Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P42574 (caspase-3)
 45,978 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The mechanism by which cells die in Alzheimer disease (AD) is unknown. Several investigators speculate that much of the cell loss may be due to apoptosis, a highly regulated form of programmed cell death. Caspase-3 is a critical effector of neuronal apoptosis and may be inappropriately activated in AD. To address this possibility, we examined cortical and hippocampal brain sections from AD patients, as well as 2 animal models of AD, for in situ evidence of caspase-3 activation. We report here that senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the AD brain are not associated with caspase-3 activation. Furthermore, amyloid beta (A beta) deposition in the APPsw transgenic mouse model of AD does not result in caspase-3 activation despite the ability of A beta to induce caspase-3 activation and neuronal apoptosis in vitro. AD brain sections do, however, exhibit caspase-3 activation in hippocampal neurons undergoing granulovacuolar degeneration. Our data suggests that caspase-3 does not have a significant role in the widespread neuronal cell death that occurs in AD, but may contribute to the specific loss of hippocampal neurons involved in learning and memory.
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PMID:In situ immunodetection of neuronal caspase-3 activation in Alzheimer disease. 1049 44

Fibrillar amyloid beta (Abeta) peptides are major constituents of senile plaques in Alzheimer disease (AD) brain and cause neuronal apoptosis in vitro. Bax and caspase-3 have been implicated in the pathogenesis of AD and are components of a well-defined molecular pathway of neuronal apoptosis. To determine whether Abeta-induced neuronal apoptosis involves bax and/or caspase-3 activation, we examined the effect of Abeta on wild-type, bax-deficient, and caspase-3-deficient telencephalic neurons in vitro. In wild-type cultures, Abeta produced time- and concentration-dependent caspase-3 activation, apoptotic nuclear changes, and neuronal death. These neurotoxic effects of Abeta were not observed in bax-deficient cultures. Caspase-3 deficiency, or pharmacological inhibition of caspase activity, prevented caspase-3 activation and blocked the appearance of apoptotic nuclear features but not Abeta-induced neuronal death. Neither calpain inhibition nor microtubule stabilization with Taxol protected telencephalic neurons from Abeta-induced caspase activation or apoptosis. These results have potential implications regarding the underlying pathophysiology of AD and towards AD treatment strategies.
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PMID:Amyloid beta-induced neuronal death is bax-dependent but caspase-independent. 1075 82

We have shown previously that caspase-6 is activated in serum deprivation-mediated human neuronal cell death and correlates with increased production of Alzheimer's disease (AD) amyloid beta peptide (Abeta). Here, we show by direct microinjection of recombinant active enzymes that caspase-6 (>0.5 pg/cell) induces a protracted course of apoptosis in neurons in a caspase-specific, dose- and time-dependent manner in the presence of serum. Only transient activation of caspase-6 is required to initiate apoptosis. Caspase-6 induces apoptosis directly without the activation of other caspase effectors. Doses of caspase-6 of <0.25 pg/cell induce only 20% cell death within 16 d but render neurons vulnerable to oxidative stress, indicating that caspase activation affects neurons despite the absence of cell death. Caspase-3 induces neuronal apoptosis in 20% of the cells, whereas caspase-7 or -8 do not induce apoptosis. In contrast, astrocytes undergo apoptosis within 24 hr when microinjected with caspase-3 but not caspase-6, -7, or -8. These results show cell type-specific vulnerability to caspases in the CNS. The results suggest that activation of caspases in human neurons does not lead to an immediate and rapid process of cell death but provokes a protracted form of apoptosis. Activation of caspases in human neurons may participate in the long-term overproduction of Abeta and other potential toxic fragments resulting from caspase-mediated proteolysis. These results are consistent with the protracted and age-dependent nature of AD.
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PMID:Selective and protracted apoptosis in human primary neurons microinjected with active caspase-3, -6, -7, and -8. 1106 45

Neurodegenerative disorders such as prion diseases and Alzheimer's disease (AD) are characterized by neuronal dysfunction and accumulation of amyloidogenic protein. In vitro studies have demonstrated that these amyloidogenic proteins can induce cellular oxidative stress and therefore may contribute to the neuronal dysfunction observed in these illnesses. Although the neurotoxic pathways are not fully elucidated, recent studies in AD have demonstrated up-regulation of caspases in neurons treated with amyloid beta (Abeta) peptide, suggesting involvement of apoptotic processes. To examine the role of proapoptotic pathways in prion diseases we treated primary mouse cortical neurons with the toxic prion protein peptide PrP106-126 and measured caspase activation and annexin V binding. We found that PrP106-126 induced a rapid and marked elevation in caspase 3, 6, and 8-like activity in neuronal cultures. Increased annexin V binding was observed predominantly on cortical cell neurites in peptide-treated cultures. Interestingly, these effects were induced by sublethal (5-50 microM) or lethal (100-200 microM) concentrations of PrP106-126. Sublethal concentrations of PrP106-126 maintained elevated caspase activation for at least 10 days with no loss of cell viability. Abeta1-40 also up-regulated caspase 3 activity and annexin V binding at both sublethal (5 microM) and lethal (25 microM) concentrations. There were no changes to proapoptotic marker expression in cultures treated with scrambled PrP106-126 (200 microM) or Abeta1-28 (25 microM) peptides. These studies demonstrate that amyloidogenic peptides can induce prolonged activation of proapoptotic marker expression in cultured neurons even at sublethal concentrations. These effects could contribute to chronic neuronal dysfunction and increase susceptibility to additional metabolic insults in neurodegenerative disorders. If so, targeting of therapeutic strategies against neuronal caspase activation early in the disease course could be beneficial in AD and prion diseases.
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PMID:Sublethal concentrations of prion peptide PrP106-126 or the amyloid beta peptide of Alzheimer's disease activates expression of proapoptotic markers in primary cortical neurons. 1130 Jul 25

A number of findings suggest that lipophilic monomeric Abeta peptides can interact with the cellular lipid membranes. These interactions can affect the membrane integrity and result in the initiation of apoptotic cell death. The secondary structure of C-terminal Abeta peptides (29-40) and the longer (29-42) variant have been investigated in solution by circular dichroism measurements. The secondary structure of lipid bound Abeta (29-40) and (29-42) peptides prepared at different lipid/peptide ratio's, was investigated by ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. Finally, the changes in secondary structure (i.e. the transition of alpha-helix to beta-sheet) of the lipid bound peptides were correlated with the induction of neurotoxic and apoptotic effects in neuronal cells. The data suggest that the C-terminal fragments of the Abeta peptide induce a significant apoptotic cell death, as demonstrated by caspase-3 measurements and DNA laddering, with consistently a stronger effect of the longer Abeta (29-42) variant. Moreover, the induction of apoptotic death induced by these peptides can be correlated with the secondary structure of the lipid bound amyloid beta peptides. Based on these observations, it is proposed that membrane bound aggregated Abeta peptides (produced locally as the result of gamma-secretase cleavage) can accumulate and aggregate in the membrane. These membrane bound beta-sheet aggregated amyloid peptides induce neuronal apoptotic cell death.
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PMID:Apoptosis induced in neuronal cells by C-terminal amyloid beta-fragments is correlated with their aggregation properties in phospholipid membranes. 1130 75

Proteases play a critical role in many cellular functions and have been an attractive therapeutic target due to their involvement in a number of disease processes. One prominent example is the secretases responsible for the generation of amyloid beta peptide, which is believed to be central for the development of Alzheimer's disease. It is therefore desirable to identify and characterize these proteases. We have developed a novel functional approach for identification of proteases and modulators by coupling the protease activity to caspase-mediated apoptosis. Here we show the proof of principle for this approach using beta-secretase as an example. We provide data showing that 1. A modified caspase-3 containing beta-secretase cleavage site induces apoptosis in 293T cells. 2. The modified caspase-3 induced apoptosis is correlated with the susceptibility of beta-secretase recognition sequence to beta-secretase. 3. In vivo beta-secretase competitors BACE2 and BACE2(D110A) prevent the modified caspase-3 induced cell death. Therefore, this approach can be a useful tool in studies of proteolytic cleavage provided only that the protease recognition sequence is known.
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PMID:Novel functional assay for proteases and modulators. Application in beta-secretase studies. 1143 95

Huperzine A, a novel Lycopodium alkaloid originally discovered in the Chinese herb Qian Ceng Ta (Huperzia serrata), is a reversible, potent, and selective acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitor and has been extensively used for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in China. The present studies were designed to investigate effects of huperzine A on amyloid beta-peptide fragment 25-35 (Abeta25-35)-induced neuronal apoptosis and potential mechanisms in primary cultured rat cortical neurons. After exposure of the cells to Abeta25-35 (20 microM), apoptotic cell death was observed as evidenced by a significant decrease in cell viability, alteration of neuronal morphology, and DNA fragmentation. Pretreatment of the cells with huperzine A (0.01-10 microM) prior to Abeta25-35 exposure significantly elevated the cell survival and reduced Abeta25-35-induced nuclei fragmentation. Reactive oxygen species (ROS)-based fluorescence, caspase-3-like fluorogenic cleavage, and Western blot analysis demonstrated that huperzine A reduced Abeta25-35-induced ROS formation in a dose-dependent manner, and 1 microM of huperzine A attenuated Abeta25-35-induced caspase-3 activity at 6, 12, 24, and 48 hr posttreatment. Our results provide the first direct evidence that huperzine A protects neurons against Abeta25-35-induced apoptosis via the inhibition of ROS formation and caspase-3 activity.
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PMID:Huperzine A attenuates amyloid beta-peptide fragment 25-35-induced apoptosis in rat cortical neurons via inhibiting reactive oxygen species formation and caspase-3 activation. 1175 78

