dependent regulation of the TRAIL signaling pathway at different level, e.g. by Bcl-2 and by XIAP, these findings may have important clinical implication. Thus, strategies targeting the molecular basis of resistance towards TRAIL may be necessary in some tumors for cancer therapy with TRAIL.
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PMID:Inhibition of TRAIL-induced apoptosis by Bcl-2 overexpression. 1194 12

Resistance of tumors to cytotoxic therapy may be due to disrupted apoptosis programs and remains a major obstacle in cancer treatment. Here, we report that IFNgamma sensitizes resistant tumor cells with absent or low caspase-8 expression for apoptosis induced by death-inducing ligands or cytotoxic drugs by upregulating caspase-8 through a Stat1/IRF1 dependent pathway. Combined treatment using IFNgamma with TRAIL, APO1, TNFalpha or cytotoxic drugs cooperated to trigger apoptosis in various resistant tumor cell lines derived from Ewing tumor, neuroblastoma or medulloblastoma, while single agents exerted only a minimal effect. Importantly, IFNgamma induced caspase-8 expression also in cells with inactivation of the caspase-8 gene by hypermethylation, although no direct effect of IFNgamma on the methylation status of regulatory sequences of the caspase-8 gene was found. IFNgamma-mediated facilitation of apoptosis was inhibited by the caspase-8 specific inhibitor zIETD.fmk or in caspase-8 mutant Jurkat cells implying a prominent role of caspase-8 in mediating sensitization by IFNgamma. Upregulation of caspase-8 and sensitization for apoptosis by IFNgamma was blocked by overexpression of dominant-negative mutants of Stat1 or in Stat1-deficient U3A cells, while complementation of Stat1-deficient U3A cells with wild-type Stat1 restored the IFNgamma effect. Moreover, ectopic expression of IRF1 induced caspase-8 expression thereby sensitizing cells for TRAIL-, APO1- or doxorubicin-induced apoptosis. These findings provide evidence that the Stat1/IRF1 pathway is involved in induction of caspase-8 expression and apoptosis initiated by IFNgamma and indicate that IFNgamma might be an effective strategy to sensitize various resistant tumor cells with deficient caspase-8 expression for chemotherapy- or death receptor-induced apoptosis.
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PMID:IFNgamma sensitizes for apoptosis by upregulating caspase-8 expression through the Stat1 pathway. 1194 13

p53 tumor suppressor is activated by phosphorylation and acetylation on DNA damage. One of unknown p53 early transcripts was identified to be histone deacetylase-5 (HDAC5). We tested a hypothesis that HDAC5 is a p53 down-stream target gene that on induction by p53 inactivates p53 by removal of acetyl group in p53 molecule, thus functioning as an auto-regulatory negative feedback loop in analogue to p53-murine double minute 2 interaction. Six p53 binding consensus sites were identified in the promoter of HDAC5. p53 binds to one of the sites weakly. However, luciferase constructs driven by the HDAC5 promoter containing three to six potential binding sites were not activated by p53, nor was the expression of HDAC5 mRNA induced by p53-activating agents. Furthermore, HDAC5 does not bind to p53 nor reduces etoposide-induced p53 acetylation. Thus, HDAC5 is not a p53 target gene and may act in a p53-independent manner. We next studied the effect of HDAC5 on tumor cell growth and apoptosis. Transfection of HDAC5 inhibited growth of multiple tumor cell lines including U2OS osteogenic sarcoma cells, SY5Y neuroblastoma cells, and MCF breast carcinoma cells. The growth suppression seen in HDAC5-overexpressing cells appears to be attributable partly to a reduced growth rate as revealed by cell growth assay using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay and mainly to spontaneous apoptosis as shown by DNA fragmentation ELISA and morphological appearance. Mechanistically, repression of three cell proliferation genes in mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway and induction of seven apoptosis-related genes were identified by microarray profiling in HDAC5-overexpressed cells. Among induced genes, four (TNFR1, TNFSF7, caspase-8, and DAPK1) were associated with the tumor necrosis factor ligand-receptor death pathway. Induction of TNFR1, TNFSF7, and caspase-8 were confirmed by Northern and Western analyses. Thus, activation of tumor necrosis factor death receptor pathway appears to be associated with HDAC5-induced spontaneous apoptosis.
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PMID:Histone deacetylase 5 is not a p53 target gene, but its overexpression inhibits tumor cell growth and induces apoptosis. 1201 72

