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J Biol Chem, Vol. 273, Issue 8, 4345-4349, February 20, 1998
Membrane Oligomerization and Cleavage Activates the Caspase-8
(FLICE/MACH 1) Death Signal*
David A.
Martin,
Richard M.
Siegel,
Lixin
Zheng, and
Michael J.
Lenardo
From the Laboratory of Immunology, NIAID, National Institutes of
Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-1892
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ABSTRACT |
Many forms of apoptosis, including that caused by
the death receptor CD95/Fas/APO-1, depend on the activation of
caspases, which are proteases that cleave specific intracellular
proteins to cause orderly cellular disintegration. The requirements for activating these crucial enzymatic mediators of death are not well
understood. Using molecular chimeras with either CD8 or Tac, we find
that oligomerization at the cell membrane powerfully induces caspase-8
autoactivation and apoptosis. Death induction was abrogated by the
z-VAD-fmk, z-IETD-fmk, or p35 enzyme inhibitors or by a mutation in the
active site cysteine but was surprisingly unaffected by death inhibitor
Bcl-2. Amino acid substitutions that prevent the proteolytic separation
of the caspase from its membrane-associated domain completely blocked
apoptosis. Thus, oligomerization at the membrane is sufficient for
caspase-8 autoactivation, but apoptosis could involve a death signal
conveyed by the proteolytic release of the enzyme into the
cytoplasm.
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INTRODUCTION |
A pivotal biochemical event of programmed cell death or apoptosis
is the activation of cysteinyl, aspartate-specific proteases or
caspases (1, 2). The caspase gene family in mammals includes at least
10 members that share protein sequence similarity to the
ced3 cell death gene from Caenorhabditis elegans
(3). The participation of caspases in programmed cell death is
conserved widely in phylogeny from the nematode, C. elegans
to humans (4). The essential role of caspases is to endoproteolytically
cleave a select group of cellular proteins at aspartate residues,
thereby causing the nuclear and cytoplasmic alterations that typify
apoptosis. The principal regulation of caspases is post-translational.
They reside in the cell as inactive zymogens, which must be
proteolytically processed at internal aspartates to generate the
subunits of the active enzyme.
How caspases are activated is a critical question in the immune system,
since normal lymphocyte homeostasis and immune tolerance involves
CD95-induced apoptosis that depends on caspase activation (5). Caspase
activation is defective in patients that have inherited mutations in
CD95 and suffer from the autoimmune/lymphoproliferative syndrome
(ALPS)1, 2
(6, 7). The activation of caspase-8 (FLICE/MACH) appears to be
the first step in the cascade of apoptotic events induced by CD95 (5,
8). Caspase-8 is recruited to the "death-inducing signal complex"
(DISC), a multiprotein complex that forms rapidly on the cytoplasmic
portion of the Fas/APO-1/CD95 receptor after ligand engagement, by the
adapter protein FADD/MORT1 (8-13). The caspase-8 precursor protein is
cleaved at 3 aspartate residues to become active, but processing has
only been demonstrated by exposing the caspase-8 precursor to an active
DISC complex, raising the important question of how activation is
initiated (12). We therefore investigated the requirements of caspase-8
activation and apoptosis induction.
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EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES |
Materials
The PCR3-uni vector and TA cloning kit were from Invitrogen, San
Diego, CA. The vectors pCEFL, pCEFL-CD8-EMPTY, and pCEFL-Myr containing
the src myristoylation sequence were gifts from Dr. J. Silvio Gutkind, NIDR, NIH. The FADD-AU-1 pcDNA3 was provided by Dr.
Vishva Dixit (13), and p35-pCI and 3LacZ plasmids were provided by Dr.
John Bertin, NIAID, NIH. The Taq and Pwo
polymerases and the rapid DNA ligation kit were from Boehringer
Mannheim. z-VAD-fmk
(N-benzyloxycarbonyl-Val-Ala-Asp-fluoromethylketone) was
from Enzyme Systems Products. PE-labeled anti-human CD8 and anti-Tac
antisera were obtained from Pharmingen, San Diego, CA, anti-GFP mAb was
from CLONTECH, and horseradish
peroxidase-conjugated goat-anti-mouse IgG was from Jackson
ImmunoResearch. SuperSignal horseradish peroxidase substrate was from
Pierce. The parental and Bcl-2-overexpressing stable MCF-7 lines were
kindly provided by Drs. Ulrich Brinkmann and Ira Pastan, National
Cancer Institute, NIH.
Methods
DNA Constructions--
The caspase-8 (MACH- 1/FLICE) coding
sequence was cloned using reverse transcription PCR into the pCR3-Uni
vector using the TA cloning kit per manufacturer's protocols. The
full-length cDNA was sequenced and then subcloned into a modified
pcDNA3 vector, pCEFL, in which the cytomegalovirus promoter was
replaced by the promoter for elongation factor 2 (EF-2). High-fidelity
PCR products of caspase-8 (98-479 and 209-479) were subcloned as
HindIII-NotI fragments into digested pCEFL. The
vector pCEFL-CD8-EMPTY vector and the pCEFL-Myr vector containing the
src myristoylation sequence were used for the in-frame
cloning of the caspase-8 protease domain. The Tac-C construct was made
by amplifying the extracellular and transmembrane domains (Tac EX-TM)
of the Tac cDNA using high-fidelity PCR. CD8 was removed from the
CD8-C construct using HindIII and BamHI, and the
digested PCR product of Tac EX-TM was ligated in frame with caspase-8
209.
