apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a CARD; hASC; caspase recruitment domain-containing protein 5; PYD & CARD domain-containing protein; target of methylation-induced silencing 1 (PYCARD, ASC, CARD5, TMS1)
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Function
- promotes caspase-mediated apoptosis
- proapoptotic activity is mediated predominantly through the activation of caspase-9
- may be a component of the inflammasome
- phosphorylated
- forms complexes with other DAPIN domain-containing proteins
- interacts with CIAS1/PYPAF1 & PYDC1
Structure
- interacts with CIAS1/PYPAF1 & PYDC1 via the DAPIN domain
- contains 1 CARD domain
- contains 1 DAPIN domain
- only protein to contain both CARD & DAPIN domains
Compartment
- cytoplasm
- upstream of caspase activation, a redistribution from cytoplasm to aggregates occurs; these appear as hollow, perinuclear spherical, ball-like structures
Alternative splicing
named isoforms=3
Expression
- widely expressed at low levels
- detected in peripheral blood leukocytes, lung, small intestine, spleen, thymus, colon
- low expression in placenta, liver & kidney
- very low expression in skeletal muscle, heart & brain
- detected in the leukemia cell lines HL-60 & U937
- not detected in Jurkat T-cell lymphoma or Daudi Burkitt's lymphoma
- detected in the melanoma cell line WM35
- not detected in WM793 cells
- not detected in HeLa cervical carcinoma cells & molt 4 lymphocytic leukemia cells
Pathology
- in breast cancer, methylation-mediated silencing may affect genes & proteins that act as positive mediators of cell death