Treatment of multiple myeloma with bortezomib can result in severe adverse effects, necessitating the development of targeted inhibitors of the proteasome. We show that stable expression of a dominant-negative F-box deleted (∆F) mutant of the E3 ubiquitin ligase, SCFβ-TrCP/FWD1, in murine 5TGM1 myeloma cells dramatically attenuated their skeletal engraftment and survival when inoculated into ...

Infections produce severe respiratory muscle dysfunction. It is known that the proteasome proteolytic system is activated in skeletal muscle in sepsis, and it has been postulated that this degradative pathway is responsible for inducing skeletal muscle weakness and wasting. The objective of this study was to determine if administration of proteasomal inhibitors (MG132, epoxomicin, bortezomib) c...

XIAP, a member of the inhibitor of apoptosis family of proteins, is a critical regulator of apoptosis. Inhibition of the BIR domain-caspase interaction is a promising approach towards treating cancer. Previous work has been directed towards inhibiting the BIR3-caspase-9 interaction, which blocks the intrinsic apoptotic pathway; selectively inhibiting the BIR2-caspase-3 interaction would also bl...

Caspases are currently known as the central executioners of the apoptotic pathways. Inhibition of apoptosis and promotion of normal cell survival by caspase inhibitors would be a tremendous benefit for reducing the side effects of cancer therapy and for control of neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and Huntington's diseases. The objective of this study was to discover...

The present study was performed by using selective inhibitors of caspase-8 and caspase-3 functioning upstream and downstream from mitochondria, respectively to determine whether mitochondria are involved in the mechanisms underlying production and externalization of oxidized phosphatidylserine (PSox) during Fas-mediated apoptosis. Treatment with anti-Fas antibody induced caspase-3 activation, c...

Objective(s): To investigate the role of the microRNA-125a (miR-125a) and BAK1 in intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD). Materials and Methods: Degenerative lumbar nucleus pulposus (NP) tissues were obtained from 193 patients who underwent resection, and normal controls consisted of normal NP tissues from 32 patients with traumatic lumbar fracture in our hospital. All patients were graded acco...

The role and mechanism of cell death in early mammalian embryos is not well understood. In mouse embryos collected after fertilization and maintained in vitro until blastula formation, two instances of cell death are observed: the polar bodies and one or two cells near the equator, at the junction of the inner cell mass to the prototrophoblast. Inhibitors of caspases do not block the death of t...

Both necrotic and apoptotic neuronal death are observed in various neurological and neurodegenerative disorders. Calpain is activated in various necrotic and apoptotic conditions, while caspase 3 is only activated in neuronal apoptosis. Despite the difference in cleavage-site specificity, an increasing number of cellular proteins are found to be dually susceptible to these cysteine proteases. T...

We examined whether phenoxazine derivatives such as 2-amino-4,4alpha-dihydro-4alpha,7-dimethyl-3H-phenoxazine-3-one (Phx-1) and 2-aminophenoxazine-3-one (Phx-3) may have anticancer effects on the human gastric cancer cell lines, MKN45, MKN74, MKN7 and KATO III in vitro. Phx-1 inhibited the growth of these cancer cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The IC50 was approximately 65, 25, 100 ...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease caused by the loss of motor neurons. The degenerating motor neurons of ALS patients are characterized by the accumulation of cytoplasmic inclusions containing phosphorylated and truncated forms of the RNA-binding protein TDP-43. Ataxin 2 intermediate-length polyglutamine (polyQ) expansions were recently identified as...