<p>Throughout their development in the thymus and during their maintenance and the immunological response in the periphery, T cells rely on the regulation of classical apoptotic pathways to promote cell survival or death. Several proteins of the Bcl-2 family have been shown to be critical in thymocyte and T cell survival and consequently, in T cell function. Among these proteins, the antiapoptotic proteins Bcl-2 and Mcl-1 are critical for promoting T cell survival at multiple stages of the T cell "life cycle." While these proteins have been reported to interact with several of the proapoptotic members of the Bcl-2 family, the specific interactions by which Mcl-1 in particular promotes T cell survival in vivo were not well understood. Further, how different stimuli (for example, cytokine signaling and T cell activation) modulate the specific functions of Mcl-1 had also not been thoroughly explored. </p><p>We utilized mouse models to dissect the roles of Mcl-1 at multiple stages of T cell development and function. We utilized conditional knockout and double knockout strategies to build genetic pathways for Mcl-1 activity during thymocyte development and in peripheral T cells under a variety of conditions. In the thymus, the major role of Mcl-1 is to inhibit the activity of proapoptotic Bak because the loss of Bak, but not the loss of Bax or Bim, rescued the survival of Mcl-1-deficient thymocytes at both the double negative and single positive stages. Further, we concluded that this role is not shared with Bcl-2 because overexpression of Bcl-2 did not rescue DN or SP survival. </p><p>In peripheral T cells, the loss of Bak rescued T cell survival in the presence of IL 7, but not during conditions of cytokine withdrawal. Interestingly, the overexpression of Bcl-2 or the loss of Bim partially rescued the survival of T cells during cytokine withdrawal, indicating that Mcl-1 has dual roles in T cells: cytokine-dependent and cytokine independent. Additionally, we found that cytokines of the common gamma chain family have different effects on the activity of Mcl-1 due to the differential regulation of other proteins of the Bcl-2 family, most notably Bim.</p><p>Finally, we utilized a Bcl-2 reporter mouse model to examine the role of Bcl-2 in the establishment of CD8+ T cell memory to infection. Although it is known that Bcl-2 is dynamically regulated in response to activation, the importance of this regulation in the establishment of T cell memory is not yet clear. We show that a subset of effector T cells within a previously defined memory precursor population retained high Bcl-2 expression at the peak of the immune response. Using adoptive transfer of sorted effector T cells, we provide preliminary evidence that the cells with memory potential lie within a strict range of Bcl-2 expression. These studies indicate that the regulation of Bcl 2 is likely critical in establishing T cell memory and provide a platform for the future study of the factors that influence T cell memory.</p> / Dissertation

