Phosphorylation status of Fas-associated death domain-containing protein (FADD) is associated with prostate cancer progression

It has recently been demonstrated that phosphorylation of FADD at serine 194 plays an important role in the induction of apoptosis by anti-cancer drugs in human prostate cancer cells. The present study has assessed whether this phosphorylation status is valuable as a marker for human prostate cancer progression, and has investigated its biological role in cell growth. Immunohistochemical studies revealed much higher phosphorylation of FADD at serine 194 in normal epithelial cells than in cancer cells, although FADD was found to be highly expressed to the same extent in both cases. The positivity for phosphorylated FADD was significantly lower for patients with a Gleason score greater than or equal to 7, a positive surgical margin, extracapsular or seminal vesicle invasion. In addition, a relationship was also apparent in cancer cells refractory to neoadjuvant hormonal therapy. Interestingly, in Gleason score 3 + 4 tumours, the positivity for FADD phosphorylation was statistically increased by neoadjuvant hormonal therapy, resulting in a reduced percentage of cases with a positive surgical margin and extracapsular invasion. In vitro data showed different functions of phosphorylated and non-phosphorylated FADD: in normal epithelial cells, overexpression of a phosphorylation-mimicking mutant FADD (S194E) caused G2/M cell-cycle arrest, while a non-phosphorylation-mimicking mutant (S194A) had no effect, whereas S194A overexpression resulted in cell cycle progression and enhanced colony-forming activity in cancer cells, but S194E FADD was without influence. These results clearly demonstrate that transition from phosphorylated FADD to the non-phosphorylated form might be associated with carcinogenesis and that induction of FADD phosphorylation could therefore be a target for chemohormonal therapy of human prostate cancer. Moreover, assessment of FADD phosphorylation may be useful as a new biomarker to predict cancer progression.     

Expression of serine 194-phosphorylated Fas-associated death domain protein correlates with proliferation in B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas

Fas-associated death domain protein is a key component of the extrinsic apoptotic pathway. In addition, in animal models, Fas-associated death domain protein phosphorylation at serine 194 has been shown to affect cell proliferation, especially in T lymphocytes. The importance of Fas-associated death domain protein phosphorylation at serine 194 for the proliferation of B lymphocytes, however, is uncertain. Here we show in reactive lymph nodes that serine 194 phosphorylated Fas-associated death domain protein is expressed predominantly in the dark (proliferative) zone of germinal centers. In B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma cell lines, serine 194 phosphorylated Fas-associated death domain protein levels are substantially higher in highly proliferating cells and lower in serum-starved cells. We also used immunohistochemical analysis to assess Fas-associated death domain protein phosphorylation at serine 194 expression in 122 B-cell non-Hodgkin-type lymphomas. The mean percentage of serine 194 phosphorylated Fas-associated death domain protein positive tumor cells was 81% in Burkitt lymphoma, 41% in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, 18% in follicular lymphoma, 18% in plasma cell myeloma, 12% in extranodal marginal zone B-cell lymphoma of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue, 11% in mantle cell lymphoma, and 2% in chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (P < .0001, Kruskal-Wallis test). Furthermore, in chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma, serine 194 phosphorylated Fas-associated death domain protein was detected predominantly in proliferation centers. In the entire study group, the percentage of cells positive for serine 194 phosphorylated Fas-associated death domain protein correlated significantly with the proliferation index Ki-67 (Spearman R = 0.9, P < .0001). These data provide evidence that serine 194 phosphorylated Fas-associated death domain protein is involved in the proliferation of normal and neoplastic B cells and has features of a novel proliferation marker.     