Site-directed Mutagenesis--
Point mutations were made in the
pCEFL-CD8-C using the altered sites mutagenesis kit (Promega, Madison,
WI) and the Quik-Change kits (Stratagene), according to the
instructions of the manufacturers.
Cell Death Assays--
For all Jurkat transfections, plasmid
constructions (pCEFL, pCEFL-caspase-8, pCEFL-caspase-8 98,
pCEFL-caspase-8 209, pCEFL-Myr-C, pCEFL-CD8-C, pCEFL-Tac-C,
pcDNA3-FADD, p35-pCI, CD8-C, and the Tac-C mutants as outlined in
the figures), along with pCEFL-GFP, were electroporated into 4-8 × 106 Jurkat cells in 0.4 ml of complete medium in an
Electrocell Manipulator 600 (BTX Corp., San Diego, CA). Plasmids were
added to the cells at a 3:1 mass excess of the caspase constructions to
GFP to ensure that all cells expressing GFP simultaneously expressed
the cotransfected DNA of interest. The total amount of DNA/cuvette
ranged from 15 to 20 µg. After pulse discharge at settings 260 V,
1050 µF, and 720 , the cells were immediately placed in 7 ml of
fresh RPMI medium containing 10% fetal calf serum, incubated for
16-20 h at 37 °C, and analyzed using flow cytometry. Where
indicated 50 µM of the caspase inhibitor z-VAD-fmk was
added to the cells/media immediately following electroporation. For the
chimeric caspase-8 constructs, the cells were stained for surface
expression of either CD8 or Tac (CD25) prior to analysis using flow
cytometry. Dead cells were gated out using forward and side scatter
profiles, and the percent cell death was calculated from the loss of
live GFP-positive cells in treated samples compared with the control vector. For the inhibition of CD8-C apoptosis in Jurkat T-cells, 4 µg
of CD8-C (or pCEFL control plasmid) was cotransfected with 2 µg of
the GFP vector and either 20 µg of pCEFL with or without 50 µM z-VAD-fmk, 50 µM z-IETD-fmk (Enzyme
Systems Products, Livermore, CA) or 20 µg of p35-pCI. After
transfection, the cells were analyzed for CD8 surface expression using
flow cytometry.
For 293T cells, subconfluent cells were transfected in six-well plates
using the calcium phosphate method (Stratagene) according to
manufacturer's instructions, with the modification that 25 µM chloroquine was added to the medium to facilitate DNA
uptake. Cells were transfected with the plasmid combinations described in the figures with a 2.5:1 excess of the DNA of interest to the 3Lac-z
construct (total DNA: 1.5-2.0 µg). After 24-30 h, the cells were
fixed in 2% formaldehyde, 0.2% glutaraldehyde in phosphate-buffered saline for 15 min at room temperature and then stained in
phosphate-buffered saline containing 5 mM each
K3Fe(CN)6 and
K4Fe(CN)6·3H2O, 2 mM MgCl2, 0.01% SDS, 0.02% Nonidet P-40, and 1 mg/ml
5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl- -D-galactopyranoside until a
suitable color developed, usually for 3-4 h at 37 °C. To enumerate
the fraction of blue cells that had undergone apoptotic changes, a
minimum of 200 blue-staining cells/well were counted using light
microscopy and unambiguously scored as being apoptotic or nonapoptotic
by morphological assessment. The Bcl-2 stable MCF-7 line showed
approximately 20-fold excess Bcl-2 protein over the parental line by
Western blot and had a demonstrable defect in tumor necrosis
factor-induced apoptosis (data not shown). Transfections were done
using the calcium phosphate method as described above. For the CD8-C
inhibition experiments in 293T cells, 250 ng of CD8-C was transfected
along with 1-5 µg of either CD8-empty or CD8-C D210A/D216A or 5 µg
of pCEFL using Superfect (Qiagen) according to manufacturer's
protocol. Cells were fixed at 24 h, stained, and enumerated with
light microscopy as described above.
Flow Cytometry Analysis--
Surface expression of Jurkat
T-cells transfected with CD8 and Tac fusion proteins was done using
PE-labeled anti-human CD8 and anti-Tac antisera (Pharmingen, San
Diego, CA). Flow cytometry was carried out on a FACScan flow
cytometer (Becton-Dickinson, Mountain View, CA) using CellQuest
software. GFP fluorescence was analyzed using the FL1 channel.
Western Blotting--
Twenty-four hours after transfection (as
described above) with the indicated constructs (see figure legends),
293T cells were lysed in buffer containing 140 mM NaCl, 10 mM Tris (pH 7.2), 2 mM EDTA, 1% Nonidet P-40,
complete protease inhibitor mix (Boerhinger Mannheim), and 10 mM iodoacetamide. After lysis for 30 min on ice,
supernatants were diluted in SDS sample buffer with or without 40 mM dithiothreitol, boiled, and electrophoresed on 4-20%
Tris/glycine/SDS gels. Proteins were blotted onto nitrocellulose using
a semidry transfer apparatus. The blots were then probed with 1:1000
dilution of anti-GFP mAb (Fig. 3) followed by 1:10,000 dilution of goat anti-mouse horseradish peroxidase (Jackson ImmunoResearch) or 1:20
dilution of a p18-specific anti-caspase-8 mAb (a kind gift of Dr. Peter
Krammer, German Cancer Research Center) followed by 1:2500 dilution of
isotype-specific goat anti-mouse horseradish peroxidase (Caltag) (Fig.
4). Bands were imaged with SuperSignal horseradish peroxidase substrate
(Pierce). Equivalent cell numbers were loaded onto each lane.
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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION |
We first studied caspase-8 by transfecting expression constructs
containing either full-length or truncated versions into Jurkat T-cells
(Fig. 1). We found that the full-length
protein inefficiently induced apoptosis compared with the
death-signaling protein, FADD/MORT1 (10, 13) (Fig.
2A). Removal of one or both
death effector domains (DEDs) decreased rather than increased apoptosis
demonstrating that the caspase prodomain does not inhibit formation of
the active protease. Protein blots confirmed that equivalent protein
expression was obtained with each of the constructs (data not shown).
Thus, simple overexpression of this caspase did not efficiently induce
activation or apoptosis in Jurkat T-cells. We therefore tested the
concept that membrane localization and/or oligomerization could
initiate caspase autoactivation and apoptosis induction as might be
envisioned based on the observation that caspase-8 can be recruited to
the DISC (8-11). The caspase domain was genetically fused to the
transmembrane and extracellular portion of the human CD8 chain,
which is known to form disulfide-linked homodimers (14-16), and this
expression construct, CD8-C, was transfected into Jurkat cells (Figs. 1
and 2B). CD8-C dramatically induced apoptosis, implying
extremely efficient protease activation. Control experiments using the
expression vector pCEFL, CD8-empty, or CD8-nef caused little or no
apoptosis (Fig. 2 and data not shown). Therefore, the CD8-C chimera,
either by membrane targeting, spontaneous oligomerization, or both,
strongly induced apoptosis without further cross-linking.

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Fig. 1.
Schematic overview of caspase-8
constructs. Wild-type caspase-8 (MACH- 1, FLICE), encoding amino
acids 1-479, contains a prodomain (amino acids 1-208) and a caspase
domain (amino acids 209-479). The prodomain contains DEDs encompassing
amino acids 1-79 (DED-A) and 99-177 (DED-B), and the caspase domain
contains two subunits, p18 and p11, generated by proteolytic processing at aspartate residues (D) as shown. The active site cysteine
at amino acid 360 (C360) is indicated. Caspase-8 98 and
209 lack the first 97 and 208 amino acids, respectively; the first
five amino acids at the N termini are shown. Myristoylated-caspase (Myr-C) consists of the myristoylation sequence from the src
gene (17) attached to the N terminus of caspase-8 209. Tac-C and CD8-C consist of the extracellular (patterned) and
transmembrane (solid) domains from Tac (CD25/IL-2R) and
CD8 , respectively, fused in frame with caspase-8 209. CD8-empty
is the same construction as CD8-C except that its cytoplasmic domain is
truncated at the caspase-8 fusion point.
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Fig. 2.
Chimeric caspase-8 molecules have
dramatically enhanced apoptotic activity that can be blocked by caspase
inhibitors. A-C, in three separate experiments, Jurkat
T-cells were transfected with 10 µg of the indicated constructs along
with 2.5 µg of the pCEFL-GFP vector to track the fate of the
transfected cells. The cells were analyzed flow cytometrically 24 h after transfection, and percent kill was calculated by measuring the
deficit of GFP-positive viable cells in transfections of caspase or
FADD compared with control vector alone. Under these conditions, Fas
cross-linking with 100 ng/ml CH11 antibody induced ~90% cell death.
Each experiment was replicated three or more times and a representative
result is shown. D, flow cytometry profiles of Jurkat
T-cells transfected with the indicated constructs combined with empty
vector to preserve a constant amount of transfected DNA in each sample.
