Pro-apoptotic proteins

Taylor JM, QuUty D, Banadyga L, Barry M (2006) The vaccinia virus protein FIL interacts with Bim and inhibits activation of the pro-apoptotic protein Bax. The Journal of biological chemistry 281 39728-39739... 

Moreover, a recent study also revealed that ROS generation led to the activation of caspase-2 during p-carotene-induced apoptosis in the human leukemic T cell line Molt 4. The apoptosis progressed by simultaneous activation of caspase-8 and caspase-9, and a cross talk between these initiator caspases was mediated by the pro-apoptotic protein Bid. Inhibition of caspases 2, 8, 9, and 3 independently suppressed the caspase cascade. The cleavage of the anti-apoptotic protein BclXL was found to be another important event during P-carotene-induced apoptosis, suggesting the presence of an extensive feedback amplification loop in P-carotene-induced apoptosis (Prasad et al., 2006). 

The membrane-associated kinase KSR plays an important role in ceramide-mediated regulation of BAD, a pro-apoptotic protein belonging to the Bcl-2-like protein family (Basu et al, 1998). Ceramide indirectly activates BAD via a pathway involving KSR, Ras, c-Raf-1, and MEK-1. Stimulation of this pathway results in Akt inactivation. Since the kinase activity of Akt maintains Bad in the inactive form, inhibition of Akt in turn releases BAD and, finally, permits BAD-triggered cell death. 

Griffiths, G. 1., Dubrez, L., Morgan, C. P., lones, N. A., Whitehouse, J., Corfe, B. M., Dive, C., and Hickman, 1. A., 1999, CeU damage-induced conformational changes ofthe pro-apoptotic protein Bak in vivo precede the onset of apoptosis. J Cell Biol 144 903-914. 

Flg.(9). RT-PCR analyses of TNF-a and/or crocin-treated PC-12 cell lysates for the mRNA expression of pro-apoptotic proteins, Bax, Bcl-Xs and LICE. The experimental procedures were those described in Materials and methods. The bands in agarose gel were visualized and photographed under UV radiation. The photographs were scanned and quantified by using an NIH Imager. The expression of GAPDH mRNA was used as a control. Each bar represents the mean S.D. of three independent experiments. P<0.01 P<0.001, compared to the control. P<0.05 M P<0.01 P<0.001, compared to TNF-aalone. 

Calcineurin. The calcineurin, or Ca2+-calmodulin dependent protein phosphatase (Aramburu et al., 2004) mediates apoptosis through at least two routes. First, this action can be achieved through steroid receptor Nur77 and CD95 ligand this pathway was found in lymphoid cells (Shi et al., 1989). Alternatively, calcineurin dephosphorylates a pro-apoptotic protein Bad (a member of Bcl-2 family), which in turn translocates into mitochondria and triggers release of cytochrome C and activation of caspases (Wang et al., 1999). 

Tsuchiya, K., Tajima, H., Kuwae, T., Takeshima, T., Nakano, T., Tanaka, M., Sunaga, K., Fukuhara, Y., Nakashima, K., Ohama, E., Mochizuki, H., Mizuno, Y., Katsube, N Ishitani, R. Pro-apoptotic protein glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase promotes the formation of Lewy body-like inclusions. Eur. J. Neurosci. 2005,21 317-326. 

Reaction of amino diols with a fatty acid afforded a series of simple ceramide analogs with pro-apoptotic activity in human cancer cell lines (160). An example is Ai-oleoylserinol, which induced apoptosis in cells expressing the pro-apoptotic protein PAR-4 and was used to purge transformed cells from embryonic stem cells before implantation into mouse brain (161). 

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