Paclitaxel has been shown to activate Raf-1 and cause phosphorylation of Bcl-2, which has been correlated with paclitaxel-induced apoptosis of cancer cells. In the present studies, we demonstrate that in human AML HL-60 cells that express Bcl-2 but little Bcl-xL (HL-60/neo cells), paclitaxel-induced phosphorylation of Bcl-2 is followed by increased intracellular free Bax levels. This, in turn, ...

The cellular processes that regulate Bcl-2 at the posttranslational levels are as important as those that regulate bcl-2 synthesis. Previously we demonstrated that the suppression of FK506-binding protein 38 (FKBP38) contributes to the instability of Bcl-2 or leaves Bcl-2 unprotected from degradation in an unknown mechanism. Here, we studied the underlying molecular mechanism mediating this pro...

The B cell lymphoma (BCL)-6 transcriptional repressor protein is an important regulator of Th2 responses. Mice deficient in BCL-6 develop severe Th2-type inflammation that can develop even in the absence of IL-4 signaling. We have investigated the mechanism for how BCL-6 regulates Th2 cell differentiation and have found that IL-6 signaling can promote dramatically increased levels of Th2 differ...

A series of Bcl-x(L)/Bak antagonists, based on a terephthalamide scaffold, was designed to mimic the alpha-helical region of the Bak peptide. These molecules showed favorable in vitro activities in disrupting the Bcl-x(L)/Bak BH3 domain complex (terephthalamides 9 and 26, K(i) = 0.78 +/- 0.07 and 1.85 +/- 0.32 microM, respectively). Extensive structure-affinity studies demonstrated a correlatio...

Bad, an inducer of programmed cell death, was recently isolated from a mouse cDNA library by its ability to bind to the anti-apoptotic protein BCL-2. Sequence analysis suggested that Bad was a member of the BCL-2 gene family that encodes both inducers and inhibitors of programmed cell death. To further analyze the role of BAD in the network of homo- and heterodimers formed by the BCL-2 family, ...

Overexpression of the proto-oncogene bcl-2 promotes abnormal cell survival by inhibiting apoptosis. Expression of bcl-2 is determined, in part, by regulatory mechanisms that control the stability of bcl-2 mRNA. Elements in the 3'-untranslated region of bcl-2 mRNA have been shown to play a role in regulating the stability of the message. Previously, it was found that the RNA binding proteins nuc...

The bcl-x gene appears to play a critical role in regulating apoptosis in the developing and mature CNS and following CNS injury. Two isoforms of Bcl-x are produced as a result of alternative pre-mRNA splicing: Bcl-x(L) (the long form) is anti-apoptotic, while Bcl-x(S) (short form) is pro-apoptotic. Despite the antagonistic activities of these two isoforms, little is known about how regulation ...