Alzheimer's disease (AD) occurs when neurons in the memory and cognition regions of the brain are accompanied by an accumulation of the long amyloid beta-proteins of the 39 to 43 amino acids derived from the amyloid precursor protein (APP) by cleavage with beta- and gamma-secretase. An increased production of Abeta-42 by mutation of PS2 genes promotes caspase expression and is associated with the Cox-2 found in the brain of AD patients. To address this question in vivo, we expressed the human mutant PS2 (hPS2m) (N141I) as well as wild PS2 (hPS2w) as a control in transgenic (Tg) mice under control of the neuron-specific enolase (NSE) promoter. Water maze tests were used to demonstrate the behavioral defect; dot blot, Western blot, and immunohistochemical analyses were performed on the brain with the hPS2, Abeta-42, caspase-3, and Cox-2 antibody. We concluded that 1) Tg mice showed a behavioral dysfunction in the water maze test, 2) levels of hPS2, Abeta-42, caspase-3, and Cox-2 expression were modulated in the brains of both Tg mice, 3) dense staining with antibody to hPS2, Abeta-42, caspase-3, and Cox-2 was visible in the brains of Tg mice compared with age-matched control mice, and 4) distinguishable AD phenotypes between hPS2w- and hPS2m-Tg mice did not appear. These results suggest that an elevation of Abeta-42 by overexpression of hPS2 and mutation of hPS2m might induce the behavioral deficit and caspase-3 and Cox-2 induction, which could be useful in the therapeutic testing of compounds to have considerable clinical effects.
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PMID:Alterations in behavior, amyloid beta-42, caspase-3, and Cox-2 in mutant PS2 transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. 1203 62

Oxidative stress in the human brain has been strongly implicated as the cause of neuronal cell losses in Alzheimer's disease patients, but the exact mechanism still remains unknown. In this report several oxidative stress parameters and an associated signalling transduction cascade predating neuronal cell death in cultures treated with the oxidative stressors Fe(2+) (5 microm) and the amyloid beta (A beta(1-40)) peptide (5 microm) were studied. Production of reactive oxygen species as detected by dichlorofluorescein staining was apparent within 5 min in the presence of both agents. Lipid peroxide content increased by approximately 10-fold after 2 h, while mitochondrial activity was impaired by 40% after 6 h. Caspase-3 activity was elevated 5-6 fold, all indicative of oxidative cell stress. The combined presence of A beta(1-40) and Fe(2+) resulted in a rapid (5 min) ERK activation followed by a decline by 30 min and a second activation that continued up to 24 h when nuclear translocation was noticed. Neither treatment with Fe(2+) nor that with A beta(1-40) alone caused similar changes. Addition of either deferroxamine (DFe, 25 microm), catalase (0.4 mg/mL) or N-acetyl cysteine (0.5 mm) - the last two known as suppressants of oxidative stress - attenuated ERK activation and nuclear translocation. The mitogen-activated protein/ERK kinase (MEK) inhibitor U0126 blocked ERK and caspase 3 activation, suppressed ERK translocation and reduced the number of apoptotic cells, suggesting a central role for the ERK signalling cascade in A beta(1-40) plus Fe(2+) (A beta(1-40)/Fe(2+)) -induced apoptotic death. The full peptide A beta(1-42) was very effective at 0.5 microm while the inverse peptide A beta(40-1) at 5 microm was ineffective. The acetyl-amyloid-beta protein amide fragment 15-20 (V-pep) known to be an A beta aggregation inhibitor, prevented A beta(1-40)/Fe(2+)-induced toxicity. These findings indicate that metal ions chelators and antioxidants suppress the A beta(1-40)/Fe(2+)-induced oxidative stress cascade and may be beneficial in reducing the severity of Alzheimer's disease.
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PMID:ERK activation and nuclear translocation in amyloid-beta peptide- and iron-stressed neuronal cell cultures. 1215 30

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


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