RNase L Cleavage Products Promote Switch from Autophagy to Apoptosis by Caspase-Mediated Cleavage of Beclin-1.

ABSTRACT: Autophagy and apoptosis share regulatory molecules enabling crosstalk in pathways that affect cellular homeostasis including response to viral infections and survival of tumor cells. Ribonuclease L (RNase L) is an antiviral endonuclease that is activated in virus-infected cells and cleaves viral and cellular single-stranded RNAs to produce small double-stranded RNAs with roles in amplifying host responses. Activation of RNase L induces autophagy and apoptosis in many cell types. However, the mechanism by which RNase L mediates crosstalk between these two pathways remains unclear. Here we show that small dsRNAs produced by RNase L promote a switch from autophagy to apoptosis by caspase-mediated cleavage of Beclin-1, terminating autophagy. The caspase 3-cleaved C-terminal fragment of Beclin-

SUBMITTER: Siddiqui MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4581211 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature