Bcl—2家族蛋白与细胞凋亡

Bcl 2家族蛋白是在细胞凋亡过程中起关键性作用的一类蛋白质。在线粒体上 ,Bcl 2家族蛋白通过与其他凋亡蛋白的协同作用 ,调控线粒体结构与功能的稳定性 ,发挥着细胞凋亡“主开关”的作用。Bcl 2家族包括两类蛋白质 :一类是抗凋亡蛋白 ,另一类是促凋亡蛋白。在细胞凋亡时 ,Bcl 2家族中的促凋亡蛋白成员发生蛋白质的加工修饰 ,易位到线粒体的外膜上 ,引起细胞色素c、凋亡诱导因子等其他促凋亡因子的释放 ,导致细胞凋亡 ;而平时被隔离在线粒体等细胞器内的该家族的抗凋亡蛋白成员则抑制细胞色素c和凋亡诱导因子等促凋亡因子的释放 ,具有抑制细胞凋亡的功能。但一旦这类抗凋亡蛋白成员与激活的促凋亡蛋白发生相互作用后 ,便丧失了对细胞凋亡的抑制作用 ,造成线粒体等细胞器的功能丧失和细胞器内促凋亡因子的释放 ,导致细胞凋亡。现以Bcl 2家族调控细胞凋亡的最新研究进展为基础 ,对Bcl 2家族成员及其蛋白质结构、分布和调控细胞凋亡的分子机制进行综述。     

鱼类和哺乳类Bcl-2家族蛋白的研究进展

细胞凋亡,即细胞程序性死亡,在多细胞生物的发育和稳态调控过程中发挥关键作用.Bcl-2家族蛋白是凋亡过程中的主要调控因子,关于Bcl-2家族蛋白在凋亡过程中的功能及其作用机制一直是研究的热点.已有研究显示Bcl-2家族蛋白不仅作用于线粒体引发凋亡,并且参与了包括对细胞内质网Ca2+的调控、DNA损伤的修复及与自噬的相互...     

Caspase与神经系统疾病

近年来,细胞凋亡发生机制的研究已取得众多进展。研究表明,许多神经系统疾病与caspase家族有着密切联系。现将细胞凋亡的最新研究结果及其与神经系统疾病的关系,尤其是caspase家族在神经系统疾病中的主导地位作简单综述,希望由此了解神经元细胞凋亡的内在机制并达到治疗目的。     

Bcl—2家族与结直肠癌

bcl-2基因家族包括抑制细胞凋亡的基因和促进细胞凋亡的基因,其表达的蛋白在细胞凋亡：的调节中发挥重要作用。Bcl-2家族蛋白对肿瘤细胞凋亡的调节作用是当前肿瘤研究的热点之一。有关Bcl—2家族蛋白在结直肠癌方面的研究已不少。本文结合近年来国外的研究进展,对Bcl-2家族蛋白的主要结构、功能及其与结直肠癌的发生、发展、治疗、复发及预后的关系作一综述。     

沉默信息调节因子3促进肝癌细胞凋亡及其机制研究

该文旨在探讨沉默信息调节因子3(sirtuin 3,SIRT3)对肝癌细胞凋亡的影响,并研究SIRT3调节肝癌细胞凋亡的分子机制。运用流式细胞术检测SIRT3过表达对肝癌细胞系(SMMC-7721和SK-Hep-1)凋亡的影响;通过si RNA靶向沉默SIRT3并检测SIRT3沉默对肝癌细胞凋亡的影响;实时荧光定量PCR(Real-time PCR)分析SIRT3对Bcl-2家族成员m RNA水平的影响,筛选受SIRT3调节的Bcl-2家族成员;Western blot进一步检测SIRT3对目标Bcl-2家族成员蛋白水平的影响;流式细胞术分析目标Bcl-2家族成员在SIRT3诱导肝癌细胞凋亡中的作用。结果显示,SIRT3过表达促进肝癌细胞凋亡并引起Bax mRNA和蛋白水平升高;SIRT3沉默抑制肝癌细胞凋亡,同时也抑制Bax蛋白水平表达,Bax沉默显著减少了SIRT3过表达细胞中的凋亡数目。该研究结果提示,SIRT3通过凋亡调节基因Bax诱导肝癌细胞凋亡。     

参与细胞凋亡的核酸酶

细胞凋亡是机体内一种重要而且保守的细胞去除机制。染色质的降解是凋亡的重要标志之一,它需要核酸酶的参与。到目前为止,参与凋亡的核酸内切酶可以分为三类:DNaseⅠ家族,DNaseⅡ家族,CAD。不同的细胞在凋亡的时候会激活不同的核酸酶,相同的细胞在不同的诱导方式下也会激活不同的核酸酶,因此,凋亡过程中,那些核酸酶的激活是由细胞种类和诱导方式等特异性所决定的。     

TNF受体家族介导的细胞凋亡信号转导

肿瘤坏死因子（TNF）家族是一类多功能的细胞因子,具有诱导细胞凋亡、抗病毒、免疫调节等多种生物学活性.其中一些成员可以通过和细胞膜上相应受体（即TNF受体家族成员）结合,启动细胞内的凋亡机制,而诱导细胞凋亡.一些蛋白质（如TRADD、FADD、RIP、RAIDD等）参与这些信号传递过程.越来越多的TNF家族成员、TNF受体以及与细胞凋亡相关的Caspase蛋白酶家族成员被人们发现.     

细胞凋亡与肿瘤

一、细胞凋亡的机制 （一）凋亡过程中关键的生化事件 （二）Bcl-2家族蛋白 （三）凋亡抑制蛋白家族（IAPs） （四）p53 （五）相关证据 （六）基因敲除和转基因鼠体内实验结果 二、抗癌药物能诱导细胞凋亡,也能直接杀伤细胞 （一）直接毒性作用与诱导细胞凋亡的应激反应 （二）治疗指数与正常细胞的凋亡     

JNK信号转导与细胞凋亡

JNK是一类MAPK蛋白,介导细胞的信号转导,通过启动细胞中的胱天蛋白酶家族蛋白激酶,诱导细胞凋亡。本文主要就JNK信号转导在细胞凋亡中的作用及其机制进行阐述。     

IAP家族分子与肿瘤靶向治疗

凋亡抑制因子(inhibitor of apoptosis proteins,IAPs)是一类高度保守的内源性抗细胞凋亡因子家族,主要通过抑制Caspase活性和参与调节核因子NF-κB的作用而抑制细胞凋亡。细胞抗凋亡机制在肿瘤发生、发展以及肿瘤耐药性形成中发挥重要作用。肿瘤细胞高表达IAPs是导致肿瘤细胞抵抗凋亡的关键。细胞凋亡调控异常与肿瘤细胞耐药密切相关,增强肿瘤细胞对化疗药物的敏感性成为近年来肿瘤治疗的重要策略之一。该文综述了IAP家族蛋白的结构、生物学特性及其作为肿瘤治疗靶点的研究进展。     

昆虫细胞程序性死亡的研究进展

在昆虫发育和抵抗病原微生物的入侵过程中,细胞凋亡与自噬性死亡现象十分常见。昆虫细胞凋亡的研究已经取得了许多的成果,但是有关细胞自噬程序性死亡的研究还正在深入。昆虫细胞凋亡的信号通路至少有3条：一条类似于线虫细胞的凋亡信号通路,另一条类似于哺乳动物细胞的凋亡信号通路, 还有一条不依赖于胱天蛋白酶的凋亡信号通路。在昆虫的多种组织细胞中,细胞凋亡与自噬程序性死亡在信号通路上存在互串(cross talking),可以相互促进、抑制或替代。了解昆虫细胞程序性死亡对防治害虫具有一定的意义。     

Apoptosis in lung injury and remodeling.

The mode of cell death termed apoptosis, sometimes referred to as programmed cell death, is as critical a determinant of cell population size as is cell proliferation. Although best characterized in cells of the immune system, apoptosis is now known to be a key factor in the maintenance of normal cell turnover within structural cells in the parenchyma of virtually every organ. Recent interest in apoptosis in the lung has sparked a surge of investigations designed to determine the roles of apoptosis in lung development, injury, and remodeling. Of particular recent interest are the roles of apoptosis in disease pathogenesis and resolution, in which the concept of apoptosis as a "programmed" cell death, i.e., genetically determined, is often more accurately viewed as "inappropriate cell suicide" with regard to its extent and/or timing. Data accumulating over the past decade have made clear the complexity of the control of lung cell apoptosis; concepts of the regulation of apoptosis originally determined in classical cell culture models are often, but not always, applicable to structural cells. For this reason, each of the many cell types of the lung must be studied as a potentially new subject with its own idiosyncrasies yet to be discovered. In light of the large volume of literature now available, this article focuses on the roles of apoptosis in three pathophysiological contexts: acute respiratory distress syndrome, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and pulmonary fibrosis. Each section presents key data describing the evidence for apoptosis in the lung, its possible relevance to disease pathogenesis, and proposed mechanisms that might suggest potential avenues for therapeutic intervention.     

Expression of Cell Cycle-Related Genes During Neuronal Apoptosis: Is there a Distinct Pattern?

An emerging hypothesis considers the process of neuronal apoptosis as a consequence of unscheduled and unsynchronized induction of cell cycle mediators. Induction of several cell cycle genes precedes neuronal apoptosis and may be involved in determination of cell fate. We have now characterized changes in expression of cell cycle genes during apoptosis induced by oxidative stress in chick post-mitotic sympathetic neurons. Induction of cyclin B occurred prior to the commitment of neurons to both dopamine- and peroxide-triggered apoptosis. Both the neuronal death and the rise in cyclin B were inhibited by antioxidant treatment, suggesting a functional role for cyclin B induction during neuronal apoptosis. Induction of the cyclin dependent kinase CDK5 protein coincided with the time point when neurons were irreversibly committed to die. Expression of other cell cycle mediators such as cyclin D1 and the cyclin dependent kinases CDC2 and CDK2 was undetected and not induced by exposure to oxidative stress. Comparative analysis of the profile of cell cycle mediators induced during neuronal apoptosis of different neuronal cell populations revealed no distinct pattern of events. There are no cell cycle stage-specific mediators that are ultimately stimulated during neuronal apoptosis, suggesting that multiple pathways of re-activating the dormant cell-cycle, converge to determine entry into apoptosis. Nevertheless, the existence of some cell cycle mediators, that were not reported so far to be induced in post mitotic neurons during oxidative stress, substantiate them as part of the strong differentiating forces.     

Fas aggregation does not correlate with Fas-mediated apoptosis.

Cross-linking of cell surface Fas molecules by Fas ligand or by agonistic anti-Fas Abs induces cell death by apoptosis. We found that a serine protease inhibitor, N-tosyl-L-lysine chloromethyl ketone (TLCK), dramatically enhances Fas-mediated apoptosis in the human T cell line Jurkat and in various B cell lines resistant to Fas-mediated apoptosis. The enhancing effect of TLCK is specific to Fas-induced cell death, with no effect seen on TNF-alpha or TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand-induced apoptosis. TLCK treatment had no effect on Fas expression levels on the cell surface, and neither promoted death-inducing signaling complex formation nor decreased expression levels of cellular inhibitors of apoptosis (FLICE inhibitory protein, X chromosome-linked inhibitor of apoptosis, and Bcl-2). Activation of the Fas-mediated apoptotic pathway by anti-Fas Ab is accompanied by aggregation of Fas molecules to form oligomers that are stable to boiling in SDS and beta-ME. Fas aggregation is often considered to be required for Fas-mediated apoptosis. However, sensitization of cells to Fas-mediated apoptosis by TLCK or other agents (cycloheximide, protein kinase C inhibitors) causes less Fas aggregation during the apoptotic process compared with that in nonsensitized cells. These results show that Fas aggregation and Fas-mediated apoptosis are not directly correlated and may even be inversely correlated.     

