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J Biol Chem, Vol. 273, Issue 50, 33099-33102, December 11, 1998
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,
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, and
**
From the
Department of Biochemistry, McIntyre Medical
Sciences Building, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3G 1Y6, Canada,
the § Merck-Frosst Center for Therapeutic Research, Pointe
Claire-Dorval, Quebec H9R 4P8, Canada, the ¶ Kimmel Cancer
Institute, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107, and the
Amgen Institute, Toronto, Ontario M5G 2C1, Canada
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ABSTRACT |
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Expression of the 243-residue form of the
adenovirus E1A protein in the absence of other viral proteins triggers
apoptosis by a pathway that requires p53. This pathway includes
processing and activation of initiator procaspase-8, redistribution of
cytochrome c, and activation of procaspase-3. Bcl-2
functions at or upstream of procaspase-8 processing to inhibit all of
these events and prevent cell death. This contrasts with the
anti-apoptotic influence of Bcl-2 family proteins in the cell death
pathway induced by Fas ligand or tumor necrosis factor (TNF), in which
Bcl-2 typically acts downstream of Fas/TNFR1-mediated activation of
caspase-8. Moreover, E1A induces procaspase-8 processing and cell death
in cells deleted of FADD, an adaptor protein critical for Fas/TNFR1 activation of caspase-8. The results indicate that E1A is capable of
activating caspase-8 by a Bcl-2-inhibitable pathway that does not
involve autocrine stimulation of FADD-dependent death
receptor pathways.
Although there are notable examples of apoptotic cell deaths that
occur in the apparent absence of induction of caspases (1-3), most
death pathways in metazoans involve this family of cysteine proteases
in the execution process (4-6). Execution begins with the recruitment
of initiator procaspases such as procaspases-8, -9, and -10 into
caspase activation complexes in response to a death signal. This in
turn initiates downstream activation of effector caspases, resulting in
apoptotic cell death. Among the best understood of the caspase
activation complexes is the
TNF1 family of death
receptors located at the cell surface, prototypically represented by
CD95/Fas/Apo-1 and TNFR1, which recruit procaspases-8 and -10 (7).
Here, the mechanism of receptor coupling to death signaling is clear.
Binding of the cognate ligand to the receptor induces receptor
oligomerization (8), recruitment of procaspases-8 and -10 via the
adaptor molecule FADD/MORT1 (7, 9, 10), and activation of the
associated procaspase probably by oligomerization-induced autocatalytic
processing (11, 12). While the ligands are typically presented to the
receptor from a heterotypic extracellular source (7), cell surface
death receptors can also respond to autocrine stimulation by ligand
produced and externalized from the same cell (13). This in turn raises
the possibility that these death receptors can be coupled to a diverse
repertoire of death signals. Recent evidence, for example, has
implicated autocrine stimulation of Fas as an important contribution to
cell death induced by Myc (14) and radiation (15).
In all cases examined to date, the Bcl-2 family of apoptosis
suppressors function upstream of effector caspase-3 to inhibit cell
death (16-18), by a process that includes inhibition of cytochrome c release from mitochondria (19, 20). This aborts downstream activation of the Apaf-l-procaspase-9 caspase activation complex, which
requires cytochrome c as a constituent cofactor, and
subsequent processing of procaspase-3 by caspase-9 (21-23). In
contrast, the death inhibitory activity of Bcl-2 family suppressors in
response to Fas ligand or TNF occurs downstream of receptor-activated
caspase-8 in most instances (24-26), due in part to protection of
mitochondria against the death stimulating influences of this initiator
caspase (24, 27). Here, we have examined the contribution of the
FADD-dependent death receptor and cytochrome
c-Apaf-1-procaspase-9 caspase activation complexes to
apoptosis induced by a model oncogene product in rodents, the 12 S E1A
product of adenovirus type 5, and at what point Bcl-2 intercedes and
blocks E1A-induced apoptosis.
Depending on the cellular and viral contexts, the products of early
region 1A mRNAs (12 S E1A and 13 S E1A) of adenovirus stimulate DNA
synthesis, cell proliferation, and cellular transformation or apoptosis
(28, 29). In contrast to the longer product of 13 S E1A mRNA, the
243-residue product of 12 S E1A, which lacks conserved region 3 (CR3),
is incapable of activating most other early viral units. Thus, virus
that produces 12 S E1A and that lacks the E1B region, whose 19- and
55-kDa protein products are inhibitors of apoptosis, represents a viral
vector that efficiently delivers 12 S E1A as the main vector expression
product. This product is a potent inducer of apoptosis in a wide
variety of human and rodent cells, for which it exhibits an absolute
dependence on functional p53 tumor suppressor protein (30, 31). Bcl-2 or E1B 19K protects cells against E1A (32) by inhibiting caspase activation (16, 33). Virus that expresses both 12 S and 13 S
spliceoforms of E1A, and lacks E1B, induces additional apoptotic pathways as a result of expression of other viral proteins,
e.g. the adenoviral death factor, E4orf4, which triggers
p53- and caspase-independent apoptosis (3, 41). In this report, we
demonstrate that 12 S E1A induces apoptosis by a pathway that does not
require autocrine stimulation of FADD-dependent cell
surface death receptors. In contrast to the caspase cascade activated
by these cell surface receptors in response to ligand, Bcl-2 acts
upstream rather than downstream of procaspase-8 in the E1A pathway.
