The chloromethylketone protease inhibitor AAPF(CMK) also targets ATP-dependent helicases and SAP-domain proteins

β-Amyloid induces nuclear protease-mediated lamin fragmentation independent of caspase activation

β-Amyloid (Aβ), a hallmark peptide of Alzheimer's disease, induces both caspase-dependent apoptosis and non-apoptotic cell death. In this study, we examined caspase-independent non-apoptotic cell death preceding caspase activation in Aβ42-treated cells. We first determined the optimal treatment conditions for inducing cell death without caspase activation and selected a double-treatment method involving the incubation of cells with Aβ42 for 4 and 6 h (4+6 h sample). We observed that levels of lamin A (LA) and lamin B (LB) were reduced in the 4+6 h samples. This reduction was decreased by treatment with suc-AAPF-CMK, an inhibitor of nuclear scaffold (NS) protease, but not by treatment with z-VAD-FMK, a pan-caspase inhibitor. In addition, suc-AAPF-CMK decreased the changes in nuclear morphology observed in cells in the 4+6 h samples, which were different from nuclear fragmentation observed in STS-treated cells. Furthermore, suc-AAPF-CMK inhibited cell death in the 4+6 h samples. LA and LB fragmentation occurred in the isolated nuclei and was also inhibited by suc-AAPF-CMK. Together, these data indicated that the fragmentation of LA and LB in the Aβ42-treated cells was induced by an NS protease, whose identity is not clearly determined yet. A correlation between Aβ42 toxicity and the lamin fragmentation by NS protease suggests that inhibition of the protease could be an effective method for controlling the pathological process of AD.

Baculoviruses and nucleosome management

Negatively-supercoiled-ds DNA molecules, including the genomes of baculoviruses, spontaneously wrap around cores of histones to form nucleosomes when present within eukaryotic nuclei. Hence, nucleosome management should be essential for baculovirus genome replication and temporal regulation of transcription, but this has not been documented. Nucleosome mobilization is the dominion of ATP-dependent chromatin-remodeling complexes. SWI/SNF and INO80, two of the best-studied complexes, as well as chromatin modifier TIP60, all contain actin as a subunit. Retrospective analysis of results of AcMNPV time course experiments wherein actin polymerization was blocked by cytochalasin D drug treatment implicate actin-containing chromatin modifying complexes in decatenating baculovirus genomes, shutting down host transcription, and regulating late and very late phases of viral transcription. Moreover, virus-mediated nuclear localization of actin early during infection may contribute to nucleosome management.

Mechanisms of growth inhibition in human papillomavirus positive and negative cervical cancer cells by the chloromethyl ketone protease inhibitor, succinyl-alanine-alanine-proline-phenylalanine chloromethyl ketone

The chymotrypsin-like serine protease inhibitor, succinyl-alanine-alanine-proline-phenylalanine chloromethyl ketone (AAPF(CMK)), has been shown to have anticarcinogenic activity in a number of model systems and to be relatively selective for a nuclear protease. This inhibitor also has substantial effects on growth of tumorigenic human papillomavirus (HPV)-infected keratinocytes in organotypic raft cultures. Here, we examined the effects of AAPF(CMK) on cell growth, cell-cycle kinetics, apoptosis induction, and DNA synthesis in two human cervical carcinoma cell lines: SiHa cells, which have integrated high-risk HPV-16; and C33a cells, which do not contain HPV DNA. AAPF(CMK) inhibited growth of both cell lines in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Apoptosis studies showed no significant difference in drug-treated versus vehicle-treated cells in the C33a cell line. However, a significant dose-dependent increase in apoptosis occurred at a late time point in SiHa cells. Cell-cycle progression and DNA synthesis assays showed that the cellular mechanisms of growth inhibition by AAPF(CMK) differ between the HPV16-positive and HPV-negative tumorigenic cell lines. Drug-treated C33a cells showed a significant accumulation of cells in the G(2) phase of the cell cycle. In SiHa cells, growth inhibition produced by AAPF(CMK) seemed to result from a global arrest of the cell cycle. Although the molecular mechanisms involved in AAPF(CMK)-induced growth inhibition are distinct between the two tumorigenic cell lines, such differences may ultimately prove to have therapeutic utility. Novel therapies for treating established HPV infections are needed, because HPV is a causative agent in the development of multiple types of cancer.

Intracellular localization of the tumor suppressor HtrA1/Prss11 and its association with HPV16 E6 and E7 proteins

We have a long-standing interest in a nuclear protease which appears to be involved in carcinogenesis. We recently identified the protease as high temperature requirement factor A 1 (HtrA1), also known as Prss11, which is member of an oxidative stress-response family of proteases. HtrA1 has been classified as a secreted protease involved in TGFbeta signaling, but recent work has shown HtrA1 to be a tumor suppressor. Here we show that processed forms of HtrA1 are found intracellularly and intranuclearly, and the active intranuclear form of HtrA1 shows an approximately Mr 29,000. Further, expression of HPV E6/E7 proteins is associated with a post-transcriptional up-regulation of HtrA1 (most notably the nuclear form), and HtrA1 is found associated with both HPV E6 and E7 proteins.