The malaria parasite exports proteins across its plasma membrane and a surrounding parasitophorous vacuole membrane, into its host erythrocyte. Most exported proteins contain a Host Targeting motif (HT motif) that targets them for export. In the parasite secretory pathway, the HT motif is cleaved by the protease plasmepsin V, but the role of the newly generated N-terminal sequence in protein ex...

Hirano bodies are eosinophilic rod-like inclusions that are found predominantly in neuronal processes in the hippocampal CA1 sector with increasing age and are particularly numerous in Alzheimer's disease. They contain a variety of cytoskeletal epitopes, especially actin and actin-binding proteins. Actin cleavage by cysteinyl aspartate-specific proteases (caspases) is a feature of apoptosis. Cl...

Alzheimer disease (AD) is characterized by the accumulation of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles within selective brain regions. In addition, cell death pathways become active leading to neurodegeneration. Caspase activation, a key step in the programmed cell death pathway known as apoptosis, occurs in AD and leads to the proteolytic cleavage of several neuronal proteins. Previously, ...

The proton-activated G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) 4 (GPR4) is constitutively active at physiological pH, and GPR4 knockout protected dopaminergic neurons from caspase-dependent mitochondria-associated apoptosis. This study explored the role of in a 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-treated mouse model Parkinson’s disease (PD). In mice, subchronic MPTP administration cause...

Homoharringtonine combined with aclarubicin and cytarabine (HAA) is a highly effective treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), especially for t(8;21) AML. However, the underlying mechanisms by which HAA kills t(8;21) AML cells remain unclear. In this study, SKNO-1 and Kasumi-1 cells with t(8;21) were used. Compared with individual or pairwise administration of homoharringtonine, aclarubicin...

The apoptotic cascade is an orchestrated event, whose final stages are mediated by effector caspases. Regulatory binding proteins have been identified for caspases such as caspase-3, -7, -8, and -9. Many of these proteins belong to the inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) family. By contrast, caspase-6 is not believed to be influenced by IAPs, and little is known about its regulation. We therefore perf...

Huntington's disease is caused by a polyglutamine expansion in the huntingtin protein. Wild-type huntingtin, by contrast, appears to protect cells from pro-apoptotic insults. Here we describe a novel anti-apoptotic function for huntingtin. When cells are exposed to Fas-related signals, the ubiquitously expressed p21-activated kinase 2 (Pak2) can be activated via cleavage by caspases to release ...

The apoptosome is an Apaf-1 cytochrome c complex that activates procaspase-9. The three-dimensional structure of the apoptosome has been determined at 27 A resolution, to reveal a wheel-like particle with 7-fold symmetry. Molecular modeling was used to identify the caspase recruitment and WD40 domains within the apoptosome and to infer likely positions of the CED4 homology motif and cytochrome ...

Proteome analysis of Jurkat T cells was performed in order to identify proteins that are modified during apoptosis. Subtractive analysis of two-dimensional gel patterns of apoptotic and nonapoptotic cells revealed differences in 45 protein spots. 37 protein spots of 21 different proteins were identified by peptide mass fingerprinting using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectr...