期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2002
卷号：99
期号：14
页码：9492-9497
DOI：10.1073/pnas.132241599
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Little is known about how a cell's apoptotic threshold is controlled after exposure to chemotherapy, although the p53 tumor suppressor has been implicated. We identified executioner caspase-6 as a transcriptional target of p53. The mechanism involves DNA binding by p53 to the third intron of the caspase-6 gene and transactivation. A p53-dependent increase in procaspase-6 protein level allows for an increase in caspase-6 activity and caspase-6-specific Lamin A cleavage in response to Adriamycin exposure. Specific inhibition of caspase-6 blocks cell death in a manner that correlates with caspase-6 mRNA induction by p53 and enhances long-term survival in response to a p53-mediated apoptotic signal. Caspase-6 is an executioner caspase found directly regulated by p53, and the most downstream component of the death pathway controlled by p53. The induction of caspase-6 expression lowers the cell death threshold in response to apoptotic signals that activate caspase-6. Our results provide a potential mechanism of lowering the death threshold, which could be important for chemosensitization.
关键词：chemosensitivity‖apoptosis‖transcription‖tumor suppressor‖lamin A
