[Frontiers in Bioscience 14, 4836-4847, June 1, 2009]

EI/L-DNase II: interplay between caspase-dependent and independent pathways

Alicia Torriglia1,2,3 , Chloe Lepretre1,2,3

1Universite Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6, 2Universite Paris Descartes - Paris 5, 3INSERM, Centre de Recherches des Cordeliers, UMR S 872, Paris, F-75006, France

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Abstract
2. Apoptosis and caspase activation, are they synonymous?
2.1. Evidence for caspase independent apoptosis 2.2 ..Building up of caspase independent pathway
3.T he non caspases proteases involved in apoptosis
3.1. Calpains
3.2. Cathepsins
3.3. Serine Proteases
4. The caspase-independent pathways already characterized: GAAD and LEI/L-DNase II
4.1. GAAD
4.2.LEI/L-DNase II 5 LEI and L-DNase II in the living and in the apoptotic cells.
6. The cell death redundancy
7. Acknowledgements
8. References

1. ABSTRACT

Caspase activation has been seen, for several years, as the biochemical marker of apoptosis. However, in 2005 the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death (NCCD) established that the 'official' classification of cell death had to rely on morphological criteria owing to the absence of a clear-cut equivalence between structural alterations and biochemical pathways. Actually, the controlled destruction of the cell is coordinated by a proteolytic system involving caspases but also other proteases like cathepsins, calpains and serine proteases. These enzymes participate in an activation cascade that culminates in cleavage of a set of proteins resulting in disassembly of the cell. This disassembling also includes the activation of endonucleases that will destroy a potentially harmful DNA. A caspase-activated DNase performs DNA degradation in caspase-dependent apoptosis, but other endonucleases like L-DNase II or GAAD are activated in caspase-independent apoptosis, allowing the complete dismantling of the cell.