Caspase-3/Sandbox: Difference between revisions

Caspase, as its name implies, is a protease that functions via a cysteine residue in its active site to cleave substrates after aspartic acid residues. Caspases are crucial for the initiation (e.g. caspase-8, -9, -10) and execution (e.g. caspase-3, -6, -7) of apoptosis, or programmed cell death either via the intrinsic or extrinsic pathway (Degterev, Boyce et al. 2003).  In the intrinsic pathway, stimuli such as DNA damage or endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, activates B cell lymphoma 2 (BCL-2) homology 3 (BH3)-only proteins like Bim or Bad, leading to BCL-2-associated X protein (BAX) and BCL-2 antagonist or killer (BAK) activation and mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization (MOMP). Anti-apoptotic BCL-2 proteins prevent MOMP by binding BH3-only proteins and activated BAX or BAK. Following MOMP, release of various proteins from the mitochondrial intermembrane space (IMS) promotes caspase activation and apoptosis. Cytochrome c binds apoptotic protease-activating factor 1 (APAF1), inducing its oligomerization and thereby forming a structure termed the apoptosome that recruits and activates an initiator caspase, caspase-9. Caspase-9 cleaves and activates effector caspases, caspase-3 and caspase-7, leading to apoptosis through cleavage of death substrates such as Inhibitor of Caspase-activated Deoxyribonuclease (ICAD) and Poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP). Mitochondrial release of second mitochondria-derived activator of caspase (SMAC; also known as DIABLO) and OMI (also known as HTRA2) neutralizes the caspase inhibitory function of X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein (XIAP). The extrinsic apoptotic pathway is initiated by the ligation of death receptors with their cognate ligands, leading to the recruitment of adaptor molecules such as Fas-associated death domain protein (FADD) and then caspase-8. This results in the dimerization and activation of caspase-8, which can then directly cleave and activate caspase-3 and caspase-7, leading to apoptosis. Crosstalk between the extrinsic and intrinsic pathways occurs through caspase-8 cleavage and activation of the BH3-only protein BH3-interacting domain death agonist (BID), the product of which (truncated BID; tBID) is required in some cell types for death receptor-induced apoptosis (Li, Zhu et al. 1998). It has become appreciated more recently that caspase activity, specifically caspase-8, is also required for T cell growth (Alam, Cohen et al. 1999; Kennedy, Kataoka et al. 1999; Misra, Jelley-Gibbs et al. 2005), and that the location and level of active caspases within cells may be a key determinant of survival or death (Misra, Russell et al. 2007; Koenig, Russell et al. 2008).  We have previously observed that murine αβ T cells bearing high levels of caspase activity manifest increased rates of both cell growth and cell death (Dohrman, Russell et al. 2005).