Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
1933068 Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 2009 6 Pages PDF
Abstract

The cytoplasmic tail of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) contains two putatively cytotoxic peptides, Jcasp and C31, derived by caspase cleavage of APP. Jcasp is a fragment starting from the ε-secretase site to position 664, while C31 is a fragment from position 665 to the C-terminus. Our studies now showed that compared to C31, Jcasp appeared to play a minor role in cytotoxicity. In particular, inhibition of Jcasp generation by treatment of γ-secretase inhibitor did not lead to any attenuation of C31-induced toxicity. Secondly, because C31 toxicity is largely absent in cells lacking endogenous APP, we determined, using a split β-galactosidase complementary assay to monitor protein–protein interactions, the presence of APP associated complexes. Our results demonstrated that both APP homomeric and C31/APP heteromeric complexes were correlated with cell death, indicating that C31 complexes with APP to recruit the interacting partners that initiate the signals related to cellular toxicity.

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