Systems Analysis of Cancer Cell Heterogeneity in Caspase-dependent Apoptosis Subsequent to Mitochondrial Outer Membrane Permeabilization

Deregulation of apoptosis is a hallmark of carcinogenesis. We here combine live cell imaging and systems modeling to investigate caspase-dependent apoptosis execution subsequent to mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization (MOMP) in several cancer cell lines. We demonstrate that, although most cell lines that underwent MOMP also showed robust and fast activation of executioner caspases and apoptosis, the colorectal cancer cell lines LoVo and HCT-116 Smac^−/−, similar to X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein (XIAP)-overexpressing HeLa (HeLa XIAP^Adv) cells, only showed delayed and often no caspase activation, suggesting apoptosis impairment subsequent to MOMP. Employing APOPTO-CELL, a recently established model of apoptosis subsequent to MOMP, this impairment could be understood by studying the systemic interaction of five proteins that are present in the apoptosis pathway subsequent to MOMP. Using APOPTO-CELL as a tool to study detailed molecular mechanisms during apoptosis execution in individual cell lines, we demonstrate that caspase-9 was the most important regulator in DLD-1, HCT-116, and HeLa cells and identified additional cell line-specific co-regulators. Developing and applying a computational workflow for parameter screening, systems modeling identified that apoptosis execution kinetics are more robust against changes in reaction kinetics in HCT-116 and HeLa than in DLD-1 cells. Our systems modeling study is the first to draw attention to the variability in cell specific protein levels and reaction rates and to the emergent effects of such variability on the efficiency of apoptosis execution and on apoptosis impairment subsequent to MOMP.     

Ulk1/FUNDC1 Prevents Nerve Cells from Hypoxia-Induced Apoptosis by Promoting Cell Autophagy

Cell autophagy and cell apoptosis are both observed in the process of hypoxia-induced ischemic cerebral infarction (ICI). Unc-51 like autophagy activating kinase 1 (Ulk1) and FUN14 Domain-containing Protein 1 (FUNDC1) are both involved in the regulation of cell autophagy. This study aimed to investigate the regulatory effects of Ulk1 and FUNDC1 on hypoxia-induced nerve cell autophagy and apoptosis. Cell viability was measured using cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay. Cell apoptosis was detected using Annexin V-PE/7-ADD staining assay. qRT-PCR was used to quantify the mRNA levels of Ulk1 and FUNDC1 in PC-12 cells. Cell transfection was performed to up-regulate the expression of Ulk1. 3-Methyladenine (3-MA) was used as autophagy inhibitor and rapamycin was used as autophagy activator in our experiments. SP600125 was used as c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) inhibitor. Western blotting was performed to analyze the expression levels of key factors that are related to cell autophagy, apoptosis and JNK pathway. We found that hypoxia simultaneously induced apoptosis and autophagy of PC-12 cells. The activation of Ulk1 and FUNDC1 were also found in PC-12 cells after hypoxia induction. Overexpression of Ulk1 promoted the activation of FUNDC1 and prevented PC-12 cells from hypoxia-induced apoptosis. Suppression of Ulk1 had opposite effects. Furthermore, we also found that JNK pathway participated in the effects of Ulk1 overexpression on PC-12 cell apoptosis reduction. To conclude, Ulk1/FUNDC1 played critical regulatory roles in hypoxia-induced nerve cell autophagy and apoptosis. Overexpression of Ulk1 prevented nerve cells from hypoxia-induced apoptosis by promoting cell autophagy.     

