The Baculovirus p35 Protein Inhibits Fas- and Tumor Necrosis Factor-induced Apoptosis

• Published in: The Journal of biological chemistry 1995-07, Vol.270 (28), p.16526-16528
• Main Authors: Beidler, David R., Tewari, Muneesh, Friesen, Paul D., Poirier, Guy, Dixit, Vishva M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antigens, Surface - pharmacology; Apoptosis - drug effects; baculovirus; fas Receptor; Humans; Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins; Poly(ADP-ribose) Polymerases - metabolism; Tumor Cells, Cultured; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha - antagonists & inhibitors; Viral Proteins - pharmacology
• ISSN: 0021-9258; 1083-351X
• DOI: 10.1074/jbc.270.28.16526

The baculovirus p35 gene product inhibits virally induced apoptosis, developmental cell death in Caenorhabditis elegansandDrosophila, and neuronal cell death in mammalian systems. Therefore, p35 likely inhibits a component of the death machinery that is both ubiquitous and highly conserved in evolution. We now show for the first time that p35 also inhibits Fas- and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-induced apoptosis. Additionally, p35 blocks TNF- and Fas-induced proteolytic cleavage of the death substrate poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase from its native 116-kDa form to the characteristic 85-kDa form. This cleavage is thought to be catalyzed by an aspartate-specific protease of the interleukin 1β-converting enzyme family designated prICE (Lazebnik, Y. A., Kaufmann, S. H., Desnoyers, S., Poirier, G. G., and Earnshaw, W. C. (1994)Nature371, 346 -347). Our data suggest that p35 must directly or indirectly inhibit prICE. Given that p35 inhibits both TNF and Fas killing, along with previous reports of its ability to block developmental, viral, and x-irradiation-induced cell death, the present results indicate that TNF- and Fas-mediated apoptotic pathways must have components in common with these highly conserved death programs.