Integrin activation (black bars) blocks DAPK-induced apoptosis.
The kinase in question is death associated protein kinase (DAPK), a positive regulator of apoptosis induced by many stimuli, including c-myc and TGF-β. Although DAPK was cloned several years ago, its function in cell death has remained elusive. The new results reveal that DAPK has the unusual ability to initiate anoikis, a form of apoptosis induced in unattached cells, by interfering with integrin signaling.
Not one to dally with downstream signals, DAPK starts at the top—by altering integrin structure. Wang et al. found that DAPK locks integrin in an inactive state, thus suppressing epithelial cell adhesion to the extracellular matrix (ECM). As a result, the ECM survival...