Per a que el desenvolupament i la maduració testicular tinguin lloc d'una manera correcta, es fa necessari que existeixi un equilibri entre els fenomens de proliferació, diferenciació i mort cel.lular. Tot i que desde fa uns anys es coneix la importància de l'apoptosi en l'eliminació de les cèl.lules germinals anòmales durant l'espermatogènesi dels mamifers, incloent l'home, els mecanismes i gens que la regulen han estat poc estudiats. El desenvolupament d'animals transgènics ha permès conèixer la participació d'alguns gens en la meiosi com són Bax, PMS2, CREM, Mhl1, ATM i HSP70-2. El fenotip comú que presenten aquests animals consisteix en aturada espermatogènica durant la primera divisió meiòtica, inducció d'apoptosi en cèl.lules pre-meiòtiques o meiòtiques i aparició de cèl.lules germinals multinucleades, donant lloc a una disminució de la fertilitat. Amb la finalitat d'identificar gens reguladors de l'apoptosi durant l'espermatogènesi en la rata així com l'estudi de la relevància del mecanisme d'apoptosi i de l'expressió dels gens que la regulen en els problemes de fertilitat en els humans, es van posar a punt dos models d'inducció d'apoptosi en les cèl.lules germinals que la actuen mitjançant mecanismes diferents. Un model de deprivació hormonal, mitjançant l'administració de sulfonat d'etil dimetà (EDS), un tòxic de les cèl.lules de Leydig, que provoca la mort d'aquestes cèl.lules, la qual cosa condueix a la desaparició dels andrògens en el testicle, donant lloc a la mort per apoptosi de les cèl.lules germinals. Un model de toxicitat, mitjançant l'administració d'àcid metoxiacètic (MAA), un tòxic dels espermatocits primaris en fase de paquitè, que provoca la seva mort per apoptosi. Dels resultats obtinguts en el present estudi es desprén que, els membres de la familia de Bcl-2 (Bax i Bcl-2) i la Caspasa-3 participen activament en l'apoptosi induïda en els dos models, co-existint en el mateix estadi tubular i presentant un curs temporal similar. El tractament amb MAA indueix canvis en l'expressió del mRNA i les proteïnes AR, ABP i ERb, que es manifesten en forma de diferències en la distribució en funció de l'estadi del cicle cel.lular en el cas de les dues primeres, i en un notable augment d'expressió a nivell de les cèl.lules germinals en el cas de la tercera. Finalment, s'han aïllat dos nous gens que participen en l'apoptosi induïda a les cèl.lules germinals, Rdes i HARP. Rdes és un homòleg d'un grup de desaturases involucrades en processos meiòtics durant l'espermatogènesi, i HARP és un nou membre de la familia de factors de creixement HDGF, alguns dels quals han estat igualment involucrats en processos meiòtics durant l'espermatogènesi. / To reach a correct testicular development and maduration, it is necessary a balance between proliferation, differentiation and cell death. Since severals years ago it is known, that apoptosis is important to eliminate damaged cells during mammal spermatogenesis, including humans. However, the mechanisms and genes that regulate apoptosis during spermatogenesis are poor understood. Transgenic animals have proven to be useful tool for studying meiotic regulation in mammals. Among genes whose targeted disruption causes meiotic arrest in transgenic animals are Bax, PMS2, CREM, Mhl1, ATM and HSP70-2. Most of these animals show a common phenotype that includes, meiotic arrest, apoptotic induction in pre-meiotic or meiotic cells and multinucleated cells. In order to identify genes regulating apoptosis during spermatogenesis in the rat, as well as study of the apoptotic mechanisms involved, we used two different models of induction of apoptosis in rat germ cells, each model acting by different ways. One model of hormonal deprivation, using ethane dimethane sulphonate (EDS) as a toxicant, which induces death of Leydig cells and androgen withdrawal, that leads to apoptotic germ cell. One model of toxicity, using methoxyacetic acid (MAA) as a toxicant, which induces death of pachytene spermatocytes by apoptosis. The results obtained in this study confirm the active participation of the Bcl-2 family members (Bax and Bcl-2) and Caspasse-3 in the apoptosis induced in both models, co-existing in the same stage of the seminiferous tubule and presenting a similar time course. MAA treatment induces changes in the expression of AR and ABP mRNAs and proteins, showed by the differences in the seminiferous tubule stage distribution. MAA treatment also induces an elevation in the mRNA and protein levels of ERb in germ cells. Finally, we have isolated two new genes which participate in the germ cell induced apoptosis, Rdes and HARP. Rdes is a homologous of a desaturases group involved in meiotic processes during spermatogenesis, and HARP is a new member of the HDGF family, some of those have been involved in meiotic processes during spermatogenesis.

Leukemia is a hematological neoplasm with abnormal genetic mutation or chromosomal translocation in the myeloblast or lymphoblast, and characterized by accumulation of immature cells and malfunction of lymphocytes and myeloid-derived cells. The prognosis of treatment depends on genetic mutation, chromosomal aberration, disease progression and age of patients. Currently, bone marrow transplantation is a useful therapeutic strategy, but the success in therapy is limited by the bone marrow of donors and life-threatening events such as immune repulsion. Although chemotherapy improves leukemia treatment, long-term chemotherapy usually leads to the production of drug-resistant cancer cells. Thus, the development of new modality in overcoming drug-resistant should be beneficial for in leukemia therapy. In this thesis, Naja nigricollis toxin £^, piceatannol, caffeine, and Bungarus multicinctus protease inhibitor-like protein 1 (PILP-1) are employed to investigate the molecular mechanisms in regulating apoptosis and invasion of leukemic cell lines K562 and U937. Hopefully, the signaling pathways elicited by these treatments may be aid in identifying new targets in treating leukemia. Toxin £^ inducing cell death is found to evoke p38 MAPK-mediated Bcl-2 down-regulation, which facilitates mitochondria dysfunction, ROS generation and cytiochrome c release. Finally, activation of caspases leads to apoptotic death of toxin £^-treated cells. Piceatannol elicits Ca2+/p38£\ MAPK- mediated c-Jun and ATF-2 phosphorylation, leading to up-regulation of Fas/FasL protein expression and autocrine Fas-mediated death pathway activation. Caffeine treatment down-regulates MMP-2/-9 down-regulation via Ca2+/ROS-mediated inactivation of ERK/c-Fos and activation of p38 MAPK/c-Jun pathway. Consequently, caffeine treatment suppresses invasion of leukemia cells. PILP-1-induced ADAM17 down-regulation suppresses Lyn-mediated Akt phosphorylation, resulting in death of PILP-1-treated leukemia cells. Taken together, the results of the present study elucidate the signaling pathways responsible for apoptosis and invasion of leukemia cells. Moreover, these findings might suggest new targets in developing therapeutic strategy in treating leukemia.