Expression of nuclear and cytoplasmic phosphorylated FADD in gastric cancers

Fas-associated death domain (FADD) plays a crucial role during death receptor-mediated apoptosis. In addition, FADD possesses apoptosis-independent activities, including cell-cycle regulation and cell proliferation regulated by the phosphorylation of FADD at Ser194. The aim of this study was to explore the possibility whether alteration of phosphorylated FADD (p-FADD) expression might be a characteristic of gastric cancer. We analyzed the expression of p-FADD protein in 60 gastric adenocarcinomas by immunohistochemistry using a tissue microarray approach. In the normal gastric mucosal cells, surface and glandular epithelial cells evenly expressed p-FADD in the nuclei but not in the cytoplasm. In the cancers, p-FADD expression was detected in 38 cases (63%) of the gastric carcinomas, but there was no p-FADD immunostaining in the remaining 22 cancers (37%). Of note, p-FADD immunostaining was observed in cytoplasm/nuclei (20 cancers; 33%) and cytoplasm (18 cancers; 30%). There was no significant association of p-FADD expression with clinocopathological characteristics, including invasion, metastasis, and stage. Our data showed that the expression of p-FADD in gastric cancers was heterogenous in its location compared to the uniform nuclear expression of p-FADD in normal gastric cells. Many of the cancers (67%) were devoid of nuclear p-FADD, suggesting that p-FADD functions in the nucleus may be perturbed in the cancers. Also, p-FADD expression in the cytoplasm in a large fraction of the cancers (63%), not seen in the normal cells, suggested that the cell death functions of p-FADD could be altered in the cancer cells.     

Bcl-2 phosphorylation has pathological significance in human breast cancer.

The anti-apoptotic molecule, Bcl-2, is well known to play an important role in the chemoresistance of breast cancer. We have previously demonstrated that phosphorylation of Fas-associated death domain-containing protein (FADD) at 194 serine through c-jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) activation sensitizes breast cancer cells to chemotherapy through accelerating cell cycle arrest at G2/M, and that Bcl-2 phosphorylation downstream of JNK/FADD plays an important role in cell growth suppression by paclitaxel. In this study, the clinicopathological association of phosphorylated Bcl-2 (P-Bcl-2) with estrogen, progesterone, c-erbB-2 receptors, p53 expressions and phosphorylated FADD/JNK (P-FADD/JNK) was analyzed immunohistochemically using 107 human breast cancer specimens. Expression of P-Bcl-2 was found to significantly correlate with lymphatic invasion, lymph node metastasis, but not histological differentiation, tumor grade or vascular and fatty invasion. The positivity of P-Bcl-2 was also significantly correlated to that of P-FADD/JNK. Thus, P-Bcl-2 as well as the P-FADD/JNK parameter might be useful markers for cancer progression, independent of the hormone receptor status, in human breast cancers.     

Expression,Purification and Characterization of C-FADD

FADD is an important proapoptotic adaptor in death receptor-induced apoptosis. Recently, FADD has been found to participate in a variety of non-apoptotic processes, such as development, cell cycle progression and survival. Its non-apoptotic activities were regulated by the phosphorylated status of the serine residue located at the C-terminal region, a domain distinct from the proapoptotic function related DED and DD domains. However, due to the difficulties in expression and crystallization of natural FADD, by far the molecuiar structures of all FADD variants did not contain the C-terminal region. To elucidate the structure-function relationship of C-terminal region, we need to obtain a FADD variant that containing C-terminal region. In this study, mouse FADD （80-205） containing DD domain and C-terminal region, designated as C-FADD, was expressed in E. coli with His-tag at the N-terminus and purified by Ni^2＋ affinity chromatography. The purified protein existed as a homogenous monomer in glutaraldehyde cross-linking analysis and exhibited a typical a-helix spectrum in CD （circular dichroism） assay. In vitro His-tag pull-down assay demonstrated that the purified C-FADD possessed the CK Ia-binding activity which was important for its non-apoptotic function.     

