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)

An L1210 cell line (Y8) selected for resistance to deoxyadenosine does not express p53 mRNA or protein but expresses WAF1/p21 even under basal conditions. The Y8 cell line had been previously shown to have an increased apoptotic response to a variety of agents that included DNA damaging agents, kinase inhibitors and drugs directed at NFkappa B activation. In this study we show that lactacystin (LC, an inhibitor of proteasome activity) in combination with parthenolide (PA) caused a synergistic increase in the apoptotic fraction of the Y8 cells. LC (2.5 microM) alone and PA (5.0 microM) caused less than 20% of the Y8 cells to undergo apoptosis. However, the combination of LC (2.5 microM) plus PA (5.0 microM) caused 60% of the Y8 cells to undergo apoptosis. The combination of drugs had no effects on the parental wild-type L1210 cells. Pretreatment of the intact Y8 cells with the caspase-3 inhibitor, Ac-DEVD-CHO, resulted in a marked decrease in the apoptosis caused by the LC plus PA combination. Cell-free extracts prepared from the LC plus PA combination-treated cells had activated caspase activities in the caspase cascade: caspase-3 >> caspase-8 > caspase-6 and caspase-10. These results suggest that there are interacting pathways involving aspects of NFkappa B activation and proteasome activity that could be exploited in therapy directed at p53-deficient tumor cells that would lead to caspase-3 activation and apoptosis bypassing the p53-dependent chemotherapy insensitivity.
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PMID:Lactacystin, a proteasome inhibitor, potentiates the apoptotic effect of parthenolide, an inhibitor of NFkappaB activation, on drug-resistant mouse leukemia L1210 cells. 1255 98

There is substantial evidence that cytokines induce apoptosis of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) in atherosclerosis. Its regulation, however, is not completely defined. The aim of this study is to investigate whether proteasome activity is related with apoptosis in VSMCs by tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). Rat aorta smooth muscle cells were treated with TNF-alpha and proteasome inhibitor MG132 and then cell death was determined by morphology, viability, and DNA fragmentation. MG132 or TNF-alpha alone did not induce cell death. In contrast, co-treatment of TNF-alpha and proteasome inhibitor induced death and DNA degradation in VSMCs, suggesting proteasome inhibitor enhanced death activity of TNF-alpha. The death was not blocked by ascorbic acid but by nitric oxide synthase inhibitor N(G)-monomethyl-L-arginine. Both caspase-3 and -8 were activated during the death by the proteasome inhibitor and TNF-alpha. The death was effectively blocked by the caspase-3 inhibitor z-DEVD-fmk, suggesting a role of caspase-3 in the death. Nonetheless, there were no significant alterations in the level of Bcl-2, Bcl-X(L), Bax and Bak by the proteasome inhibitor, nor any evidence of cytochrome (cyt) c release into cytosol from dying cells, suggesting that cyt c is not involved. These results suggest that proteasome inhibition potentiates TNF-mediated death in VSMCs in a cyt c-independent pathway. The present study proposes a new mechanism by which VSMCs undergo death by cytokines.
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PMID:Enhancement of TNF-alpha-mediated cell death in vascular smooth muscle cells through cytochrome c-independent pathway by the proteasome inhibitor. 1256 Jan 2

The ubiquitin-proteasome pathway is the principal mechanism for the degradation of short-lived proteins in eukaryotic cells. Recently, proteasome inhibitors have been shown to induce apoptosis in many kinds of human malignant cells. In this study, the mechanism of apoptosis induced by proteasome inhibitor in leukemic cells was examined. Evaluated by MTT assay, treatment of leukemic cells with Z-LLL-CHO, a reversible proteasome inhibitor, induced cell death in a dose-dependent manner. Appearance of the sub G(0)/G(1) fraction of cell cycle observed in flow cytometry assay suggested the induction of apoptosis, which was further proved by typical DNA ladder and morphological study. Western blot displayed the cleavage of bcl-2 into a shortened 22 kD fragment and the decrease in the levels of caspase-3 precursor. A highly sensitive colorimetric assay was employed and the elevation of caspase-3 activity was detected in both cell lines after treatment with Z-LLL-CHO. By comparison, these results showed that the leukemic cell line M-07e and KG-1a, which both express bcl-2 at a relative high level, had different susceptibility to undergo apoptosis induced by Z-LLL-CHO, which possibly due to their different levels of expression and activation of caspase-3 precursor, as well as their different degree of bcl-2 cleavage after treated by Z-LLL-CHO.
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PMID:[Induction of Apoptosis in Leukemic Cells by Inhibiting the Ubiquitin-Proteasome Pathway and Its Possible Mechanism] 1257 13