Fifty µM z-VAD-fmk was added immediately after
transfection to the cells in the fourth panel. The cells
were stained with PE-labeled anti-CD8 (Pharmingen) prior to analysis,
and gated live cells were analyzed for GFP and CD8 expression. Viable
transfected cells are the double positive cells in the right
upper quadrant. E, either no peptide or 50 µM IETD
peptide inhibitor that is specifically recognized by caspase-8 was
added immediately after transfection with either pCEFL or CD8-C as in
A-D. F, to determine the effect of Bcl-2, conventional MCF-7 cells or MCF-7 cells stably overexpressing Bcl-2
(21) were transiently transfected using pCMV- -galactosidase with a
4-fold excess of vector alone or the indicated expression constructs
(total DNA = 2 µg). CD8-nef contains the human immunodeficiency virus nef gene in place of the caspase coding sequence in
CD8-C. Percent kill is the percentage of dark (transfected)
cells that have a characteristic apoptotic morphology (illustrated in
Fig. 4B). Data are representative of three independent
experiments.
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We next tested whether membrane targeting alone could induce caspase
activation, by appending the myristoylation sequence from the
src kinase onto the amino terminus of the caspase domain in
an expression construct, Myr-C (17). Overexpression of Myr-C was only
modestly more active than unmodified caspase-8 in inducing apoptosis
(Fig. 2B). We also prepared a chimera, Tac-C, between the
interleukin-2 receptor chain (Tac) extracellular and transmembrane domains and the caspase domain (18). Overexpression of Tac has been
recently shown to cause self-association in the absence of ligand.3 Tac-C, similar to
CD8-C, greatly augmented apoptosis, even without antibody cross-linking
of the Tac moiety (Fig. 2C), suggesting that spontaneous
oligomerization of the extracellular domains of CD8 or Tac is
sufficient to powerfully induce caspase-8 autoactivation and
apoptosis.
The cell death caused by CD8-C involved caspase activation, because
either the z-VAD-fmk peptide (19) or the baculovirus p35 caspase
inhibitors (20) inhibited apoptosis (Fig. 2D). Under caspase-8-inhibited conditions, we observed abundant surface CD8 staining on viable cells, which confirmed that the CD8-C chimera was
actually expressed following transfection (Fig. 2D).
Moreover, we also tested an inhibitor peptide, z-IETD-fmk, based on the optimal sequence recognized by caspase-8 and found that this peptide completely abrogated apoptosis induced by CD8-C (Fig. 2E).
By contrast, the overexpression of Bcl-2 (21), which could protect against apoptosis mediators such as staurosporine, was incapable of
protecting from programmed death due to direct caspase-8 activation by
CD8-C (Fig. 2F). The viral inhibitory protein MC159, which disrupts normal DISC formation and blocks CD95-induced apoptosis by
preventing caspase-8 from binding to FADD (22, 23), also did not
inhibit apoptosis by CD8-C (data not shown), implying that the
autoactivation of caspase-8 in our system did not require the formation
or participation of the DISC. Also, brefeldin A was incapable of
blocking CD8-C-mediated death, implying that oligomerization and
caspase activation may occur in the membranes of early compartments
prior to transport to the membrane at the cell surface (data not
shown).
An important biochemical feature of the CD8 extracellular domain is
its ability to form disulfide-linked homodimers. Since no additional
external cross-linking (such as by antibody) was required for the
powerful apoptosis induction by CD8-C, we reasoned that dimerization
was critical in promoting association and processing of the caspase
precursors into an active form. To assess whether CD8-C had undergone
dimerization, we analyzed detergent lysates from 293T cells that were
transfected with a construct expressing a CD8-C linked to GFP (24)
(CD8-C-GFP), either alone or together with constructs expressing
CD8-empty or an inactive CD8-C without the GFP tag (CD8-C:D210A/D216A,
see below). Western blots with an anti-GFP mAb showed that CD8-C-GFP
formed an apparent dimer complex (molecular mass = 170 kDa, lane
4) in nonreducing conditions, but only monomers (molecular
mass = 85 kDa) in reducing conditions (Fig.
3A). Coexpression of CD8-C-GFP
and either an inactive CD8-C chain without the GFP tag or CD8-empty
caused a decrease in the CD8-C-GFP homodimer and the appearance of
apparent heterodimer complexes (molecular mass = 142 kDa, lanes
1, 2, and 5), which was absent without CD8-C-GFP.
Similar results were obtained with coexpression of CD8-C-GFP and
CD8-empty, with smaller heterodimeric complexes. Thus, consistent with
the formation of disulfide-linked homodimers by native CD8 (15, 16),
the CD8-C chimera formed dimers with itself and other CD8 expression
proteins. To determine if dimerization was essential for caspase
activation, we tested whether coexpression of CD8-empty or an inactive
CD8-C chimera (D210A/D216A, see below) dominantly interfered with the
ability of CD8-C to induce apoptosis. Cotransfection of these
constructs confirmed this prediction (Fig. 3B). We found
that either CD8-empty or an inactive CD8-C chimera blocked the
lethality of CD8-C in a dose-response fashion (Fig. 3B).

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Fig. 3.
The proapoptotic activity of CD8-C depends on
homodimerization. A, nonreducing (NR) and
reducing (R) polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of protein
extracts from 293T cells that were transiently transfected with the
indicated amounts of the CD8-FLICE expression plasmids in the presence
of 100 µM z-VAD-fmk to prevent apoptosis and avoid bias
against cells that formed active oligomers of the wild-type molecule.