The p3 peptide [amyloid beta-peptide (Abeta) 17-40/42], derived by alpha- and gamma-secretase cleavage of the amyloid precursor protein (APP), is a major constituent of diffuse plaques in Alzheimer's disease and cerebellar pre-amyloid in Down's syndrome. However, the importance of p3 peptide accumulation in Alzheimer's disease and its toxic properties is not clear. Here, we demonstrate that treatment of cells with Abeta 17-42 leads to apoptosis in two human neuroblastoma cell lines, SH-SY5Y and IMR-32. Abeta 17-42 activated caspase-8 and caspase-3, induced poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase cleavage, but did not activate caspase-9. Selective caspase-8 and caspase-3 inhibitors completely blocked Abeta 17-42-induced neuronal death. Abeta 17-42 moderately activated c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK); however, overexpression of a dominant-negative mutant of SEK1, the upstream kinase of JNK, protected against Abeta 17-42 induced neuronal death. These results demonstrate that Abeta 17-42 induced neuronal apoptosis via a Fas-like/caspase-8 activation pathway. Our findings reveal the previously unrecognized toxic effect of Abeta 17-42. We propose that Abeta 17-42 constitutes an additional toxic peptide derived from APP proteolysis and may thus contribute to the neuronal cell loss characteristic of Alzheimer's disease.
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PMID:Abeta 17-42 in Alzheimer's disease activates JNK and caspase-8 leading to neuronal apoptosis. 1218 49

Death induced by doxorubicin (dox) in neuroblastoma (NB) cells was originally thought to occur via the Fas pathway, however since studies suggest that caspase-8 expression is silenced in most high stage NB tumors, it is more probable that dox-induced death occurs via a different mechanism. Caspase-8 silenced N-type invasive NB cell lines LAN-1 and IMR-32 were investigated for their sensitivity to dox, and compared to S-type noninvasive SH-EP NB cells expressing caspase-8. All cell lines had similar sensitivities to dox, independently of caspase-8 expression. Dox induced caspase-3, -7, -8 and -9 and Bid cleavage in S-type cells and death was blocked by caspase inhibitors but not by oxygen radical scavenger BHA. In contrast, dox-induced death in N-type cells was caspase-independent and was inhibited by BHA. Dox induced a drop in mitochondrial membrane permeability in all cell lines. Dox-induced death in S-type cells gave rise to apoptotic nuclei, whereas in N-type cells nuclei were non-apoptotic in morphology. Transfection of SH-EP cells with a dominant negative FADD mutant inhibited TRAIL-induced death, but had no effect on dox-induced apoptosis. These results suggest that S-type cells undergo apoptosis after dox treatment independently of death receptors, whereas N-type cells are killed by a caspase-independent mechanism.
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PMID:Doxorubicin-induced death in neuroblastoma does not involve death receptors in S-type cells and is caspase-independent in N-type cells. 1220 25

Reovirus infection of the central nervous system (CNS) is an important experimental system for understanding the pathogenesis of neurotropic viral infection. Infection of neonatal mice with T3 reoviruses causes lethal encephalitis in which injury results from virus-induced apoptosis. We now show that this apoptosis in vivo is associated with activation of caspase 3, and use neuroblastoma and primary neuronal cultures to identify the cellular pathways involved. Reovirus-induced apoptosis in neuronal cultures is initiated by activation of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor superfamily death receptors and is inhibited by treatment with soluble death receptors (DRs). The DR-associated initiator caspase, caspase 8, is activated following infection, this activation is inhibited by a cell-permeable peptide inhibitor (IETD-CHO). In contrast to our previous findings in non-neuronal cell lines, reovirus-induced neuronal apoptosis is not accompanied by significant release of cytochrome c from the mitochondria or with caspase 9 activation following infection. This suggests that in neuronal cells, unlike their non-neuronal counterparts, the mitochondria-mediated apoptotic pathway associated with cytochrome c release and caspase 9 activation does not play a significant role in augmenting reovirus-induced apoptosis. Consistent with these results, peptide caspase inhibitors show a hierarchy of efficacy in inhibiting reovirus-induced apoptosis, with inhibitors of caspase 3 > caspase 8 >>> caspase 9. These studies provide a comprehensive profile of the pattern of virus-induced apoptotic pathway activation in neuronal culture.
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PMID:Reovirus-induced neuronal apoptosis is mediated by caspase 3 and is associated with the activation of death receptors. 1240 63

C(2)-ceramide, a cell-permeable analog of ceramide, caused cell death in cultured rat cortical neuronal cells. C(2)-ceramide-induced neuronal loss was accompanied by upregulation of caspase-3 activity, measured by cleavage of its fluorogenic substrate Ac-DEVD-AMC. Similar results were obtained when cortical neuronal cultures were treated with sphingomyelinase, an enzyme responsible for ceramide formation in the cell. Morphological evaluation of C(2)-ceramide-treated cortical neurons showed nuclear condensation and fragmentation as visualized by Hoechst 33258 staining. Co-administration of the selective caspase-3 inhibitor z-DEVD-fmk or caspase-9 inhibitor z-LEHD-fmk significantly reduced C(2)-ceramide-induced cell death, while co-application of the caspase-8, inhibitor z-IETD-fmk, was without effect. Immunoblot analysis of protein extracts from C(2)-ceramide-treated cortical neuronal cultures revealed upregulation of active caspase-9 and caspase-3 protein levels, whereas presence of active caspase-8 immunoreactivity was undetectable in this system. Administration of C(2)-ceramide to SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells also caused apoptotic cell death. Moreover, ceramide-induced cell death was significantly decreased in caspase-9 dominant-negative SH-SY5Y cells, while both caspase-8 dominant-negative cultures and mock-transfected cells showed equally high levels of cell death following C(2)-ceramide treatment. Taken together, these data suggest that neuronal death induced by ceramide may be linked to the caspase-9/caspase-3 regulated intrinsic pathway of cellular apoptosis.
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PMID:Ceramide induces neuronal apoptosis through the caspase-9/caspase-3 pathway. 1243 70

