Abstract
Cell penetrating peptides (CPPs) have been used to deliver the anti-apoptotic Bcl-xL-derived BH4 peptide to prevent injury-induced apoptosis both in vitro and in vivo. Here we demonstrate that the nuclear localization sequence (NLS) from the SV40 large T antigen has favorable properties for BH4 domain delivery to lymphocytes compared to sequences based on the HIV-1 TAT sequence. While both TAT-BH4 and NLS-BH4 protected primary human mononuclear cells from radiation-induced apoptotic cell death, TAT-BH4 caused persistent membrane damage and even cell death at the highest concentrations tested (5-10 μM) and correlated with in vivo toxicity as intravenous administration of TAT-BH4 caused rapid death. The NLS-BH4 peptide has significantly attenuated toxicity compared to TAT-BH4 and we established a dosing regimen of NLS-BH4 that conferred a significant survival advantage in a post-exposure treatment model of LD90 total body irradiation.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 657-662 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications |
Volume | 382 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 15 2009 |
Keywords
- Apoptosis
- BH4
- Bcl-2
- Cell death
- Cell penetrating motif
- NLS
- Necrosis
- TAT
- Total body irradiation