Thymocytes undergo negative and positive selection during development in the thymus. During this selection process, the majority of thymocytes are eliminated by apoptosis through signaling via TCR or die by neglect, possibly mediated through glucocorticoids. In this study, we report that thymocytes require molecular oxygen to undergo apoptosis induced by dexamethasone (DEX), a synthetic glucocorticoid, and treatment with N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), a thiol antioxidant, inhibits thymocyte apoptosis in vivo as well as ex vivo. We detected elevated intracellular levels of hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) during DEX-induced apoptosis, which is reduced by NAC treatment, indicating that the elevated levels of intracellular H(2)O(2) are proapoptotic. We also show that loss of mitochondrial membrane potential, cytochrome c release, as well as caspase-3 activation induced by DEX are attenuated by NAC treatment. We identified the production site for H(2)O(2) as the ubiquinone cycle at complex III of mitochondria by using various inhibitors of the mitochondrial electron transport chain, and we show that the cell death events mediated by mitochondria are also significantly reduced when the inhibitors were used. Through inhibition of the proteasome, we also show that the production of H(2)O(2) and the cell death events mediated by mitochondria are regulated by proteosomal activities in DEX-induced thymocyte apoptosis. We conclude that in DEX-treated thymocytes, the increased production of H(2)O(2) originates from mitochondria and is proapoptotic for cell death mediated by mitochondria. We also conclude that all the apoptotic events mediated by mitochondria are regulated by proteasomes.
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PMID:Glucocorticoid-induced apoptosis of thymocytes: requirement of proteasome-dependent mitochondrial activity. 1259 72

We investigate the death route induced by potassium depletion in cerebellar granule cells in 0-15 h time range and study whether and how mutual relationship occurs between the cell antioxidant and proteolytic system. To achieve this, we incubated cells in the absence or presence of inhibitors of the antioxidant system, including superoxide dismutase and catalase, and of the proteolytic system, consisting of proteasomes and caspases, and investigated whether and how (i) cell survival, (ii) reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and (iii) antioxidant enzyme and caspase-3 activity change as a function of time after the apoptotic stimulus. The involvement of both antioxidant and proteolytic system on cytochrome c release was also investigated. Cell survival was found to increase in the presence of either proteasome or caspase inhibitors. On the contrary, as a result of the antioxidant system impairment, shift from apoptosis to necrosis occurs. We show that the antioxidant system, which exhibits a huge activity increase up to 3 h after apoptosis induction, is subjected to the proteasome-dependent proteolysis and that the increase in the antioxidant system found in the absence of proteasome activity is accompanied by ROS production decrease. Consistently, the early ROS-dependent release of cytochrome c was found to be prevented when the activity of the antioxidant system increased. Finally, caspase-3 activation was prevented by the inhibitors of both antioxidant system and proteasome.
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PMID:The apoptosis/necrosis transition in cerebellar granule cells depends on the mutual relationship of the antioxidant and the proteolytic systems which regulate ROS production and cytochrome c release en route to death. 1260 21

The antitumor activity of a synthetic chenodeoxycholic acid derivative, HS-1200, on the p815 mastocytoma cell line was investigated. We present several lines of evidence indicating that HS-1200 at 35 microM induced apoptosis of p815 cells. Reduction of mitochondrial membrane potential, the release of cytochrome to cytosol, activation of caspase-3, nuclear condensation, production of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase cleavage, generation of DNA fragmentation and nuclear condensation were demonstrated. Importantly, HS-1200 inhibited proteasome activity. Next, the combination treatment of HS-1200 or a proteasome inhibitor lactacystin was undertaken. Although the single treatment of 20 microM HS-1200 or 1 microM lactacystin induced apoptosis slightly, the combination treatment of them augmented prominently the extent of apoptosis. The combination therapy of HS-1200 and lactacystin could be potentially a therapeutic strategy reducing the extent and severity of treatment-related toxicity.
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PMID:Synthetic chenodeoxycholic acid derivative HS-1200-induced apoptosis of p815 mastocytoma cells is augmented by co-treatment with lactacystin. 1263 16

Proteasomes constitute the major machinery to degrade or process proteins by ATP/ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis. Recent findings suggest a pivotal role of the ubiquitin/proteasome pathway in the regulation of apoptosis in animal cells. Here we show that virus-induced gene silencing of two different subunits of the 26 S proteasome, the alpha 6 subunit of the 20 S proteasome and RPN9 subunit of 19 S regulatory complex, both activated the programmed cell death (PCD) program, accompanied by reduced proteasome activity and accumulation of polyubiquitinated proteins. These results demonstrate that disruption of proteasome function leads to PCD in plant cells. The affected cells showed morphological markers of PCD, including nuclear condensation and DNA fragmentation, accompanied by the 10-fold higher production of reactive oxygen species and increased ion leakage for 3-fold. Similar to apoptosis in animal system, mitochondrial membrane potential was decreased, cytochrome c released from mitochondria to cytosol, and caspase 9- and caspase 3-like proteolytic activities detected in the cells. Interestingly, this proteasome-mediated PCD stimulated the expression of only a subset of transcripts that are highly induced during pathogen-mediated hypersensitive response cell death, indicating that the two PCD pathways are differentially regulated. Taken together, these results provide the first direct evidence that proteasomes play a role in the regulatory program of PCD in plants. Controlled inhibition of proteasome activities may be involved in developmentally or environmentally activated plant cell death programs.
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PMID:Activation of the programmed cell death pathway by inhibition of proteasome function in plants. 1263 32

