Inna N. Lavrik

Caspases: pharmacological manipulation of cell death

Caspases, a family of cysteine proteases, play a central role in apoptosis. During the last decade, major progress has been made to further understand caspase structure and function, providing a unique basis for drug design. This Review gives an overview of caspases and their classification, structure, and substrate specificity. We also describe the current knowledge of how interference with caspase signaling can be used to pharmacologically manipulate cell death.

Life and death in peripheral T cells

During the course of an immune response, antigen-reactive T cells clonally expand and then are removed by apoptosis to maintain immune homeostasis. Life and death of T cells is determined by multiple factors, such as T-cell receptor triggering, co-stimulation or cytokine signalling, and by molecules, such as caspase-8 (FLICE)-like inhibitory protein (FLIP) and haematopoietic progenitor kinase 1 (HPK1), which regulate the nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) pathway. Here, we discuss the concepts of activation-induced cell death (AICD) and activated cell-autonomous death (ACAD) in the regulation of life and death in T cells.

Death receptor signaling

Apoptosis or programmed cell death is a common property of multicellular organisms ([Danial and Korsmeyer, 2004][1]; [Krammer, 2000][2]). It can be triggered by a number of factors, including UV- or γ-irradiation, chemotherapeutic drugs or signaling by death receptors (DR). The DR family is part of

Mathematical modeling reveals threshold mechanism in CD95-induced apoptosis

Mathematical modeling is required for understanding the complex behavior of large signal transduction networks. Previous attempts to model signal transduction pathways were often limited to small systems or based on qualitative data only. Here, we developed a mathematical modeling framework for understanding the complex signaling behavior of CD95(APO-1/Fas)-mediated apoptosis. Defects in the regulation of apoptosis result in serious diseases such as cancer, autoimmunity, and neurodegeneration. During the last decade many of the molecular mechanisms of apoptosis signaling have been examined and elucidated. A systemic understanding of apoptosis is, however, still missing. To address the complexity of apoptotic signaling we subdivided this system into subsystems of different information qualities. A new approach for sensitivity analysis within the mathematical model was key for the identification of critical system parameters and two essential system properties: modularity and robustness. Our model describes the regulation of apoptosis on a systems level and resolves the important question of a threshold mechanism for the regulation of apoptosis.

c-FLIPR, a new regulator of death receptor-induced apoptosis.

c-FLIPs (c-FLICE inhibitory proteins) play an essential role in regulation of death receptor-induced apoptosis. Multiple splice variants of c-FLIP have been described on the mRNA level; so far only two of them, c-FLIPL and c-FLIPS, had been found to be expressed at the protein level. In this report, we reveal the endogenous expression of a third isoform of c-FLIP. We demonstrate its presence in a number of T and B cell lines as well as in primary human T cells. We identified this isoform as c-FLIPR, a death effector domain-only splice variant previously identified on the mRNA level. Impor-/tantly, c-FLIPR is recruited to the CD95 (Fas/APO-1) death-inducing signaling complex upon CD95 stimulation. Several properties of c-FLIPR are similar to c-FLIPS: both isoforms have a short half-life, a similar pattern of expression during activation of primary human T cells, and are strongly induced in T cells upon CD3/CD28 costimulation. Taken together, our data demonstrate endogenous expression of c-FLIPR and similar roles of c-FLIPR and c-FLIPS isoforms in death receptor-mediated apoptosis.

Regulation of CD95/Fas signaling at the DISC

CD95 (APO-1/Fas) is a member of the death receptor (DR) family. Stimulation of CD95 leads to induction of apoptotic and non-apoptotic signaling pathways. The formation of the CD95 death-inducing signaling complex (DISC) is the initial step of CD95 signaling. Activation of procaspase-8 at the DISC leads to the induction of DR-mediated apoptosis. The activation of procaspase-8 is blocked by cellular FLICE-inhibitory proteins (c-FLIP). This review is focused on the role in the CD95-mediated signaling of the death effector domain-containing proteins procaspase-8 and c-FLIP. We discuss how dynamic cross-talk between procaspase-8 and c-FLIP at the DISC regulates life/death decisions at CD95.

The c-FLIP–NH2 terminus (p22-FLIP) induces NF-κB activation

c-FLIP proteins (isoforms: c-FLIPL, c-FLIPS, and c-FLIPR) play an essential role in the regulation of death receptor–induced apoptosis. Here, we demonstrate that the cytoplasmic NH2-terminal procaspase-8 cleavage product of c-FLIP (p22-FLIP) found in nonapoptotic malignant cells, primary T and B cells, and mature dendritic cells (DCs) strongly induces nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) activity by interacting with the IκB kinase (IKK) complex via the IKKγ subunit. Thus, in addition to inhibiting apoptosis by binding to the death-inducing signaling complex, our data demonstrate a novel mechanism by which c-FLIP controls NF-κB activation and life/death decisions in lymphocytes and DCs.

Dynamics within the CD95 death-inducing signaling complex decide life and death of cells

This study explores the dilemma in cellular signaling that triggering of CD95 (Fas/APO‐1) in some situations results in cell death and in others leads to the activation of NF‐κB. We established an integrated kinetic mathematical model for CD95‐mediated apoptotic and NF‐κB signaling. Systematic model reduction resulted in a surprisingly simple model well approximating experimentally observed dynamics. The model postulates a new link between c‐FLIPL cleavage in the death‐inducing signaling complex (DISC) and the NF‐κB pathway. We validated experimentally that CD95 stimulation resulted in an interaction of p43‐FLIP with the IKK complex followed by its activation. Furthermore, we showed that the apoptotic and NF‐κB pathways diverge already at the DISC. Model and experimental analysis of DISC formation showed that a subtle balance of c‐FLIPL and procaspase‐8 determines life/death decisions in a nonlinear manner. We present an integrated model describing the complex dynamics of CD95‐mediated apoptosis and NF‐κB signaling.

Model-based dissection of CD95 signaling dynamics reveals both a pro- and antiapoptotic role of c-FLIPL

A systems biology–based approach shows that life and death decisions for cells depend on the stoichiometry of c-FLIP isoforms.

Analysis of CD95 Threshold Signaling TRIGGERING OF CD95 (FAS/APO-1) AT LOW CONCENTRATIONS PRIMARILY RESULTS IN SURVIVAL SIGNALING

Recently we generated a mathematical model (Bentele, M., Lavrik, I., Ulrich, M., Stosser, S., Heermann, D. W., Kalthoff, H., Krammer, P. H., and Eils, R. (2004) J. Cell Biol. 166, 839-851) of signaling in CD95(Fas/APO-1)-mediated apoptosis. Mathematical modeling in combination with experimental data provided new insights into CD95-mediated apoptosis and allowed us to establish a threshold mechanism of life and death. Here, we further assessed the predictability of the model experimentally by a detailed analysis of the threshold behavior of CD95 signaling. Using the model predictions for the mechanism of the threshold behavior we found that the CD95 DISC (death-inducing signaling complex) is formed at the cell membrane upon stimulation with low concentrations of agonistic anti-APO-1 monoclonal antibodies; however, activation of procaspase-8 at the DISC is blocked due to high cellular FLICE-inhibitory protein recruitment into the DISC. Given that death signaling does not occur upon CD95 stimulation at low (threshold) anti-APO-1 concentrations, we also analyzed survival signaling, focusing on mitogen-activated protein kinase activation. Interestingly, we found that mitogen-activated protein kinase activation takes place under threshold conditions. These findings show that triggering of CD95 can signal both life or death, depending on the strength of the stimulus.