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A measure of quality of life in early old age: the theory, development and properties of a needs satisfaction model (CASP-19).

Quality of life is the subject of much research. However it lacks an agreed theoretical basis. In studies with older populations(ill) health has been used as a proxy measure for quality of life (QoL). We have developed a needs satisfaction measure of QoL in early old age. Our measure has four ontologically grounded domains: conal, autonomy, pleasure, and self-realization. The measure was piloted with focus groups, a self-completion pilot, and cognitive interview testing. This produced a 22-item scale that was included in a postal questionnaire and sent to 286 people aged 65-75 years.A 92% response rate was achieved. The scale was reduced to 19 items on the basis of statistical analysis. The domains have Cronbach's alphas between 0.6 and 0.8. Correlations between the four domains range from 0.4 to 0.7. A second order factor analysis revealed a single latent QoL factor. The scores for the 19-item scale are well distributed along the range although they exhibit a slight negative skew. Concurrent validity was assessed using the Life Satisfaction Index--wellbeing. A strong and positive association was found between the two scales (r= 0.6, p = 0.01). The CASP-19 appears to be a useful scale for measuring QoL in older people.

Aged↗

A CASP-8 mutation recognized by cytolytic T lymphocytes on a human head and neck carcinoma.

Of the antigens recognized on human tumors by autologous cytolytic T lymphocytes, all those defined thus far have been identified on melanoma or renal cell carcinoma. We report here the identification of an antigen recognized by autologous cytolytic T lymphocytes on a human squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity. The antigen is encoded by a mutated form of the CASP-8 gene. This gene, also named FLICE or MACH, codes for protease caspase-8, which is required for induction of apoptosis through the Fas receptor and tumor necrosis factor receptor-1. The mutation, which was found in the tumor cells but not in the normal cells of the patient, modifies the stop codon and adds an Alu repeat to the coding region, thereby lengthening the protein by 88 amino acids. The ability of the altered protein to trigger apoptosis appears to be reduced relative to the normal caspase-8. The antigenic peptide is a nonamer presented by HLA-B*3503. The five last amino acids are encoded by the extension of the reading frame caused by the mutation. This, together with previous observations of CDK4 and beta-catenin mutations, suggests that a significant fraction of the point mutations generating a tumor antigen also play a role in the tumoral transformation or progression.

Aged↗

Cartilage associated protein (CASP) is a novel developmentally regulated chick embryo protein.

A subtracted cDNA library was generated to identify cDNAs specific for chondrocyte mRNAs preferentially expressed at the hypertrophic stage with respect to early differentiation stages. The characterization of a cDNA isolated from this library that hybridizes with a 1.8 kb mRNA is described here. This mRNA is expressed at extremely low levels in dedifferentiated chondrocytes cultured in adherent conditions, at very low levels in differentiating chondrocytes and at very high levels in hypertrophic chondrocytes cultured in suspension conditions. In the developing chick embryo this mRNA is detectable in RNAs extracted from several other tissues besides cartilage. The described cDNA contains a complete open reading frame coding for a polypeptide of about 33 kDa. Homology searches with known cDNA and protein sequences have revealed that the chicken protein is related to the amino-terminal half of two mammalian nuclear antigens. By immunohistochemistry with specific rabbit antisera a strong signal was detected in the cartilage extracellular matrix of selected regions of the developing skeleton. Because of this localization of the antigen we named this protein cartilage associated protein (hereafter referred to as CASP).

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Completion and refinement of 3-D homology models with restricted molecular dynamics: application to targets 47, 58, and 111 in the CASP modeling competition and posterior analysis.

A method is presented to refine models built by homology by the use of restricted molecular dynamics (MD) techniques. The basic idea behind this method is the use of structure validation software to determine for each residue the likelihood that it is modeled correctly. This information is used to determine constraints and restraints in an MD simulation including explicit solvent molecules, which is used for model refinement. The procedure is based on the idea that residues that the validation software identifies as correctly positioned should be strongly constrained or restrained in the MD simulations, whereas residues that are likely to be positioned wrongly should move freely. Two different protocols are compared: one (applied to CASP3 target T58) using full structural constraints with separate optimization of each short fragment and the other (applied to T47) allowing some freedom using harmonic restraining potentials, with automatic optimization of the whole molecule. Structures along the MD trajectory that scored best in structural checks were selected for the construction of models that appeared to be successful in the CASP3 competition. Model refinement with MD in general leads to a model that is less like the experimental structure (Levitt et al. Nature Struct Biol 1999;6:108-111). Actually, refined T47 was slightly improved compared to the starting model; changes in model T58 led not to further enhancement. After the X-ray structure of the modeled proteins became known, the procedure was evaluated for two targets (T47 and the CASP4 target T111) by comparing a long simulation in water with the experimental target structures. It was found that structural improvements could be obtained on a nanosecond time scale by allowing appropriate freedom in the simulation. Structural checks applied to fast fluctuations do not appear to be informative for the correctness of the structure. However, both a simple hydrogen bond count and a simple compactness measure, if averaged over times of typically 300 ps, correlate well with structural correctness and we suggest that criteria based on these properties may be used in computational folding strategies.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

AlphaFold2, SPINE-X, and Seder on Four Hard CASP Targets.