Blots were probed with anti-GFP. The arrows indicate
monomers and dimers of CD8-C-GFP molecules, and the heterodimer of
CD8-C-GFP and the mutant proteins CD8-C:D210A/D216A or CD8-empty
(slightly smaller). On longer exposure of the blot, a heterodimeric
band could also be seen in the lane transfected with a 4:1 ratio of
CD8-C:D210A/D216A to CD8-C-GFP. Note that no monomer or dimer is
visible with 4 µg of CD8-C:D210A/D216A or CD8-empty, since these
proteins do not contain GFP. B, cell death was quantified
for 293T cells that were transiently cotransfected with pCEFL-CD8-C and
pCMV- -galactosidase along with either CD8-empty, mutant pCEFL-CD8-C
(D210A/D216A), or pCEFL in 4-20-fold excess. Total DNA was equalized
(5.25 µg) in all transfections by adding the pCEFL expression plasmid
backbone. The data are the mean and S.D. of three independent
determinations of the percentage of apoptotic dark cells.
Data are representative of three independent experiments.
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We next investigated how enzymatic processing of CD8-C could lead to
apoptosis. With a single nucleotide change, we substituted serine for
the catalytic site cysteine (CD8-C:C360S). This change completely
abrogated apoptosis, indicating that the active site cysteine was
indispensable (Fig. 4A). We
therefore assessed the functional importance of aspartate residues that
reside at the site for cleaving the prodomain from the caspase domain
(which have been preserved in both the CD8-C and Tac-C constructs) by mutations. We found that the substitution of alanines for the Asp210 and Asp216 residues unexpectedly blocked
apoptosis by CD8-C (Figs. 1 and 4C). The two aspartates were
not equivalently important, since the D216A mutation only modestly
reduced apoptosis, whereas mutation of Asp210 or both
Asp210 and Asp216 completely inhibited
apoptosis (Fig. 4B). This striking effect was also observed
with the corresponding mutations in the Tac-C chimera (Fig.
4C and data not shown). Additionally we performed a Western
blot of 293T cells transiently transfected with either CD8-C or the
double mutant CD8-C D210/216A using a mAb specific for caspase-8 to
examine processing of the caspase chimera. The wild-type CD8-C
underwent cleavage into processed fragments, which were released into
the soluble cytosolic fraction, whereas the double mutant chimera did
not (Fig. 4D). No cleavage products were found in the
membrane-associated pellet for either the wild-type or mutant molecules
(data not shown). Thus, even with an intact catalytic site cysteine,
the lethality of the CD8-C or Tac-C chimeras is lost if the caspase
cannot be proteolytically cleaved at the point of its association with
the membrane.

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Fig. 4.
Mutations reveal amino acids that are
essential for apoptosis induction by CD8-C. A, expression
plasmids containing single nucleotide changes that cause the
substitution of either serine for the active site cysteine
(CD8-C:C360S) or alanines for aspartates required for membrane release
(CD8-C:D210A/D216A) were cotransfected with a GFP expression plasmid
into Jurkat cells. Cell death was measured as the fraction of
transfected (GFP-positive) cells that were lost compared with control.
B, photomicrographs of 293T cells cotransfected with
pCMV- -galactosidase along with either CD8-fusion constructs as
indicated. Viable cells have a large fibroblastoid morphology, whereas
apoptotic cells are shrunken, circular, and extensively blebbed.
Magnification is approximately × 200. C, flow
cytometry profiles of Jurkat T-cells transfected with 10 µg of the
indicated expression constructs with or without 50 µM
z-VAD-fmk. The cells were stained with PE-labeled anti-CD25 (Pharmingen) prior to analysis, and only live cells as measured by
forward scatter versus side scatter were analyzed for GFP
and CD25 (Tac) expression. Viable transfected cells are the double positive cells in the right upper quadrant. D,
polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of protein extracts from 293T cells
that were transiently transfected with CD8-C (lane 1) or
CD8-C D210/216A double mutant (lane 2) and probed with
anti-caspase-8-specific (p18) mAb. Molecular mass markers in
kilodaltons are shown at the right.
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Caspase activation is a crucial biochemical event involved in most, if
not all, forms of apoptosis, so it is of central importance to
understand the activation requirements of these enzymes (1, 2). Our
results show that membrane-associated oligomerization of caspase-8, the
most proximal caspase in the CD95 signal cascade, is sufficient to
powerfully induce apoptosis in several different cell types. Although
previous studies have detected the cleaved caspase-8 prodomain in the
"DISC" proteins aggregated with the cytoplasmic tail of CD95, these
studies were limited by the fact that they did not determine the
stoichiometry of the proteins to know if oligomerization of multiple
caspase-8 molecules was likely to have occurred (8-11). Furthermore,
the previous two-dimensional gel analyses were descriptive and did not
directly test the necessity of cleavage at various aspartate residues
for apoptosis induction. Our data address these issues and suggest that
there are two critical steps in the caspase-8 death pathway. First, we
have shown that oligomerization is sufficient to activate the enzyme.