Dissecting the Mechanisms of Direct Activation for Proapoptotic BAK and BAX / Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Programmed cell death by apoptosis is required for normal development and tissue homeostasis. Perturbations of the critical signaling pathways that regulate apoptosis drive a number of pathologic diseases; therefore, a deep understanding of the apoptotic regulatory networks and methods for therapeutically modulating them is highly warranted. As constituents of the intrinsic pathway of apoptosis, pro-apoptotic BCL-2 family proteins respond to internal signals of cell stress to activate cell death through permeabilization of the outer mitochondrial membrane to release cytochrome c and other apoptogenic factors. Anti-apoptotic BCL-2 proteins block apoptosis by forming stable heterodimers with pro-apoptotic BAX and BAK. Specifically, the C-terminal binding groove of BCL-2 sequesters the BCL-2 homology 3 (BH3) death domain of BAX to prevent BAX oligomerization. The N-terminal BH4 domain of BCL-2 is also believed to confer anti-apoptotic activity but the mechanism by which this occurs remains unknown. A direct, inhibitory interaction between the BCL-2 BH4 domain and BAX was established through application of a peptide stapling technology to preserve the &#945;-helical character of the BH4 domain outside the context of full-length BCL-2. Photoaffinity labeling identified a new mode of BH4 domain interaction at the C-terminal face of BAX, revealing an additional layer of apoptotic regulation. Examination of the conformational activation of full-length BAX in a lipid membrane by hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry revealed that the BCL-2 BH4 helix blocks the BAX conformational changes triggered by an activating BH3 peptide to preserve the inactive BAX fold. Thus, the mechanistic paradigm for BCL-2 inhibition of BAX has been expanded to allow future opportunities for modulation of apoptosis by mimicking or inhibiting the BH4 motif.

Proteins are intimately involved in almost every cellular phenomenon, from life to death. Understanding the interactions of proteins with each other and other macromolecules and the ability to rationally redesign them to improve their activities or control their function are of considerable current interest. Split-protein methodologies provide an avenue for achieving many of these goals. Since the original discovery of conditionally activated split-ubiquitin, the field has grown exponentially to include the activities of over a dozen different proteins. The flexibility of the systems has resulted in their use across a wide spectrum, both literally and figuratively, to primarily screen, visualize and quantitate macromolecular interactions in a variety of biological systems. In another arena, there is significant interest the apoptosis-regulating proteins: the Bcl-2 family. These proteins are found in many cell types and control, through expression levels as well as other mechanisms, the apoptotic state of a protein as governed by intrinsic death signals generated from such sources as DNA damage and viral infection. The apoptotic function of these proteins are mainly governed by a single type of interaction: the helix:receptor binding of the BH3-Only helices to the anti-apoptotic receptor proteins. While this often promiscuous helix:receptor interaction has received much scrutiny, the nature of the anti-apoptotic binding pocket, especially with regard to the specific residues that govern the interaction, has been lacking. With the high sensitivity and rapid analysis platform afforded by the cell-free split-luciferase analysis methodology, we devised and carried out the first systematic and large scale alanine mutagenesis of all five major anti-apoptotic members of the Bcl-2 family, validated these results both with biophysical methods as well as correlation with previous studies. Our results help explain how different receptors can bind a wide range of helices and also uncovered details regarding binding that are not possible with structural or computational analysis alone. In a second area of research, we have utilized the interaction of BH3 helices and their receptors for designing small molecule controlled protein kinases and phosphatases. In this protein design area, BH3-Only helices were inserted using a knowledge based approach into particular loops within both a protein kinase and a protein phosphatase. The BH3-Only helix interaction with added receptors, such as Bcl-xL provided an allosteric switch for turning-off the activity of the helix-inserted enzymes. The activity of the enzymes could then be turned-on by the addition of a cell-permeable small molecule that is known to bind the receptor. This plug-and-play design was demonstrated to be successful for two very different enzyme classes and likely provides a general and tunable biological element for controlling the activity of one or more proteins and enzymes in a biochemical networks.

