TRAIL induces caspase-dependent cleavage of specific components of the clathrin-mediated endocytosis machinery
Authors: Lawrence David A , Marsters Scot A , Austin Cary , Ashkenazi Avi 
Published: October 2024

It has been reported that caspase activation by the proapoptotic ligand Apo2L/TRAIL disrupts the clathrin-mediated endocytosis machinery (CMEM). To confirm whether TRAIL induces caspase-mediated cleavage of specific CMEM components, we examined the temporal and functional relationship between TRAIL-induced processing of the apoptosis-initiating protease, caspase-8, and the apoptosis-executing protease, caspase-3,versuscleavage of specific adaptin (AP) and clathrin heavy chain (CHC) proteins. TRAIL induced time-dependent proteolytic processing of caspase-8 and caspase-3, which coincided with cleavage of AP2α and CHC. The pan caspase inhibitor zVAD-FMK, which blocked caspase processing in response to TRAIL, also prevented the cleavage AP2α. Whereas FADD-deficient or caspase-8-deficient cells showed little or no TRAIL-driven cleavage of either AP2α or CHC, Bax-deficient or caspase-3-deficient cell lines retained AP2α cleavage but failed to cleave CHC in response to TRAIL. The DNA-damaging agent doxorubicin also led to processing of caspase-8 and caspase-3 in conjunction ith cleavage of AP2α and CHC. Together, these results confirm that TRAIL induces caspase-dependent cleavage of AP2α and CHC. Whereas TRAIL-driven cleavage of both AP2α and CHC requires caspase-8, cleavage of CHC, but not of AP2α, requires caspase-3.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Cell lines and cell culture

All cell lines were obtained from ATCC or as kind gifts from Dr. Bert Vogelstein (HCT116 Bax-/-) and Dr. John Blenis (Jurkat I9.2 and E1). Cell lines were cultured with standard media as previously described (1).

Immunoblot analysis

Cells were lysed in RIPA lysis buffer (20-188, Millipore) supplemented with Halt protease and phosphatase inhibitor cocktail (ThermoFisher Scientific) and kept on ice for 30 min. Lysates were cleared by centrifugation at 13,600 x g for 15 min at 4 °C, and protein amount was determined by BCA protein assay (ThermoFisher Scientific). Protein was denatured by adding NuPAGE LDS buffer and DTT reducing buffer (Invitrogen) and incubating the samples at 95 °C for 5 min. Equal amounts of denatured protein were loaded into each well of NuPAGE pre-cast gels (Invitrogen), resolved by SDS-PAGE, and electro-transferred to nitrocellulose membranes using the iBLOT2 system (Invitrogen). Membranes were blocked in a 5% nonfat milk solution for 1 hr at room temperature and probed with the corresponding primary antibody at 1:1,000 dilution overnight at 4 °C. This was followed by incubation with the corresponding horseradish peroxidase (HRP)- conjugated secondary antibody at 1:10,000 dilution during 1 hr at room temperature. All secondary antibodies were from Jackson Laboratories. The primary antibodies and secondary HRP-conjugated antibodies are listed respectively inTable 1andTable 2. β-actin IB was used to verify uniformity of protein loading and electro-transfer.

Additional reagents

Recombinant soluble non-tagged human TRAIL (Apo2L.0) and Flag-tagged TRAIL were prepared at Genentech. Flag-tagged TRAIL was crosslinked with anti-Flag M2 antibody at a ligand-to-antibody molar ratio of 1:2.

zVAD-FMK was purchased from R & D Systems, FMK001.

Doxorubicin was purchased from Sigma Aldrich, D1515.