Redox signaling: Potential arbitrator of autophagy and apoptosis in therapeutic response

Redox signaling plays important roles in the regulation of cell death and survival in response to cancer therapy. Autophagy and apoptosis are discrete cellular processes mediated by distinct groups of regulatory and executioner molecules, and both are thought to be cellular responses to various stress conditions including oxidative stress, therefore controlling cell fate. Basic levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) may function as signals to promote cell proliferation and survival, whereas increase of ROS can induce autophagy and apoptosis by damaging cellular components. Growing evidence in recent years argues for ROS that below detrimental levels acting as intracellular signal transducers that regulate autophagy and apoptosis. ROS-regulated autophagy and apoptosis can cross-talk with each other. However, how redox signaling determines different cell fates by regulating autophagy and apoptosis remains unclear. In this review, we will focus on understanding the delicate molecular mechanism by which autophagy and apoptosis are finely orchestrated by redox signaling and discuss how this understanding can be used to develop strategies for the treatment of cancer.     

Neurohormonal regulation of myocardial cell apoptosis during the development of heart failure

Adult cardiac myocytes are terminally differentiated cells that are no longer able to divide. Accumulating data support the idea that apoptosis in these cells is involved in the transition from cardiac compensation to decompensated heart failure. Since a number of neurohormonal factors are activated in this state, these factors may be involved in the positive and negative regulation of apoptosis in cardiac myocytes. beta1-Adrenergic receptor and angiotensin type 1 receptor pathways, nitric oxide and natriuretic peptides are involved in the induction of apoptosis in these cells, while alpha1- and beta2-adrenergic receptor and endothelin-1 type A receptor pathways and gp130-related cytokines are antiapoptotic. The myocardial protection of the latter is mediated, at least in part, through mitogen-activated protein kinase-dependent pathways, compatible with the findings in other cell types. In contrast, signaling pathways leading to apoptosis in cardiac myocytes are distinct from those in other cell types. The cAMP/PKA pathway induces apoptosis in cardiac myocytes and blocks apoptosis in other cell types. The p300 protein, a coactivator of p53, mediates apoptosis in fibroblasts but appears to play a protective role in differentiated cardiac myocytes. The inhibition of myocardial cell apoptosis in heart failure may be achieved by directly blocking apoptosis signaling pathways or by modulating neurohormonal factors involved in their regulation. These may provide novel therapeutic strategies in some forms of heart failure.     

Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of ROS-Mediated Oridonin-Induced Oesophageal Cancer KYSE-150 Cell Apoptosis by Atomic Force Microscopy

High levels of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cells is recognized as one of the major causes of cancer cell apoptosis and has been developed into a promising therapeutic strategy for cancer therapy. However, whether apoptosis associated biophysical properties of cancer cells are related to intracellular ROS functions is still unclear. Here, for the first time, we determined the changes of biophysical properties associated with the ROS-mediated oesophageal cancer KYSE-150 cell apoptosis using high resolution atomic force microscopy (AFM). Oridonin was proved to induce ROS-mediated KYSE-150 cell apoptosis in a dose dependent manner, which could be reversed by N-acetylcysteine (NAC) pretreatment. Based on AFM imaging, the morphological damage and ultrastructural changes of KYSE-150 cells were found to be closely associated with ROS-mediated oridonin-induced KYSE-150 cell apoptosis. The changes of cell stiffness determined by AFM force measurement also demonstrated ROS-dependent changes in oridonin induced KYSE-150 cell apoptosis. Our findings not only provided new insights into the anticancer effects of oridonin, but also highlighted the use of AFM as a qualitative and quantitative nanotool to detect ROS-mediated cancer cell apoptosis based on cell biophysical properties, providing novel information of the roles of ROS in cancer cell apoptosis at nanoscale.