FADD研究进展

FADD是Fas系统的一个信号连接蛋白,是死亡受体与胞浆成分之间联系的纽带,可将膜表面受体与胞浆中细胞凋亡的终末酶联接起来,从而向胞内传递凋亡信号,介导细胞凋亡,与多种疾病过程有关。同时,FADD在T细胞增殖中也起一定的作用。现就有关FADD与细胞凋亡、T细胞增殖以及在疾病中作用的研究进展加以综述。     

Identification of C-terminal domain residues involved in protein kinase A-mediated potentiation of kainate receptor subtype 6

Glutamate receptors are the major excitatory receptors in the vertebrate CNS and have been implicated in a number of physiological and pathological processes. Previous work has shown that glutamate receptor function may be modulated by protein kinase A (PKA)-mediated phosphorylation, although the molecular mechanism of this potentiation has remained unclear. We have investigated the phosphorylation of specific amino acid residues in the C-terminal cytoplasmic domain of the rat kainate receptor subtype 6 (GluR6) as a possible mechanism for regulation of receptor function. The C-terminal tail of rat GluR6 can be phosphorylated by PKA on serine residues as demonstrated using [gamma-32P]ATP kinase assays. Whole cell recordings of transiently transfected human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells showed that phosphorylation by PKA potentiates whole cell currents in wildtype GluR6 and that removal of the cytoplasmic C-terminal domain abolishes this potentiation. This suggested that the C-terminal domain may contain residue(s) involved in the PKA-mediated potentiation. Single mutations of each serine residue in the C-terminal domain (S815A, S825A, S828A, and S837A) and a truncation after position 855, which removes all threonines (T856, T864, and T875) from the domain, do not abolish PKA potentiation. However, the S825A/S837A mutation, but no other double mutation, abolishes potentiation. These results demonstrate that phosphorylation of the C-terminal tail of GluR6 by PKA leads to potentiation of whole cell response, and the combination of S825 and S837 in the C-terminal domain is a vital component of the mechanism of GluR6 potentiation by PKA.     

Domains in middle-T antigen that cooperate in polyomavirus-mediated oncogenic transformation

Middle-T antigen is the oncogenic protein of Polyomavirus and associates with several cellular enzymes involved in signal transduction, e.g., Src tyrosine kinases, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase), protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), and Shc, an SH2 domain-containing adapter protein. We have shown earlier that middle-T is a target of a cell cycle-regulated serine/threonine-specific kinase, presumably p34cdc2. Phosphorylation of middle-T by p34cdc2 results in increased apparent M, weight of the protein on SDS-polyacrylamide gels. Two threonine residues in positions 160 and 291, respectively, were identified in the middle-T sequence as putative targets of a cyclin-dependent kinase. Replacement of threonine 160 by alanine resulted in a transformation-defective mutant protein that was still capable of forming all the complexes with cellular proteins, suggesting that additional characteristics of middle-T are required for cell transformation. In the present study we report that the defect of the T160A middle-T mutant is compensated by mutations introduced into a domain encompassing amino acids 253 to 302. In particular, mutating serine 283, a canonical phosphorylation site for a cyclin-dependent kinase, to an alanine residue rendered the T160A middle-T mutant wild type. Based on these results we suggest that cell cycle-specific phosphorylation of specific serine and threonine residues by cyclin-dependent kinases regulates middle-T function.     

Phosphorylation of class I MHC molecules in the absence of phorbol esters is an intracellular event and may be characteristic of trafficking molecules

Class I Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) molecules are displayed at the cell surface where they present antigenic peptides to T lymphocytes. Class I MHC molecules undergo cytoplasmic domain phosphorylation on a serine residue late in their biosynthesis. Here we show that phosphorylation occurs on mature, beta(2)-microglobulin-associated class I MHC molecules in a mouse lymphoid cell line. Both recently synthesized class I MHC molecules and molecules which are at least 3 h old become phosphorylated. Approximately 14% of phosphorylated class I MHC molecules occur at the cell surface. Density gradient analysis indicates that phosphorylated class I MHC molecules also occur in lamp(+) intracellular compartments and in fractions containing rab4, a GTP-binding protein associated with recycling endosomes. Class I MHC molecules are endocytosed and recycled to the cell surface in these cells. Furthermore, the lysosomotropic drug, primaquine, inhibits both class I MHC phosphorylation and its recycling back to the cell surface, suggesting that phosphorylation is related to class I MHC recycling. These observations are intriguing since several studies have shown that class I MHC molecules can acquire antigenic peptides in NH(4)Cl-sensitive compartments. Hence, class I MHC phosphorylation may play a role in regulating intracellular sorting through these compartments.     

Tyrosine phosphorylation of scavenger receptor cysteine‐rich WC1 is required for the WC1‐mediated potentiation of TCR‐induced T‐cell proliferation

Workshop cluster 1 (WC1) molecules are transmembrane glycoproteins uniquely expressed by γδ T cells. They belong to the scavenger receptor cysteine‐rich superfamily and are encoded by a multi‐gene family, which is divided on the basis of antibody reactivity, into three groups, WC1.1, WC1.2, and WC1.3. The potential role of WC1 as a co‐stimulatory molecule for the γδ TCR is suggested by the presence of several tyrosine‐based motifs in their intracellular domains. In this study, we found that WC1 was constitutively phosphorylated in ex vivo bovine γδ T cells and associated with src family tyrosine kinases. Crosslinking of WC1 molecules resulted in an increase in WC1 phosphorylation and co‐crosslinking of WC1 and γδ TCR together prolonged WC1 phosphorylation. We identified the second tyrosine residue as the primary phosphorylation target in WC1.1 and WC1.2 intracellular sequences in both in vitro and in vivo assays. The cytoplasmic tails of WC1.1 and WC1.2 were phosphorylated on serine and PKC activity was required for PMA‐induced endocytosis of WC1.1 or WC1.2. We found that phosphorylation of the second tyrosine in the WC1 cytoplasmic domain was required for the WC1‐mediated potentiation of TCR‐induced T‐cell proliferation, suggesting that WC1 acts as a co‐stimulatory molecule for γδ TCR.     

Activation of 70-kDa S6 kinase,induced by the cytokines interleukin-3 and erythropoietin and inhibited by rapamycin,is not an absolute requirement for cell proliferation

The cytokines interleukin (IL)-3 and erythropoietin (EPO) are critical regulators of the proliferation and differentiation of cells of the hematopoietic system, but their intracellular mechanisms of action are not fully understood. Binding of IL-3 to the IL-3 receptor (IL-3R) and binding of EPO to the EPOR both induce changes in intracellular tyrosine and serine/threonine phosphorylation; the phosphorylation of a number of polypeptides appears to be a shared response upon cytokine stimulation. We have previously shown that binding of IL-2 to the IL-2R activates the 70-kDa (p70) S6 kinase, a serine/threonine kinase whose activity is regulated by serine/threonine phosphorylation; the immunosuppressant rapamycin inhibits IL-2-dependent proliferation and IL-2-triggered activation of p70 S6 kinase. We, therefore, sought to examine whether induction of p70 S6 kinase activity is a conserved response upon cytokine triggering, and whether this activity is essential for cell proliferation. Proliferation of the IL-3-dependent pro-B cell line Ba/F3 transfected with the EPOR (Ba/F3-EPOR) can be supported by either IL-3 or EPO. In this cell line, both IL-3 and EPO induced p70 S6 kinase activity; rapamycin inhibited both the IL-3 and EPO-induced activation of the 70-kDa S6 kinase as well as cellular proliferation. Thus, p70 S6 kinase activation appears to be a common intermediate triggered by the stimulation of IL-3, EPO, and IL-2 receptors. The Friend spleen focus-forming virus gp55 renders the EPOR constitutively active, and confers growth factor independence on cells expressing EPOR. Ba/F3-EPOR cotransfected with gp55 (Ba/F3-EpoRgp55) and the erythroleukemia cell line MEL, which also expresses both the EPOR and gp55, were analyzed. Rapamycin inhibited the activation of p70 S6 kinase in both cell lines. However, rapamycin inhibited proliferation of Ba/F3-EpoRgp55 but not of MEL cells despite inhibition of p70 S6 kinase activity in both cells. Thus, p70 S6 kinase activation is not an absolute requirement for cell proliferation. These results are discussed in relation to the role of the activation of the 70-kDa S6 kinase activation pathway in the regulation of cell cycle progression.     