We analyzed four cases from the CASP15 experiment with low prediction accuracy and compared AlphaFold2, SPINE-X, and Seder on these cases. We find that overall, AlphaFold2 performs better than SPINE-X in predicting secondary structure (SS) and solvent accessible surface area (ASA). For some cases, SPINE-X better predicts sheet and coil regions. We also find that AlphaFold2 is better than Seder in selecting the best matching tertiary structure model for one case and is worse in another case. For two cases Alphafold2 and Seder selected the same models. From the cases presented here, it appears that AlphaFold2 predicts more compact structures than the native one. We find that while, as widely reported, AlphaFold2 significantly improved protein tertiary structure prediction, there are cases, such as the four presented here, for which the tertiary structure prediction could still be significantly enhanced. The source code, license, and documentation for SPINE-X and Seder are available from Research and Information Systems, LLC at http://mamiris.com .

Software↗

CASP and CONSORT.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Anti-Infective Agents, Local↗

Cleavage of caspase family members by granzyme B: a comparative study in vitro.

The aspartase granzyme B is one of the major components of the granules involved in cell killing by cytotoxic T lymphocytes. Granzyme B has been shown to activate the apoptotic death pathway in the target cell, and this involves activation of members of the caspase (CASP) protein family. Therefore, activational cleavage of mouse (m) CASP proforms by granzyme B was examined in vitro. CASP can be subdivided in the CASP-1 (interleukin-1 beta-converting enzyme; ICE) subfamily, the CASP-2 (Ich1) subfamily, and the CASP-3 (CPP32) subfamily. Our results reveal that the proforms of the CASP-3 subfamily members mCASP-3 and mCASP-7 are hydrolyzed by granzyme B, while proforms of CASP-2 and CASP-1 subfamily members are not directly cleaved. Only one CASP-3 subfamily member, pro-mCASP-6, was not proteolytically cleaved by granzyme B. These results indicate that two members of the CASP-3 subfamily, but no others, become activated by granzyme B.

Animals↗

Cleavage of PITSLRE kinases by ICE/CASP-1 and CPP32/CASP-3 during apoptosis induced by tumor necrosis factor.

Emerging evidence suggests that multiple aspartate-specific cysteine proteases (caspases (CASPs)) play a crucial role in programmed cell death. Many cellular proteins have been identified as their substrates and serve as markers to assay the activation of CASPs during the death process. However, no substrate has yet been unambiguously identified as an effector molecule in apoptosis. PITSLRE kinases are a superfamily of Cdc2-like kinases that have been implicated in apoptotic signaling and tumorigenesis. In this paper we report that tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-mediated apoptosis is associated with a CrmA- and Bcl-2-inhibitable cleavage of PITSLRE kinases, indicating a role for CASPs. Testing of seven murine CASPs for their ability to cleave p110 PITSLRE kinase alpha2-1 in vitro revealed that only CASP-1 (ICE (interleukin-1beta-converting enzyme)) and CASP-3 (CPP32) were able to produce the same 43-kDa cleavage product as observed in cells undergoing TNF-induced apoptosis. Mutational analysis revealed that cleavage of p110 PITSLRE kinase alpha2-1 occurred at Asp393 within the sequence YVPDS, which is similar to that involved in the CASP-1-mediated cleavage of prointerleukin-1beta. TNF-induced proteolysis of PITSLRE kinases was still observed in fibroblasts from CASP-1(0/0) mice. These data implicate CASP-3 as a potentially important CASP family protease responsible for the cleavage of PITSLRE kinases during TNF-induced apoptosis.

Animals↗

Shigella-induced apoptosis is dependent on caspase-1 which binds to IpaB.

We report here that the Shigella invasion plasmid antigen (Ipa)B, which is sufficient to induce apoptosis in macrophages, binds to caspase (Casp)-1, but not to Casp-2 or Casp-3. Casp-1 is activated and its specific substrate interleukin-1beta is cleaved shortly after Shigella infection. Macrophages isolated from Casp-1 knock-out mice are not susceptible to Shigella-induced apoptosis, although they respond normally to other apoptotic stimuli. Shigella kills macrophages from casp-3, casp-11, and p53 knock-out mice as well as macrophages overexpressing Bcl-2. We propose that Shigella induces apoptosis by directly activating Casp-1 through IpaB, bypassing signal transduction events and caspases upstream of Casp-1. Taken together these data indicate that Shigella-induced apoptosis is distinct from other forms of apoptosis and seems uniquely dependent on Casp-1.

Animals↗

Possible attenuation of fas-mediated signaling by dominant expression of caspase-8 aberrant isoform in adult T-cell leukemia cells.

The Fas up-regulated in adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) cells is usually the wild-type protein and is usually functional, at least in vitro. However, primary ATL cells, in contrast to ATL cell lines, are not necessarily susceptible to anti-Fas-induced apoptosis. To clarify the mechanism tuning the apoptotic signal transduction initiated by the activation caspase-8 in ATL cells and ATL cell lines, we examined the expression profile of caspase-8, of which there are at least 8 isoforms at the messenger RNA (mRNA) level with the potential to finely tune the signal transduction. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction disclosed the 2 major mRNA bands of 815 bp (casp-8S) and 951 bp (casp-8L) with different expression profiles among normal CD4 T-cells, primary ATL cells, and ATL cell lines. Casp-8L was the predominant form in primary ATL cells, whereas casp-8S was predominant in ATL cell lines. Casp-8S was structurally intact as shown by nucleotide analysis, whereas casp-8L was shown to be generated by a 136-bp insertion between exons 8 and 9 and to carry a frame shift in the transcript, introducing a premature stop codon and probably resulting in a truncated protein of approximately 30 kd deduced for the casp-8L transcript. These results suggest that an imbalanced expression of casp-8 isoforms, especially the dominant casp-8L in primary ATL cells, is in part responsible for tumor pathology through the modulation of cell death via Fas-mediated signaling.

Caspase 8↗