Search results for "protein processing"
showing 10 items of 144 documents
Smac induces cytochrome c release and apoptosis independently from Bax/Bcl-xL in a strictly caspase-3-dependent manner in human carcinoma cells
2004
The mitochondrial apoptosis pathway mediates cell death through the release of various pro-apoptotic factors including cytochrome c and Smac, the second mitochondrial activator of caspases, into the cytosol. Smac was shown previously to inhibit IAP proteins and to facilitate initiation of the caspase cascade upon cytochrome c release. To investigate Smac function during apoptosis and to explore Smac as an experimental cancer therapeutic, we constructed an expression system based on a single adenoviral vector containing Smac under control of the Tet-off system supplied in cis. Conditional expression of Smac induced apoptosis in human HCT116 and DU145 carcinoma cells regardless of the loss of…
Pharmacological targeting of the novel β-catenin chromatin-associated kinase p38α in colorectal cancer stem cell tumorspheres and organoids
2021
AbstractThe prognosis of locally advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) is currently unsatisfactory. This is mainly due to drug resistance, recurrence, and subsequent metastatic dissemination, which are sustained by the cancer stem cell (CSC) population. The main driver of the CSC gene expression program is Wnt signaling, and previous reports indicate that Wnt3a can activate p38 MAPK. Besides, p38 was shown to feed into the canonical Wnt/β-catenin pathway. Here we show that patient-derived locally advanced CRC stem cells (CRC-SCs) are characterized by increased expression of p38α and are “addicted” to its kinase activity. Of note, we found that stage III CRC patients with high p38α levels display…
Autocatalytic cleavage of Clostridium difficile toxin B.
2007
Clostridium difficile, the causative agent of nosocomial antibiotic-associated diarrhoea and pseudomembranous colitis, possesses two main virulence factors: the large clostridial cytotoxins A and B. It has been proposed that toxin B is cleaved by a cytosolic factor of the eukaryotic target cell during its cellular uptake. Here we report that cleavage of not only toxin B, but also all other large clostridial cytotoxins, is an autocatalytic process dependent on host cytosolic inositolphosphate cofactors. A covalent inhibitor of aspartate proteases, 1,2-epoxy-3-(p-nitrophenoxy)propane, completely blocked toxin B function on cultured cells and was used to identify its catalytically active prote…
Interaction of Neuronal Calcium Sensor-1 (NCS-1) with Phosphatidylinositol 4-Kinase β Stimulates Lipid Kinase Activity and Affects Membrane Trafficki…
2001
Phosphatidylinositol 4-kinases (PI4K) catalyze the first step in the synthesis of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate, an important lipid regulator of several cellular functions. Here we show that the Ca(2+)-binding protein, neuronal calcium sensor-1 (NCS-1), can physically associate with the type III PI4Kbeta with functional consequences affecting the kinase. Recombinant PI4Kbeta, but not its glutathione S-transferase-fused form, showed enhanced PI kinase activity when incubated with recombinant NCS-1, but only if the latter was myristoylated. Similarly, in vitro translated NCS-1, but not its myristoylation-defective mutant, was found associated with recombinant- or in vitro translated P…
Geldanamycin-induced osteosarcoma cell death is associated with hyperacetylation and loss of mitochondrial pool of heat shock protein 60 (hsp60)
2013
Osteosarcoma is one of the most malignant tumors of childhood and adolescence that is often resistant to standard chemo- and radio-therapy. Geldanamycin and geldanamycin analogs have been recently studied as potential anticancer agents for osteosarcoma treatment. Here, for the first time, we have presented novel anticancer mechanisms of geldanamycin biological activity. Moreover, we demonstrated an association between the effects of geldanamycin on the major heat shock proteins (HSPs) and the overall survival of highly metastatic human osteosarcoma 143B cells. We demonstrated that the treatment of 143B cells with geldanamycin caused a subsequent upregulation of cytoplasmic Hsp90 and Hsp70 w…
Inhibitors of Rho-kinase modulate amyloid-β (Aβ) secretion but lack selectivity for Aβ42
2005
Certain non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) preferentially inhibit production of the amyloidogenic Abeta42 peptide, presumably by direct modulation of gamma-secretase activity. A recent report indicated that NSAIDs could reduce Abeta42 by inhibition of the small GTPase Rho, and a single inhibitor of Rho kinase (ROCK) mimicked the effects of Abeta42-lowering NSAIDs. To investigate whether Abeta42 reduction is a common property of ROCK inhibitors, we tested commercially available compounds in cell lines that were previously used to demonstrate the Abeta42-lowering activity of NSAIDs. Surprisingly, we found that two ROCK inhibitors reduced total Abeta secretion in a dose-dependent m…
[Post-translational regulation of N-glycosylated proteins expression in human intestinal cells in culture].
1991
International audience; HT-29 cells derived from a human colonic adenocarcinoma, can express a typical intestinal differentiation. Undifferentiated HT-29 cells accumulate N-linked glycoproteins substituted with unprocessed carbohydrate chains before to degrade them. Conversely, carbohydrate chains of N-linked glycoproteins are classically processed in differentiated HT-29 cells. The instability of N-linked glycoproteins in undifferentiated HT-29 cells is due to their rapid delivery from the endoplasmic reticulum to a compartment with lysosomal characteristics. This catabolitic pathway involves a bypass of the Golgi apparatus.
α-Secretase Activity of the Disintegrin Metalloprotease ADAM 10: Influences of Domain Structure
2001
Disintegrin metalloproteases from different organisms form the ADAM (a disintegrin and metalloprotease) family. All members display a common domain organization and possess four potential functions: proteolysis, cell adhesion, cell fusion, and cell signaling. Members of the ADAM family are responsible for the proteolytic cleavage of transmembrane proteins and release of their extracellular domain. The proteolytic process is referred to as ectodomain shedding, which is activated by phorbol esters and inhibited by hydroxamic acid-based inhibitors. We have shown that the disintegrin metalloprotease ADAM 10 has both constitutive and regulated alpha-secretase activity. Expression of a dominant n…
Subcellular targeting of multiligand-binding protein gC1qR.
1999
Abstract gC1q receptor, a protein originally described as the cell surface receptor for the globular heads of complement factor C1q, has been found to bind human H-kininogen with high affinity and specificity. Therefore, gC1qR has been considered candidate kininogen docking site on the surfaces of platelets, neutrophils and endothelial cells. Recent work demonstrating that gC1qR is an intracellular protein that is tightly associated with mitochondria rather than targeted to the cell surface has challenged this view. To further probe cellular trafficking routes of gC1qR, we overexpressed human gC1qR in a mammalian cell and monitored cell surface exposure of recombinant gC1qR by virtue of its…
Chromatin dynamics of the developmentally regulated P. lividus neural alpha tubulin gene
2011
Over 40 years ago, Allfrey and colleagues (1964) suggested that two histone modifications, namely acetylation and methylation, might regulate RNA synthesis. Nowadays it is universally accepted that activation of gene expression strictly depends on enzymatic mechanisms able to dynamically modify chromatin structure. Here, using techniques including DNaseI hypersensitive site analysis, chomatin immunoprecipitation and quantitative PCR analysis, we have analyzed the dynamics of histone post-translation modifications involved in developmentally/spatially controlled activation of the sea urchin PlTalpha2 tubulin gene. We have demonstrated that only when the PlTalpha2 core promoter chromatin is a…