Previous work has shown that guidance cues trigger rapid changes in protein dynamics in retinal growth cones: netrin-1 stimulates both protein synthesis and degradation, while Sema3A elicits synthesis, and LPA induces degradation. What signaling pathways are involved? Our studies confirm that p42/44 MAPK mediates netrin-1 responses and further show that inhibiting its activity blocks cue-induced protein synthesis. Unexpectedly, p38 MAPK is also activated by netrin-1 in retinal growth cones and is required for chemotropic responses and translation. Sema3A- and LPA-induced responses, by contrast, require a single MAPK, p42/p44 and p38, respectively. In addition, we report that caspase-3, an apoptotic protease, is rapidly activated by netrin-1 and LPA in a proteasome- and p38-dependent manner and is required for chemotropic responses. These findings suggest that the apoptotic pathway may be used locally to control protein levels in growth cones and that the differential activation of MAPK pathways may underlie cue-directed migration.
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PMID:Apoptotic pathway and MAPKs differentially regulate chemotropic responses of retinal growth cones. 1267 Apr 23

The ubiquitous calpains, mu- and m-calpain, have been implicated in essential physiological processes and various pathologies. Cell-permeable specific inhibitors are important tools to elucidate the roles of calpains in cultivated cells and animal models. The synthetic N-acetylated 27-mer peptide derived from exon B of the inhibitory domain 1 of human calpastatin (CP1B) is unique as a potent and highly selective reversible calpain inhibitor, but is poorly cell-permeant. By addition of N-terminal cysteine residues we have generated a disulfide-conjugated CP1B with the cell-penetrating 16-mer peptide penetratin derived from the third helix of the Antennapedia homeodomain protein. The inhibitory potency and selectivity of CP1B for calpain versus cathepsin B and L, caspase 3 and the proteasome was not affected by the conjugation with penetratin. The conjugate was shown to efficiently penetrate into living LCLC 103H cells, since it prevents ionomycin-induced calpain activation at 200-fold lower concentration than the non-conjugated inhibitor and is able to reduce calpain-triggered apoptosis of these cells. Penetratin-conjugated CP1B seems to be a promising alternative to the widely used cell-permeable peptide aldehydes (e.g. calpain inhibitor 1) which inhibit the lysosomal cathepsins and partially the proteasome as well or even better than the calpains.
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PMID:Calpastatin exon 1B-derived peptide, a selective inhibitor of calpain: enhancing cell permeability by conjugation with penetratin. 1271 90

Treatment of C(2)C(12) myotubes with a tumour-derived proteolysis-inducing factor (PIF) at concentrations between 1 and 10 nM was shown to stimulate the activity of the apoptotic initiator caspases-8 and -9 and the apoptotic effector caspases-2, -3 and -6. This increased caspase activity was attenuated in myotubes pretreated with 50 microM eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). At least part of the increase in caspase activity may be related to the increased proteasome proteolytic activity, since a caspase-3 inhibitor completely attenuated the PIF-induced increase in 'chymotrypsin-like' enzyme activity, the predominant proteolytic activity of the proteasome. However, Western blot analysis showed that PIF induced an increase in expression of the active form of caspase-3, which was also attenuated by EPA. Further Western blot analysis showed PIF increased the cytosolic content of cytochrome c, as well as expression of the pro-apoptotic protein bax but not the anti-apoptotic protein bcl-2, which were both attenuated by 50 microM EPA. Induction of apoptosis by PIF in murine myotubes was confirmed by an increase in free nucleasomes formation and increased DNA fragmentation evidenced by a nucleasomal ladder typical of apoptotic cells. This process was again inhibited by pre-incubation with EPA. These results suggest that in addition to activating the proteasome, PIF induces apoptosis in C(2)C(12) myotubes, possibly through the common intermediate arachidonic acid. Both of these processes would contribute to the loss of skeletal muscle in cancer cachexia.
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PMID:Induction of apoptosis by a cachectic-factor in murine myotubes and inhibition by eicosapentaenoic acid. 1276 76


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