General--
KB human epithelial cells stably expressing Bcl-2
have been described previously (34). Those stably expressing
dominant-negative C287A procaspase-9 (35) were created by co-expression
with a neomycin resistance gene, selection in G418, and screening with anti-T7 to detect the epitope-tagged protein. Infection with adenovirus type 5 dl520E1B FADD-null Mouse Embryo Fibroblasts--
Primary embryo
fibroblasts were prepared from 9.5-day-old embryos of mice carrying a
homozygous deletion of the entire coding region of FADD
(38). They were cultured in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium
containing 5% fetal calf serum.
Ad5 dl52OE1B
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INTRODUCTION
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Procedures
Results
Discussion
References
![]()
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Procedures
Results
Discussion
References
(expressing only 12 S E1A and
no E1B products) (36) was performed as described (16, 37) and cell
viability determined by trypan blue exclusion. Immunoblotting and
microscopic immunofluorescence was conducted as described previously
(3, 37). Additional details are provided in the figure legends.
![]()
RESULTS
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Procedures
Results
Discussion
References
is an adenovirus type 5 vector that produces the 243-amino acid product of 12 S E1A mRNA as
the major vector expression product (36). As documented previously
(37), 243R E1A triggers apoptosis in KB human epithelial cells by a
pathway that is inhibited by Bcl-2. This pathway includes activation of initiator procaspase-8 and cleavage of the caspase-8 target, Bap31 (Fig. 1). Bap31 is a 28-kDa polytopic
integral protein of the endoplasmic reticulum that functions as a
predicted regulator of apoptosis. Following induction of apoptosis,
it is cleaved within its cytosolic tail by caspase-8, generating a
20-kDa membrane-integrated fragment (p20 Bap31) (37). As shown in Fig.
1, Bcl-2 inhibits processing of procaspase-8 to the p18 catalytic
subunit induced by 12 S E1A and blocks the appearance of the p20 Bap31
product. 12 S E1A expression results in a dramatic but transient
increase in p53 levels (30, 31, 39). However, this is not influenced by
Bcl-2 (not shown), indicating that Bcl-2 acts downstream of this event
on the E1A pathway.

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Fig. 1.
Bcl-2 blocks E1A-dependent
processing of procaspase-8 and apoptotic cleavage of Bap3l. Human
KB cells that stably express the neomycin resistance gene with or
without co-expression of Bcl-2 (34) were infected with adenovirus type
5 dl52OE1B
(expressing only 12 S E1A and no
E1B products). At the indicated times postinfection, cells were
harvested and assessed for viability by trypan blue exclusion (% Viable Cells) (upper panel) or processed for SDS-polyacrylamide
gel electrophoresis and immunoblotting using rabbit polyclonal antibody
against the p18 catalytic subunit of human caspase-8 or against amino
acids 122-164 of human Bap31 (lower panels). For each time
point (lanes 1-6), equivalent amounts of total cell protein
were analyzed and the blots developed by enhanced chemoluminescence.
The positions of the p18 catalytic subunit of caspase-8 and the p20
cleavage product of Bap31 are indicated.
Immunostaining of KB cells with antibody against cytochrome c revealed a redistribution of this mitochondrial protein throughout the cell in response to E1A expression. This began within 24 h (Fig. 2), at a time when most cells retained an intact plasma membrane, as judged by exclusion of trypan blue (Fig. 1). In contrast, Bcl-2 inhibited these E1A-induced events. Even after 48 h of E1A expression in the presence of Bcl-2, cells remained normal and retained cytochrome c in a punctate mitochondrial pattern, whereas control cells were obviously apoptotic (Fig. 2).
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To examine if cytochrome c redistribution in response to E1A expression plays a direct role in the E1A apoptotic pathway, or results indirectly as a consequence of apoptosis induced by a parallel pathway, we examined the requirement for cytochrome c's immediate downstream target, procaspase-9. Processing of procaspase-9 occurs by oligomerization-induced autocatalytic activation (35) following its recruitment into the Apaf-1-cytochrome c caspase activation complex in the cytosol (23, 35). As a consequence, co-expression of catalytically inactive proenzyme exerts a dominant-negative (DN) influence on procaspase-9 processing. To that end, KB cells were created that stably express procaspase-9 DN-C287A (35) at levels approximately three times that of the endogenous wild type proenzyme. As shown in Fig. 3, the procaspase-9 DN significantly retarded the death of these cells in response to E1A.
