Apoptosis and Angiogenesis Flashcards
what are some normal functions of apoptosis
-organism development such as a tadpole developing into a frog must lose its tail through apoptosis, human hand begins as mass of cells then apoptosis carves out fingers
-regulation of aged/damaged cell population
-immune response to infections such as viral infections where cell death is carried out without causing inflammation
what are the hallmarks of apoptosis
-it is programmed cell death
-it is highly regulated
-cells undergo key morphological changes, beginning with an apoptotic signal, which are cell shrinkage and chromatin condensation, blebbing and nuclear fragmentation, formation of apoptotic bodies
what are the differences between apoptosis and necrosis
-in necrosis small blebs form and the structure of the nucleus is changed then the blebs fuse to become larger but no organelle is contained within the blebs, finally the cell lyses and releases its contents and the organelle are no longer functional
-in apoptosis small blebs form and the nucleus, DNA, and organelles break off within these blebs, finally the cell is broken into several apoptotic bodies all containing the functional organelles and these can then be digested by macrophages
what are some triggers of apoptosis and what do they all have in common
radiation, cytotoxic agents, toxins (eg. bacterial), deprivation of growth factor (eg. insulin)/nutrient/oxygen (hypoxia, although some cells such as cancer cells can overcome hypoxia)
what are caspases
-the enzymic mediator molecules of apoptosis key to both intrinsic and extrinsic pathway
-larger inactive form is pro-caspases
-they are cysteine protease that cleaves after aspartic acid residues
-composed of a large and small subunit
-there are initiator and executioner caspases, initiators can be stopped before triggering full apoptosis but once executioners are triggered they cannot be stopped
what are the initiator caspases
caspase 8, 9, and 10
what domains and interactions do the initiator caspases have
-prodomain has DED region in procaspase 8 and 10, and CARD region in procaspase 9
-homophilic interactions between these regions and adaptor proteins (DED-DED or CARD-CARD)
what are the executioner caspases and what pathway are they involved in
caspase 3 and 7, involved in both pathways in fact the activation of executioner caspases is where the intrinsic and extrinsic pathway overlap
what do executioner caspases do, how are they activated, and what do they form
executioner caspases (aka effector) carry out regulated disassembly of the cell, they are activated by proteolytic cleavage which is mediated by initiator caspases, procaspase cleavage leads to a tetramer of small and large heterodimers
how do executioner caspases kill the cell
-disassemble cell structures such as degrading the nuclear lamina by making it more porous
-inactivation of apoptotic inhibitors such as iCAD
-deregulation of other protein activity
what is the intrinsic pathway activated by and what follows
activated by cellular stresses (DNA damage, hypoxia etc), this stress signal is relayed to the mitochondria (intrinsic pathway aka mitochondrial) which leads to mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization (MOMP) which releases pro-apopotic proteins into the cytoplasm
what are the pro-apoptotic proteins released following MOMP and what are their roles
cytochrome C and Smac
-cytochrome C associates with other pro-apoptotic proteins such as APAF1 to allow formation of the apoptosome
-Smac inactivates a group of anti-apoptotic proteins called IAPs
what is procaspase 9 relationship with cytochrome C and APAF1
procaspase 9 interacting with cytochrome C and APAF1 causes the activation of caspase 9 which leads to the activation of the executioner caspases
what are the members of the Bcl2 protein family
-pro-apoptotic BAX subfamily composed of BAX and BAK which are essential for MOMP
-pro-apoptotic BH3 only subfamily composed of BIM, BAD, NOXA, PUMA, and BID and they activate BAX and BAK
-anti-apoptotic subfamily composed of Bcl2, BclXL, MCL1, and Bclw and are key for cell survival by binding and thus inhibiting the other members in the family
how to BH3 only proteins activate BAX and BAK
either directly by binding (tBID, BIM, and PUMA) or indirectly by binding to their repressors (pro-survival Bcl2 proteins)
how are BH3 only proteins regulated and activated
regulated at transcriptional and post-translational levels and activated in response to stimuli such as UV-BIM, genotoxic damage-Noxa and PUMA, cytokine deprivation-BAD, and death receptors-tBID
what determines whether cytochrome C will be released from the mitochondrion
the relative levels of pro and anti - apoptotic proteins within each channel
what are some IAPs (inhibitors of apoptosis)
8 proteins including cIAP1, cIAP2, XIAP, and survivin
-XIAP inhibits caspase 3 and 9
-cIAP1 ubiquitinates caspase 3 and 7
how do cancer cells manipulate the apoptotic process
-upregulation of anti-apoptotic proteins such as Bcl2 and Mcl1 is common in cancers
-inactivation of pro-apoptotic proteins (BAX inactivated in majority of colon cancers)
how is signalling regulated in the intrinsic pathway
-Akt is a kinase activated by many growth factors, that can inactivate Bad and downregulate Bim and Puma expression through the transcription factor FOXO3a, Akt also prevents cleavage of Bid from extrinsic pathway
-p53 protein levels can increase in normal (not cancer) cells upon cellular stress, p53 induces expression of BAX, PUMA, and NOXA and inactivation of Bcl2