The latency-associated transcript (LAT) is the only herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) gene that is abundantly transcribed during latency. Plasmids expressing LAT inhibit apoptosis induced by etoposide and ceramide in transiently transfected cells. LAT also inhibits apoptosis in trigeminal ganglia of rabbits and promotes spontaneous reactivation, suggesting these events are coupled. In this study, we compared caspase cleavage (activation) in cells infected with dLAT2903 (LAT-null mutant) versus wild-type McKrae or the rescued LAT-null mutant (dLAT2903R). Neuro-2A cells (mouse neuroblastoma), but not NIH3T3 cells infected with dLAT2903, contained higher levels of cleaved caspase 9 compared to cells infected with McKrae. Cleaved caspase 9 was also readily detected in neuro-2A cells, but not NIH3T3 cells, after ultraviolet (UV) light treatment, suggesting that the ability of cells to process caspases and undergo apoptosis influences the antiapoptotic properties of LAT. HSV-1 expresses numerous genes in addition to LAT that can block apoptosis during productive infection of cultured cells. Because these genes may mask the effects of LAT on apoptosis, transient transfection assays were performed to test whether LAT can inhibit caspase 8- and caspase 9-induced apoptosis. A plasmid expressing nucleotides 1 to 4658 of LAT efficiently inhibited caspase 8- and caspase 9-induced apoptosis in transiently transfected neuro-2A cells. These studies indicate that LAT has the potential to inhibit the two major pathways of apoptosis in the absence of other viral genes. Furthermore, these studies support a role for the antiapoptotic properties of LAT in the latency-reactivation cycle.
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PMID:Regulation of caspase 8- and caspase 9-induced apoptosis by the herpes simplex virus type 1 latency-associated transcript. 1249 Nov 60

The resistance of neuroblastoma (NB) cells to tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL)-induced apoptosis has been attributed to a lack of caspase 8 expression. Here we demonstrate a clinically applicable molecular targeting strategy that not only increases caspase 8 expression ex vivo in NB cell lines but also in the tumor tissues of NB patients receiving IFN-gamma treatment. We identify the functional caspase 8 promoter, which is different from the methylated region reported previously, and show promoter activity is up-regulated by IFN-gamma through a IFN-gamma activation site-containing region. IFN-gamma also induces TRAIL expression in NB cell lines. However, the IFN-gamma restoration of caspase 8 in some NB cells revealed persistent TRAIL resistance in most NB cell lines examined. This additional lesion in the TRAIL path is because of a loss of cell membrane TRAIL receptors (TR1/TR2) not only in cell lines but in most of the NB tumor tissues evaluated. Restoration of TR2 expression by transfection enhances IFN-gamma-induced TRAIL sensitivity. Furthermore, we have found that we can improve TRAIL sensitivity in NB by reconstituting caspase 8 with IFN-gamma and TR2 with chemotherapeutic agents.
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PMID:Induction of caspase 8 by interferon gamma renders some neuroblastoma (NB) cells sensitive to tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) but reveals that a lack of membrane TR1/TR2 also contributes to TRAIL resistance in NB. 1261 31

Detergent-resistant lipid microdomains (Rafts) were isolated from human oligodendroglioma (HOG), human neuroblastoma (LA-N-5), and immortalized dorsal root ganglion (F-11) cell lines by sucrose-density gradient ultracentrifugation and shown to be enriched in cholesterol, sphingomyelin, and ceramide. [(3)H]palmitate labeling allowed the Raft fraction to be easily identified as a sharp peak of (3)H radioactivity in the 5-30% sucrose interphase. Treatment of [(3)H]palmitate-labeled cells with staurosporine (to activate caspase 8 and induce apoptosis) or exogenous sphingomyelinase specifically increased the [(3)H]ceramide content of the Raft fraction. Depletion of cholesterol with beta-methylcyclodextran decreased Raft formation and partially blocked staurosporine-induced apoptosis. Similarly, treatment of cells with Fumonisin B1 to inhibit de novo sphingolipid synthesis by 50% reduced the labeling of the Raft fraction and partially blocked staurosporine-induced apoptosis. Staurosporine treatment activated neutral sphingomyelinase but had no effect on acid sphingomyelinase activity or on other lysosomal hydrolases, such as alpha-L-fucosidase. Most of the neutral sphingomyelinase activity is in the Raft fraction, suggesting that the conversion of sphingomyelin to ceramide in Rafts is an important event in neural cell apoptosis.
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PMID:Ceramide in rafts (detergent-insoluble fraction) mediates cell death in neurotumor cell lines. 1264 80


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