Inhibition of caspase or FADD function blocks proliferation but not MAP kinase-activation and interleukin-2-production during primary stimulation of T cells

Caspases are instrumental in the implementation of apoptotic cell death, and caspase activation is in most investigated cases closely linked to apoptosis. Recent data demonstrate, however, that caspases are also activated during primary T cell activation in the absence of apoptosis. Here we provide evidence that caspase activity is required for some but not all aspects of T cell activation. CD3-triggered proliferation of mouse T cells was impaired in the presence of the pan-caspase-inhibitor Z-Val-Ala-Asp-fluoromethylketone (Z-VAD-fmk) and the number of cells entering the cell cycle was reduced. Costimulation by CD28 or externally added interleukin-2 (IL-2) failed to rescue proliferation. Re-stimulation of pre-activated T cells, however, was not affected by Z-VAD-fmk. Intriguingly, CD3-induced production of IL-2 by primary T cells was not impaired in the presence of Z-VAD-fmk. Likewise, CD3-induced activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases was unaffected by Z-VAD-fmk and intracellular levels of inhibitory kappaBalpha were the same as in control cells. T cells transgenically expressing a dominant negative mutant of the caspase-adaptor Fas-associated molecule with death domain (FADD)/MORT1 displayed the same pattern of reaction, i.e. a reduced proliferative response but normal IL-2-production. These data show a distinct role of caspases during primaryT cell activation and provide evidence for a FADD-caspase-pathway not only in the induction of apoptosis but also of T cell proliferation.     

Alterations in tyrosine protein kinase activities upon activation of human neutrophils

Human neutrophils are phagocytic cells that can be activated by a variety of agonists to undergo a group of physiologic responses. This "stimulus-response" coupling is thought to be dependent on the phosphorylation of specific proteins. We have previously shown that, in addition to the widely distributed serine and threonine protein kinases, neutrophils contain tryosine protein kinase activity in the cell cytosol and particulate fractions. When neutrophils are treated with a variety of agents, phosphorylation of both cytosolic and particulate proteins on tyrosine residues occurs. Increases in tyrosine phosphorylation may be a result of increases in the activity of tyrosine kinases or a decrease in the activity of phosphotyrosine phosphatases. In this study, we have used a novel nondenaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic method to demonstrate that treatment of human neutrophils with the chemotactic peptide FMLP or the phorbol ester phorbol myristate acetate induces a time- and concentration-dependent increase in the tyrosine protein kinase activity found in the cell cytosol and cell particulate fraction. The time course and concentration range over which these changes occur are similar to those seen for activation of the neutrophil oxidative burst and phosphorylation of proteins on tyrosine residues, suggesting that these events may be related.     

Serine residues in the LAT adaptor are essential for TCR-dependent signal transduction

The adaptor protein LAT has a prominent role in the transduction of intracellular signals elicited by the TCR/CD3 complex. Upon TCR engagement, LAT becomes tyrosine-phosphorylated and thereby, recruits to the membrane several proteins implicated in the activation of downstream signaling pathways. However, little is known about the role of other conserved motifs present in the LAT sequence. Here, we report that the adaptor LAT contains several conserved serine-based motifs, which are essential for proper signal transduction through the TCR. Mutation of these serine motifs in the human T cell line Jurkat prevents proper calcium influx, MAPK activation, and IL-2 production in response to TCR/CD3 stimulation. Moreover, this mutant form of LAT has a reduced ability to bind to PLC-γ1 and SLP-76, although phosphorylation of tyrosine residues 132, 171, and 191 is not decreased, raising a possible role for the serine-based motifs of LAT for the binding of important partners. The functional role of LAT serine-based motifs in signal transduction could be mediated by an effect on tyrosine phosphorylation, as their mutation significantly diminishes the phosphorylation of tyrosine residue 226. In addition, these serine motifs seem to have a regulatory role, given that upon their mutation, ZAP-70 shows enhanced phosphorylation. Therefore, the LAT serine-based motifs likely regulate signaling pathways that are essential for T cell physiology.