The co-chaperone p23 is degraded by caspases and the proteasome during apoptosis

The heat shock protein 90 co-chaperone p23 has recently been shown to be up-regulated in cancer cells and down-regulated in atheroschlerotic plaques. We found that p23 is degraded during apoptosis induced by several stimuli, including Fas and TNFα-receptor activation as well as staurosporine treatment. Caspase inhibition protected p23 from degradation in several cell lines. In addition, recombinant caspase-3 and 8 cleaved p23 at Asp 142 generating a degradation product of 18 kDa as seen in apoptotic cells. Truncated p23 is further degraded in a proteasome dependent process during apoptosis. Furthermore, we found that the anti-aggregating activity of truncated p23 was reduced compared to full length p23 indicating that caspase mediated p23 degradation contributes to protein destabilisation in apoptosis.