• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.772-778
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• 2005

The chloromethyl-2-dihydroxyphosphinyl-6,7-dimethoxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro- isoquinoline (CDDT) is a newly synthesized derivative from 1,2,3,4-Tetra- hydroisoquinoline (THIQ). The THIQs include potent cytotoxic agents that display a range of antitumor activities, antimicrobial activity, and other biological properties. In this study, we investigated the effect of CDDT on the cytotoxicity, induction of apoptosis in human promyelocytic leukemia cells (HL-60 cells). CDDT showed a significant cytotoxic activity in HL-60 cells ($IC_{50}$ = approximately $37\;{\mu}g/ml$) at a 24 hr incubation. Treatment of HL-60 cells with CDDT displayed several features of apoptosis, including formation of DNA ladders in agarose gel electrophoresis, morphological changes of HL-60 cells with DAPI stain. Here we observed that CDDT caused activation of caspase-3, caspase-8, and caspase-9. The most efficacious time on the activation of caspases-3 was achieved at 12 hr. Further molecular analysis demonstrated that CDDT led to cleavage of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), increase of hypodiploid (Sub-G1) population in the flow cytometric analysis. In conclusion, these above results indicate that CDDT dramatically suppresses HL-60 cell growth by activation of caspase-3 with caspase-8, -9 activity. These data may support a pivotal mechanism for the use of CDDT in the prevention and treatment of leukemia.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.385-389
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• 2015

In this study, it is reported that a large polyprotein can be stoichiometrically cleaved by the use of caspase-3-dependent proteolysis. Previously, it has been shown that the proteolytic IETD motif was partially processed when treated with caspase-3, while the DEVD motif was completely cleaved. The cleavage efficiency of the DEVD-based substrate was approximately 2.0 times higher than that of the IETD substrate, in response to caspase-3. Based on this, 3 protein genes of interest were genetically linked to each other by adding two proteolytic cleavage sequences, DEVD and IETD, for caspase-3. Particularly, glutathione-S transferase (GST), maltose binding protein (MBP), and red fluorescent protein (RFP) were chosen as model proteins due to the variation in their size. The expressed polyprotein was purified by immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography (IMAC) via a hexa-histidine tag at the C-terminal end, showing 93 kDa of a chimeric GST:MBP:RFP fusion protein. In response to caspase-3, cleavage products, such as MBP:RFP (68 kDa), MBP (42 kDa), RFP (26 kDa), and GST (25 kDa), were separated from a large precursor GST:MBP:RFP (93 kDa) via SDS-PAGE. The results obtained from this study indicate that a multi-protein can be stoichiometrically produced from a large poly-protein by using proteolytic recognition motifs, such as DEVD and IETD tetra-peptides, for caspase-3.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.66-74
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• 2023

Triglyceride (TG) accumulation can cause monocytic death and suppress innate immunity. However, the signaling pathways involved in this phenomenon are not fully understood. This study aimed to examine whether inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) is involved in the TG-induced death of THP-1 monocytes. Results showed that iNOS was upregulated in TG-treated THP-1 monocytes, and iNOS inhibition blocked TG-induced monocytic death. In addition, TG-induced poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) cleavage and caspase-3 and -7 activation were suppressed by iNOS inhibition. Furthermore, the expression of X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein (XIAP) and survivin, which inhibit caspase-3 and -7, was reduced in TG-treated THP-1 monocytes, but iNOS inhibition recovered the TG-induced downregulation of XIAP and survivin expression. Considering that TG-induced monocytic death is triggered by caspase2 and -8, we investigated whether caspase-2 and -8 are linked to the TG-induced expression of iNOS in THP-1 monocytes. When the activities of caspase-2 and -8 were inhibited by specific inhibitors, the TG-induced upregulation of iNOS and downregulation of XIAP and survivin were restored in THP-1 monocytes. These results suggest that TG-induced monocytic death is mediated by the caspase-2/caspase-8/iNOS/XIAP and survivin/executioner caspase/PARP pathways.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.166-172
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• 2014

Caspases, a family of cysteinyl aspartate-specific proteases plays a central role in the regulation and the execution of apoptotic cell death. Activation of caspases-3 stimulates a signaling pathway that ultimately leads to the death of the cell. Hence, caspase-3 has been proven to be an effective target for reducing the amount of cellular and tissue damage. In this work, comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) was performed on a series of 3, 4-dihydropyrimidoindolones derivatives which are inhibitors of caspase-3. The best predictions were obtained for CoMFA model ($q^2=0.676$, $r^2=0.990$). The predictive ability of test set ($r^2_{pred}$) was 0.688. Statistical parameters from the generated QSAR models indicated the data is well fitted and have high predictive ability. Our theoretical results could be useful to design novel and more potent caspase-3 derivatives.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.355-362
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• 2009

I evaluated the protective effect of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)/glycine receptor antagonist, 7-chlorokinurenic acid (CKA) on cultured mouse astrocytes damaged by ischemia-like condition (ILC). The protective effect of CKA was assessed by cell viability, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity, superoxide dismutase (SOD)-like activity and lipid peroxidation. To examine the effect of CKA on the cell apoptosis, the expression and the activity of caspase 3 were assessed by Western blotting. CKA increased the cell viability decreased by ILC. CKA also decreased the LDH activity and antioxidative effects such as SOD-like activity and inhibitory activity of lipid peroxidation. In addition, CKA suppressed the expression of caspase 3 associated with apoptosis, and increased the cell viability by the decrease of caspase 3 activity as like the caspase 3 inhibitor, Av-DVED-MED. From these results, these results suggest that ILS induces cell cytotoxicity in cultured astrocytes and CKA, NMDA/glycine receptor antagonist, is effective on the prevention of the cytotoxicity due to ILS by the antioxidative effect and the inhibition of apoptosis.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.63-69
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• 2004

Casapse-3 protease is known as a key role of apoptotic enzyme, and caspase-3 activity is a central event that occurs upstream of DNA fragmentation during apoptosis. This study demonstrates that chitosan pretreatment inhibits cadmium-induced apoptosis by attenuating the activity of caspase-3. We also analyzed the protective effect of chitosan on DNA fragmentation induced by cadmium. Cadmium toxicity was examined by DNA fragmentation and nuclear condensation with Hoechst stain. Caspase-3 activities were increased cadmium treated group for 3 hours compared with control. When chitosan (150 mg/ml) was pretreated at 30 min before cadmium treatment, cadmium cytotoxicity was suppressed in a dose-dependent manner evaluated by DNA fragmentation and caspase activity. From these results, it is suggest that the protective effect of chitosan pretreatment against cadmium-induced cytotoxicity is mediated through inhibition of caspase-3 protease activation and DNA fragmentation.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.389-396
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• 2001

Neuroprotective properties of lithium were investigated by using in vivo NMDA excitotoxicity model. The appearance of TUNEL positive cells was prominent within 24 h of NMDA (70 mg/kg, i.p.) injection in the regions of the cortex, hippocampal formation, and thalamus of mouse cerebrum. NMDA treatment resulted in the extensive enhancement of Bax immunoreactivity in the cortical and hippocampal regions. NMDA also increased the immunoreactivity of caspase 8 in the similar regions of the mouse cerebrum. However, the increased immunoreactivity of Bax and caspase 8 were dramatically attenuated by chronic lithium pretreatment (lithium chloride, 300 mg/kg/d, i.p. for $7{\sim}10$ days). At the same time, lithium ion blocked the appearance of TUNEL positive cells, and the morphological assessment indicated an effective neuroprotection by lithium against NMDA excitotoxicity. Although the exact action mechanism of lithium is not straightforward at this time, we propose that the inhibition of Bax and caspase cascade is involved in the neuroprotective action of lithium.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.385-390
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• 1999

Camptothecin (CPT) has been known to induce apoptosis in various cancer cell lines. To examine the intracellular apoptotic death signal initiated by CPT, we investigated the possible connection between caspase-3 activation and GSH depletion during CPT-induced apoptosis in HL-60 cells. Treatment of cells with $1{\;}{\mu}M$ CPT induced PARP cleavage accompanied by DNA fragmentation. z-VAD-fmk, a caspase-3 inhibitor, blocked the CPT-induced DNA fragmentation. Pretreatment of cells with N-acetylcysteine, a precursor of GSH biosynthesis, failed to inhibit CPT-induced PARP celavage and DNA gragmenatation. No significant changes in GSH depletion is not essential for caspase activation during CPT-induced apoptosis. We also investigated whether CPT-induced apoptosis is associated with changes of the levels of Bax and Bcl-2, two proteins involved in the control of apoptosis. Bcl-2 levels exhibited a late decrease compared with the kinetics of DNA fragmentation, whereas Bax levels increased more rapidly after CPT treatment. These results suggest that Bax plays more important role than Bcl-2 in inducing DNA fragmentation and may function upsteam of proteolytic activation of caspase-3 pathway in CPT-induced apoptosis.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.227-233
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• 2014

Caspases, a family of cysteinyl aspartate-specific proteases plays a central role in the regulation and the execution of apoptotic cell death. Activation of caspases-3 stimulates a signaling pathway that ultimately leads to the death of the cell. Hence, caspase-3 has been proven to be an effective target for reducing the amount of cellular and tissue damage. In this work, comparative molecular similarity indices analysis (CoMSIA) was performed on a series of 3,4-dihydropyrimidoindolones derivatives which are inhibitors of caspase-3. The best predictions were obtained for CoMSIA model ($q^2$ = 0.586, $r^2$ = 0.955). The predictive ability of test set ($r^2_{pred}$) was 0.723. Statistical parameters from the generated QSAR models indicated the data is well fitted and have high predictive ability. Our theoretical results could be useful to design novel and more potent caspase-3 derivatives.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.2343-2347
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• 2013

Objective: This investigation aimed to determine effects of celecoxib on the cell cycle kinetics of the gastric cancer cell line MGC803 and the mechanisms involved by assessing expression of cytochrome C and caspase-9 at the protein level. Methods: Cell proliferation of MGC803 was determined by MTT assay after treatment with celecoxib. Apoptosis was assessed using fluorescence staining and cell cycle kinetics by flow cytometry. Western blotting was used to detect the expression of caspase-9 protein and of cytochrome C protein in cell cytosol and mitochondria. Results: Celecoxib was able to restrain proliferation and induce apoptosis in a dose- and time-dependent manner, inducing G0/G1 cell cycle arrest, release of cytochrome C into the cytosol, and cleavage of pro-caspase-9 into its active form. Conclusion: Celecoxib can induce apoptosis in MGC803 cells through a mechanism involving cell cycle arrest, mitochondrial cytochrome C release and caspase activation.