The nature of DNA has captivated scientists for more than fifty years. The discovery of the double-helix model of DNA by Watson and Crick in 1953 not only established the primary structure of DNA, but also provided the mechanism behind DNA function. Since then, the demonstration of DNA secondary structure formation has allowed for the proposal that the dynamics of DNA itself can function to modulate transcription. We demonstrate for the first time the i-motif DNA secondary structure formed from an element within the Bcl-2 promoter region has potential to serve as a cellular molecular target for modulation of gene expression. Unlike typical oncogenes, Bcl-2 acts by promoting cellular survival rather than increasing cellular proliferation. The over-expression of Bcl-2, most notably in lymphomas, has been associated with the development of chemoresistance.Transcriptional regulation of Bcl-2 is highly complex and a guanine- and cytosine-rich (GC-rich) region directly upstream of the P1 site has been shown to be integral to Bcl-2 promoter activity. We have demonstrated that the C-rich strand is capable of forming an intramolecular i-motif DNA secondary structure with a transition pH of 6.6 and a predominant 8:5:7 loop using mutational studies coupled with circular dichroic spectra and thermal stability analyses. In addition, a novel assay involving the sequential incorporation of a fluorescent thymine analog at each thymine position provided evidence of a capping structure within the top loop region of the i-motif. Two different classes of steroids either stabilize or destabilize the i-motif structure and this differential interaction results in the activation or repression of Bcl-2 expression. The i-motif stabilizing steroid significantly up-regulated Bcl-2 gene and protein expression in BJAB Burkitt's lymphoma cells while the destabilizing steroid down-regulated Bcl-2 expression in B95.8 Burkitt's and Granta-519 mantle cell lymphoma cells, as well as in a SCID mouse lymphoma model. More importantly, the down-regulation of Bcl-2 led to chemosensitization of etoposide-resistant lymphoma cells demonstrating that Bcl-2 i-motif interactive small molecules can act as chemosensitizing agents. Conversely, compounds that up-regulate Bcl-2 by stabilization of the i-motif have potential for use as neuroprotective agents.

The inflammatory response caused by the deposition of crystals of monosodium urate monohydrate (MSUM) and calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate (CPPD) in the synovial fluid of joints, results from the interaction of the crystals with neutrophils. Neutrophils (whose function in the body is to remove hazardous microorganisms and inflammatory debris) are activated by the binding of the crystals to the neutrophil cellular membrane, which leads to respiratory burst activity, engulfment of the crystals and release of proteolytic enzymes. Furthermore, we have found that crystals delay the normal “cell death program” or apoptosis, thus allowing for the accumulation of these cells, and extended inflammatory responses. Very little is known about the mechanisms of activation and delay of apoptosis, however, bcl-2 family proteins have been implicated in the control of neutrophil apoptosis. This study helps to define the role of several bcl-2 family proteins (both pro- and anti-apoptotic) by examining the differential expression of these proteins upon stimulation with crystals. Subsequent identification of signaling targets that function to regulate this process in response to crystals could lead to potential therapeutics for crystal-induced inflammatory diseases.

No description available.

The inflammatory response caused by the deposition of crystals of monosodium urate monohydrate (MSUM) and calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate (CPPD) in the synovial fluid of joints, results from the interaction of the crystals with neutrophils. Neutrophils (whose function in the body is to remove hazardous microorganisms and inflammatory debris) are activated by the binding of the crystals to the neutrophil cellular membrane, which leads to respiratory burst activity, engulfment of the crystals and release of proteolytic enzymes. Furthermore, we have found that crystals delay the normal “cell death program” or apoptosis, thus allowing for the accumulation of these cells, and extended inflammatory responses. Very little is known about the mechanisms of activation and delay of apoptosis, however, bcl-2 family proteins have been implicated in the control of neutrophil apoptosis. This study helps to define the role of several bcl-2 family proteins (both pro- and anti-apoptotic) by examining the differential expression of these proteins upon stimulation with crystals. Subsequent identification of signaling targets that function to regulate this process in response to crystals could lead to potential therapeutics for crystal-induced inflammatory diseases.