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Biology

Boise State University

2011

Beclin-1

Articles 1 - 1 of 1

Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Depletion Of Beclin-1 Due To Proteolytic Cleavage By Caspases In The Alzheimer's Disease Brain, Troy T. Rohn, Ellen Wirawan, Raquel J. Brown, Jordan R. Harris, Eliezer Masliah, Peter Vandenabeele Jul 2011

Depletion Of Beclin-1 Due To Proteolytic Cleavage By Caspases In The Alzheimer's Disease Brain, Troy T. Rohn, Ellen Wirawan, Raquel J. Brown, Jordan R. Harris, Eliezer Masliah, Peter Vandenabeele

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Beclin-1 protein is essential for the initiation of autophagy and recent studies suggest this function may be compromised in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In addition, in vitro studies have supported a loss of function of Beclin-1 due to proteolytic modification by caspases. In the present study we examined whether caspase-cleavage of Beclin-1 occurs in the AD brain by designing a site-directed caspase-cleavage antibody based upon a known cleavage site within the protein at position D149. We confirmed that Beclin-1 is an excellent substrate for caspase-3 and demonstrate cleavage led to the formation of a 35 kDa C-terminal fragment labeled by …