Negative regulation of the SAPK/JNK signaling pathway by presenilin 1

Abstract

Presenilin 1 (PS1) plays a pivotal role in Notch signaling and the intracellular metabolism of the amyloid beta -protein, To understand intracellular signaling events downstream of PSI, we investigated in this study the action of PS1 on mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways. Overexpressed PS1 suppressed the stress-induced stimulation of stress-activated protein kinase (SAPK)/c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) in human embryonic kidney 293 cells. Interestingly, two functionally inactive PSI mutants, PS1(D257A) and PS1(D385A), failed to inhibit UV-stimulated SAPK/ JNK. Furthermore, H2O2- or UV-stimulated SAPK activity was higher in mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) cells from PS1-null mice than in MEF cells from PS+/+ mice. MEFPS1(-/-) cells were more sensitive to the H2O2-induced apoptosis than MEFPS1(+/+) cells. Ectopic expression of PS1 in MEFPS1(-/-) cells suppressed H2O2-stimulated SAPK/JNK activity and apoptotic cell death. Together, our data suggest that PS1 inhibits the stress-activated signaling by suppressing the SAPK/ JNK pathway.