Homodimers of the wild-type CD8-caspase induced death, whereas
heterodimers between the wild-type and an inactive CD8 construct were
unable to stimulate death. Second, we have shown that proteolytic
cleavage of the active caspase at the point of its membrane association was also required. Death induced by the caspase chimera occurred spontaneously without cross-linking of the CD8 extracellular domain. Also our results suggest that apart from the ability of CD95 and FADD/MORT1 to bring the caspase-8 molecules together, the DISC complex
is not required for autocatalytic activation. Thus our data suggest
that dimerization of caspases favors the spontaneous generation of an
unstable, but active, conformation that can initiate autoprocessing
into a thermodynamically more stable caspase. Although our experiments
demonstrate that membrane-linked oligomerization causes activation, it
is very likely that oligomerization of the enzyme within the cytosol
may also strongly activate caspase activity. The crystal structures of
active caspase tetramers show that each partner in a pair of large or
small subunit chains is positioned antiparallel with respect to the
other (25, 26). Since our chimeras constrain the N termini of the
precursors in a parallel relationship, the initial active
pseudoconformation is likely to differ significantly from the final
mature structure. Interestingly, despite the trimeric symmetry of tumor
necrosis factor receptor and CD95 (27), CD8 dimers appear to be
sufficient for caspase-8 activation. A dimer could allow p18 and p11
subunits from two chains to form an enzyme tetramer. Alternatively,
dimers may enhance the cross-cleavage of precursor chains either by
creating proximity, inducing a favorable orientation for processing, or
by preventing the association of endogenous inhibitory proteins, such
as cellular FLIP (28, 29). Importantly, we find that death programmed by caspase-8 dimerization is resistant to Bcl-2, which could explain the apparent resistance of CD95-induced apoptosis to Bcl-2
inhibition in many cell types (30, 31).
Although proteolytic separation of caspase-8 from its prodomain in the
DISC complex has been observed after prolonged treatment with anti-CD95
antibody (11), the necessity of this event was unknown. We found that
substitution of alanines for the aspartates at the junction between the
prodomain and the caspase domain (D210A/D216A) completely blocked
apoptosis. We show that the D210A/D216A double mutant also gave no
evidence of processing, although we could not evaluate cleavage between
p18 and p10, because the antibody used was directed against the p18
subunit. However, we have found that D374A/D384A mutants that prevent
cleavage between p18 and p10 do not abrogate apoptosis (data not
shown). Thus, proteolysis at D210/D216 plays a critical role that is
different than other processing events. A leading possibility is that
release of the active caspase from membrane association is important
for apoptosis. Detachment of the caspase from the membrane may release
the mature enzyme into the cytoplasm where it may catabolize apoptosis
substrates that could be sequestered away from the cell membrane.
Alternatively, cleavage away from the prodomain may also increase the
enzymatic activity or stability; however, enzymatic activity has been
found to be associated with the DISC complex (12). Unlike other
membrane signaling pathways such as phosphorylation or inositol
phosphate generation, caspase-8 processing is an irreversible signal
that commits the cell's fate to apoptosis. These downstream
biochemical events involving caspase-8 may be targets for genetic
alterations in autoimmune/lymphoproliferative syndrome patients who do
not have mutations in the CD95 protein itself (32).
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FOOTNOTES |
*
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: Rm. 11N311, Bldg. 10, Laboratory of Immunology, National Institutes of Health, 10 Center Dr.,
MSC1892, Bethesda, MD 20892-1892. Tel.: 301-496-6754; Fax:
301-402-8530; E-mail: lenardo{at}nih.gov.
1
The abbreviations used are: ALPS,
autoimmune/lymphoproliferative syndrome; DISC, death-inducing signal
complex; PCR, polymerase chain reaction; FADD, Fas-associated death
domain protein; GFP, green fluorescent protein; DED, death effector
domain; C, caspase; Myr-C, myristoylated caspase; mAb, monoclonal
antibody.
2
D. A. Martin and M. J. Lenardo, unpublished
observations.
3
D. Eicher and T. A. Waldmann, personal
communication.