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Finally, we examined the contribution of FADD-dependent
cell surface death receptors to the E1A apoptotic pathway. Mice
harboring a homozygous deletion of the FADD gene have been
created recently, from which embryonic fibroblasts can be obtained
(38). In contrast to fibroblasts taken from FADD+/+ mice,
FADD-null fibroblasts were resistant to cell death induced by TNF
, whose receptor depends on FADD for activation of caspase-8. However, both FADD+/+ and FADD
/
cells
exhibited equivalent sensitivity to death signaling by adenovirus
lacking the E1B region (38). Fig. 4
extends these findings and shows that 12 S E1A expression in the
FADD-null cells resulted in processing of procaspase-8 and cell
killing. As demonstrated previously (38), these cells were resistant to
killing by TNF
in the presence of the protein synthesis inhibitor,
cycloheximide, which inhibits TNF
-induced survival pathways (Fig.
4).
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DISCUSSION |
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E1A proteins are transcriptional regulators whose influence on cell proliferation depends on discrete regions within the molecule, which include conserved regions 1 and 2 (CR1 and CR2), together with a less well conserved amino terminus. These regions are common to the two forms of the protein (derived from 12 S and 13 S E1A mRNA) and function by binding to a family of proteins related to retinoblastoma protein. This releases the otherwise Rb-sequestered E2F group of transcription factors that turn on genes that stimulate cell growth. Additionally, CR1 and the amino terminus bind the p300/CBP family of transcription factor co-activators, resulting in repression of various genes contributing to terminal cellular differentiation (28, 29). How these responses of the cell to E1A expression are tied to the apoptosis-inducing properties of E1A is not presently known, but one possibility may involve regulation of gene products in concert with p53 that influence one or more of the caspase activation complexes of the cell (33). In the case of apoptosis induced by coupling Myc expression with survival factor withdrawal, for example, it has been suggested that cell death involves Myc-induced autocrine stimulation of the cell surface death receptor, CD95/Fas/Apo-1 (14). The Fas-dependent caspase activation complex, or DISC (death-inducing signaling complex), is coupled to activation of procaspase-8 via the adaptor molecule, FADD (7). However, Myc is cytotoxic in mouse cells devoid of FADD (38), suggesting that other death pathways are influenced by Myc, including a pathway that does not involve caspases (2). Here, we show that E1A not only is capable of inducing cytoxicity in the absence of FADD but that this is accompanied by activation of procaspase-8, indicating that this initiator procaspase is capable of being processed by a FADD-independent mechanism.
One possibility is that processing of procaspase-8 is an end or
by-product of Fas signaling via the adaptor protein, Daxx, and the JNK
kinase cascade (43), although such a link has not yet been described.
Another is that processing of procaspase-8 is a by-product of
activation of effector caspase-3 via the Apaf-1-cytochrome c-procaspase-9 caspase activation complex (23, 35). E1A
induces release of cytochrome c from mitochondria (Fig. 2)
and activation of caspase-3 (16, 33). Moreover, our finding that a
dominant-negative mutant of procaspase-9 retards cell death in response
to E1A (Fig. 3) indicates that this caspase activation complex
contributes directly to the E1A-induced apoptotic pathway. A third
possibility is that procaspase-8 is activated by a separate
FADD-independent caspase activation complex and that caspase-3 is
activated either as a consequence of cytochrome c release
from mitochondria induced by caspase-8 (27) or by a parallel pathway.
One candidate is the Bap31 complex in the endoplasmic reticulum, a
Bcl-2/Bcl-XL-associated protein that can recruit
procaspase-8 and a Ced-4-like adaptor (37, 40). Bap31 is also a target
of caspase-8 or related caspase during apoptosis induced by E1A,
generating a proapoptotic fragment of the protein (37). Importantly,
however, we demonstrate here that Bcl-2 acts upstream to prevent
E1A-induced activation of caspase-8 and cell death, which differs from
the Fas/TNFR1 pathway in which Bcl-2 suppressors typically function
downstream of the active enzyme (24-26), if enzyme activation occurs
at the level of the receptor (44). This ability of Bcl-2 to block
activation of both initiator and effector caspases in response to
signaling by an oncogene like E1A likely contributes to the sustained
suppression of apoptosis that is required to support manifestation of
the cellular transforming properties of these otherwise death-inducing oncogenes.
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FOOTNOTES |
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* This work was supported by operating grants from the National Cancer Institute and Medical Research Council of Canada.The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. The article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
** To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel.: 514-398-7282; Fax: 514-398-7384; E-mail: shore{at}medcor.mcgill.ca.
The abbreviations used are: TNF, tumor necrosis factor; DN, dominant-negative.
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