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Hoffmann, R. A wiki for the life sciences where authorship matters. Nature Genetics (2008)
 
 
 
 
 

Proteolytic cleavage and activation of PAK2 during UV irradiation-induced apoptosis in A431 cells.

Exposure of mammalian cells to ultraviolet (UV) light elicits a cellular response and can also lead to apoptotic cell death. In this report, we show that a 36-kDa myelin basic protein (MBP) kinase detected by an in-gel kinase assay can be dramatically activated during the early stages of UV irradiation-triggered apoptosis of A431 cells. Immunoblot analysis revealed that this 36-kDa MBP kinase could be recognized by an antibody against the C-terminal regions of a family of p21Cdc42/Rac-activated kinases (PAKs). By using this antibody and a PAK2-specific antibody against the N-terminal region of PAK2 as studying tools, we further demonstrated that UV irradiation caused cleavage of PAK2 to generate a 36-kDa C-terminal catalytic fragment and a 30-kDa N-terminal fragment in A431 cells. The appearance of the 36-kDa C-terminal catalytic fragment of PAK2 matched exactly with the activation of the 36-kDa MBP kinase in A431 cells upon UV irradiation. In addition, UV irradiation also led to activation of CPP32/caspase-3, but not ICH-1L/caspase-2 and ICE/caspase-1, in A431 cells and the kinetics of activation of CPP32/caspase-3 appeared to correlate well with that of DNA fragmentation and of cleavage/activation of PAK2, respectively. Moreover, blockage of activation of CPP32/caspase-3 by pretreating the cells with two specific tetrapeptidic inhibitors for caspases (Ac-DEVD-cho and Ac-YVAD-cmk) could significantly attenuate the extent of cleavage/activation of PAK2 induced by UV irradiation. Collectively, the results demonstrate that cleavage and activation of PAK2 can be induced during the early stages of UV irradiation- triggered apoptosis and indicate the involvement of CPP32/caspase-3 in this process.[1]

References

  1. Proteolytic cleavage and activation of PAK2 during UV irradiation-induced apoptosis in A431 cells. Tang, T.K., Chang, W.C., Chan, W.H., Yang, S.D., Ni, M.H., Yu, J.S. J. Cell. Biochem. (1998) [Pubmed]
 
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