1.Inhibition of papain-like cysteine proteases and legumain by caspase-specific inhibitors: when reaction mechanism is more important than specificity.
Rozman-Pungercar J1, Kopitar-Jerala N, Bogyo M, Turk D, Vasiljeva O, Stefe I, Vandenabeele P, Brömme D, Puizdar V, Fonović M, Trstenjak-Prebanda M, Dolenc I, Turk V, Turk B. Cell Death Differ. 2003 Aug;10(8):881-8.
We report here that a number of commonly used small peptide caspase inhibitors consisting of a caspase recognition sequence linked to chloromethylketone, fluoromethylketone or aldehyde reactive group efficiently inhibit other cysteine proteases than caspases. The in vitro studies included cathepsins B, H, L, S, K, F, V, X and C, papain and legumain. Z-DEVD-cmk was shown to be the preferred irreversible inhibitor of most of the cathepsins in vitro, followed by Z-DEVD-fmk, Ac-YVAD-cmk, Z-YVAD-fmk and Z-VAD-fmk. Inactivation of legumain by all the inhibitors investigated was moderate, whereas cathepsins H and C were poorly inhibited or not inhibited at all. Inhibition by aldehydes was not very potent. All the three fluoromethylketones efficiently inhibited cathepsins in Jurkat and human embryonic kidney 293 cells at concentrations of 100 microM. Furthermore, they completely inhibited cathepsins B and X activity in tissue extracts at concentrations as low as 1 microM.
2.Ultraviolet B induces high mobility group box 1 release from mouse peritoneal macrophages in vitro via caspase-1 mediated secretion pathway.
Chakraborty R1, Bhatt KH, Sodhi A. Immunobiology. 2013 Feb;218(2):135-44. doi: 10.1016/j.imbio.2012.02.006. Epub 2012 Feb 14.
High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) protein is a unique non histone nuclear protein that acts extracellularly as a mediator of delayed inflammation. Sub lethal dose of UVB triggers the release of cytokines from macrophages (MΦs). Adding to the panoply of UVB induced cytokines; it is reported that UVB induces HMGB1 release from mouse peritoneal MΦs in time and partially dose dependent manner, independent of TNF-α. UVB also enhanced the transcription of HMGB1 gene and expression of cellular protein, which influences its subsequent release. HMGB1 is secreted by an unconventional secretion pathway of unknown mechanism. Caspase-1 has been shown to function as a general regulator of stress induced unconventional secretion for a number of cytokines. In the present study, we have observed that pharmacological inhibitors specific for caspase-1 (ZVAD and YVAD) abrogated UVB induced HMGB1 release from MΦs. This effect was most likely mediated via physical interaction between HMGB1 and active caspase-1 (p10 and p20) as demonstrated by immunoprecipitation.
3.Multiple caspases are involved in beta-amyloid-induced neuronal apoptosis.
Allen JW1, Eldadah BA, Huang X, Knoblach SM, Faden AI. J Neurosci Res. 2001 Jul 1;65(1):45-53.
beta-amyloid peptide (Abeta) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease and has been reported to induce apoptotic death in cell culture. Cysteine proteases, a family of enzymes known as caspases, mediate cell death in many models of apoptosis. Multiple caspases have been implicated in Abeta toxicity; these reports are conflicting. We show that treatment of cerebellar granule cells (CGC) with Abeta25-35 causes apoptosis associated with increased activity of caspases-2, -3 and -6. Selective inhibition of each of these three caspases provides significant protection against Abeta-mediated apoptosis. In contrast, no change in caspase-1 activity was seen after Abeta25-35 application, nor was inhibition of caspase-1 neuroprotective. Similar to CGC, cortical neuronal cultures treated with Abeta25-35 demonstrate increased caspase-3 activity but not caspase-1 activity. Furthermore, significant neuroprotection is elicited by selective inhibition of caspase-3 in cortical neurons administered Abeta25-35, whereas selective caspase-1 inhibition has no effect.
4.HIV-1 coat protein gp120 stimulates interleukin-1beta secretion from human neuroblastoma cells: evidence for a role in the mechanism of cell death.
Corasaniti MT1, Bilotta A, Strongoli MC, Navarra M, Bagetta G, Di Renzo G. Br J Pharmacol. 2001 Nov;134(6):1344-50.
1. The role of the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) in the mechanism of cell death induced by the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) recombinant coat glycoprotein, gp120 IIIB, has been studied in the human CHP100 neuroblastoma cell line maintained in culture. 2. Death of neuroblastoma cells typically elicited by 10 pM gp120 or by human recombinant IL-1beta (10 ng x ml(-1)) has been minimized by the antagonist of IL-1 receptor, i.e. IL-1ra (0.5 and 50 ng x ml(-1), respectively), an endogenous molecule that antagonizes most of the biological actions of IL-1beta, or by an antibody (5 and 50 ng x ml(-1)) which blocks the human IL-1 receptor type I (IL-1RI). 3. ELISA experiments have established that gp120 enhances immunoreactive IL-1beta levels in the culture medium and this is prevented by exposure to the IL-1 converting enzyme (ICE) inhibitor t-butoxycarbonyl-L-aspartic acid benzyl ester-chloromethylketone [Boc-Asp(OBzl)-CMK] used at a concentration (2.