 |
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S. Nishimura, M. Adachi, T. Ishida, T. Matsunaga, H. Uchida, H. Hamada, and K. Imai
Adenovirus-mediated Transfection of Caspase-8 Augments Anoikis and Inhibits Peritoneal Dissemination of Human Gastric Carcinoma Cells
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V. Poulaki, N. Mitsiades, M. E. Romero, and M. Tsokos
Fas-mediated Apoptosis in Neuroblastoma Requires Mitochondrial Activation and Is Inhibited by FLICE Inhibitor Protein and bcl-2
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A. S. Varadhachary, M. Edidin, A. M. Hanlon, M. E. Peter, P. H. Krammer, and P. Salgame
Phosphatidylinositol 3'-Kinase Blocks CD95 Aggregation and Caspase-8 Cleavage at the Death-Inducing Signaling Complex by Modulating Lateral Diffusion of CD95
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S. R. White, P. Williams, K. R. Wojcik, S. Sun, P. S. Hiemstra, K. F. Rabe, and D. R. Dorscheid
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D. C. Thomis, S. Marktel, C. Bonini, C. Traversari, M. Gilman, C. Bordignon, and T. Clackson
A Fas-based suicide switch in human T cells for the treatment of graft-versus-host disease
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H. Y. Chang and X. Yang
Proteases for Cell Suicide: Functions and Regulation of Caspases
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B. B Aggarwal
Tumour necrosis factors receptor associated signalling molecules and their role in activation of apoptosis, JNK and NF-kappa B
Ann Rheum Dis,
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[Abstract]
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N. Mitsiades, V. Poulaki, S. Tseleni-Balafouta, D. A. Koutras, and I. Stamenkovic
Thyroid Carcinoma Cells Are Resistant to FAS-mediated Apoptosis But Sensitive to Tumor Necrosis Factor-related Apoptosis-inducing Ligand
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R. M. Siegel, J. K. Frederiksen, D. A. Zacharias, F. K.-M. Chan, M. Johnson, D. Lynch, R. Y. Tsien, and M. J. Lenardo
Fas Preassociation Required for Apoptosis Signaling and Dominant Inhibition by Pathogenic Mutations
Science,
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G. Tezel and M. B. Wax
The Mechanisms of hsp27 Antibody-Mediated Apoptosis in Retinal Neuronal Cells
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M. Mancini, C. E. Machamer, S. Roy, D. W. Nicholson, N. A. Thornberry, L. A. Casciola-Rosen, and A. Rosen
Caspase-2 Is Localized at the Golgi Complex and Cleaves Golgin-160 during Apoptosis
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D. E. Johnson, B. R. Gastman, E. Wieckowski, G.-Q. Wang, A. Amoscato, S. M. Delach, and H. Rabinowich
Inhibitor of Apoptosis Protein hILP Undergoes Caspase-mediated Cleavage during T Lymphocyte Apoptosis
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M. S. Iordanov, O. P. Ryabinina, J. Wong, T.-H. Dinh, D. L. Newton, S. M. Rybak, and B. E. Magun
Molecular Determinants of Apoptosis Induced by the Cytotoxic Ribonuclease Onconase: Evidence for Cytotoxic Mechanisms Different from Inhibition of Protein Synthesis
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C. Grullich, M. C. Sullards, Z. Fuks, A. H. Merrill Jr., and R. Kolesnick
CD95(Fas/APO-1) Signals Ceramide Generation Independent of the Effector Stage of Apoptosis
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G. Papoff, P. Hausler, A. Eramo, M. G. Pagano, G. Di Leve, A. Signore, and G. Ruberti
Identification and Characterization of a Ligand-independent Oligomerization Domain in the Extracellular Region of the CD95 Death Receptor
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D. C. S. Huang, M. Hahne, M. Schroeter, K. Frei, A. Fontana, A. Villunger, K. Newton, J. Tschopp, and A. Strasser
Activation of Fas by FasL induces apoptosis by a mechanism that cannot be blocked by Bcl-2 or Bcl-xL
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H. Perlman, L. J. Pagliari, C. Georganas, T. Mano, K. Walsh, and R. M. Pope
FLICE-inhibitory Protein Expression during Macrophage Differentiation Confers Resistance to Fas-mediated Apoptosis
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P. Juo, M. Sue-Ann Woo, C. J. Kuo, P. Signorelli, H. P. Biemann, Y. A. Hannun, and J. Blenis
FADD Is Required for Multiple Signaling Events Downstream of the Receptor Fas
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W. Van Molle, G. Denecker, I. Rodriguez, P. Brouckaert, P. Vandenabeele, and C. Libert
Activation of Caspases in Lethal Experimental Hepatitis and Prevention by Acute Phase Proteins
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November 15, 1999;
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S.A. Cook and P.A. Poole-Wilson
Cardiac myocyte apoptosis
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G. Tezel and M. B. Wax
Inhibition of Caspase Activity in Retinal Cell Apoptosis Induced by Various Stimuli In Vitro
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G. S. Salvesen and V. M. Dixit
Caspase activation: The induced-proximity model
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I. M. Catlett and G. A. Bishop
Cutting Edge: A Novel Mechanism for Rescue of B Cells from CD95/Fas-Mediated Apoptosis
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C. Adrain, E. A. Slee, M. T. Harte, and S. J. Martin
Regulation of Apoptotic Protease Activating Factor-1 Oligomerization and Apoptosis by the WD-40 Repeat Region
J. Biol. Chem.,
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B. B. Wolf and D. R. Green
Suicidal Tendencies: Apoptotic Cell Death by Caspase Family Proteinases
J. Biol. Chem.,
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E. Bossy-Wetzel and D. R. Green
Caspases Induce Cytochrome c Release from Mitochondria by Activating Cytosolic Factors
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Y. Eguchi, A. Srinivasan, K. J. Tomaselli, S. Shimizu, and Y. Tsujimoto
ATP-dependent Steps in Apoptotic Signal Transduction
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T. S. Griffith, C. T. Rauch, P. J. Smolak, J. Y. Waugh, N. Boiani, D. H. Lynch, C. A. Smith, R. G. Goodwin, and M. Z. Kubin
Functional Analysis of TRAIL Receptors Using Monoclonal Antibodies
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March 1, 1999;
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N. H. Kabra, D. Cado, and A. Winoto
A Tailless Fas-FADD Death-Effector Domain Chimera Is Sufficient to Execute Fas Function in T Cells But Not B Cells of MRL-lpr/lpr Mice
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H. Y. Chang, X. Yang, and D. Baltimore
Dissecting Fas signaling with an altered-specificity death-domain mutant: Requirement of FADD binding for apoptosis but not Jun N-terminal kinase activation
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Q. L. Deveraux and J. C. Reed
IAP family proteins---suppressors of apoptosis
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K. Banki, E. Hutter, N. J. Gonchoroff, and A. Perl
Elevation of Mitochondrial Transmembrane Potential and Reactive Oxygen Intermediate Levels Are Early Events and Occur Independently from Activation of Caspases in Fas Signaling
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J. J. Kang, M. D. Schaber, S. M. Srinivasula, E. S. Alnemri, G. Litwack, D. J. Hall, and M.-A. Bjornsti
Cascades of Mammalian Caspase Activation in the Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae
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C. Scaffidi, I. Schmitz, P. H. Krammer, and M. E. Peter
The Role of c-FLIP in Modulation of CD95-induced Apoptosis
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K. Yamashita, A. Takahashi, S. Kobayashi, H. Hirata, P. W. Mesner Jr, S. H. Kaufmann, S. Yonehara, K. Yamamoto, T. Uchiyama, and M. Sasada
Caspases Mediate Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha -Induced Neutrophil Apoptosis and Downregulation of Reactive Oxygen Production
Blood,
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Y. Hu, L. Ding, D. M. Spencer, and G. Nunez
WD-40 Repeat Region Regulates Apaf-1 Self-association and Procaspase-9 Activation
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H. R. Stennicke, J. M. Jurgensmeier, H. Shin, Q. Deveraux, B. B. Wolf, X. Yang, Q. Zhou, H. M. Ellerby, L. M. Ellerby, D. Bredesen, et al.
Pro-caspase-3 Is a Major Physiologic Target of Caspase-8
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October 16, 1998;
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R. M. Siegel, D. A. Martin, L. Zheng, S. Y. Ng, J. Bertin, J. Cohen, and M. J. Lenardo
Death-effector Filaments: Novel Cytoplasmic Structures that Recruit Caspases and Trigger Apoptosis
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V. Cryns and J. Yuan
Proteases to die for
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P. K. Majumder, P. Pandey, X. Sun, K. Cheng, R. Datta, S. Saxena, S. Kharbanda, and D. Kufe
Mitochondrial Translocation of Protein Kinase C delta in Phorbol Ester-induced Cytochrome c Release and Apoptosis
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S. Hu and X. Yang
dFADD, a Novel Death Domain-containing Adapter Protein for the Drosophila Caspase DREDD
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H. Wajant, E. Haas, R. Schwenzer, F. Muhlenbeck, S. Kreuz, G. Schubert, M. Grell, C. Smith, and P. Scheurich
Inhibition of Death Receptor-mediated Gene Induction by a Cycloheximide-sensitive Factor Occurs at the Level of or Upstream of Fas-associated Death Domain Protein (FADD)
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A. Cremesti, F. Paris, H. Grassme, N. Holler, J. Tschopp, Z. Fuks, E. Gulbins, and R. Kolesnick
Ceramide Enables Fas to Cap and Kill
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Y. Jin, S. J. Atkinson, J. A. Marrs, and P. J. Gallagher
Myosin II Light Chain Phosphorylation Regulates Membrane Localization and Apoptotic Signaling of Tumor Necrosis Factor Receptor-1
J. Biol. Chem.,
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L. Zheng, O. Schickling, M. E. Peter, and M. J. Lenardo
The Death Effector Domain-associated Factor Plays Distinct Regulatory Roles in the Nucleus and Cytoplasm
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S. H. Kwon, S. H. Ahn, Y. K. Kim, G.-U. Bae, J. W. Yoon, S. Hong, H. Y. Lee, Y.-W. Lee, H.-W. Lee, and J.-W. Han
Apicidin, a Histone Deacetylase Inhibitor, Induces Apoptosis and Fas/Fas Ligand Expression in Human Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia Cells
J. Biol. Chem.,
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S. Roy, C. I. Bayly, Y. Gareau, V. M. Houtzager, S. Kargman, S. L. C. Keen, K. Rowland, I. M. Seiden, N. A. Thornberry, and D. W. Nicholson
Maintenance of caspase-3 proenzyme dormancy by an intrinsic "safety catch" regulatory tripeptide
PNAS,
May 22, 2001;
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Copyright © 1998 by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
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