Pathway: DNA Damage/Telomere Stress Induced Senescence
Reactions in pathway: DNA Damage/Telomere Stress Induced Senescence :
DNA Damage/Telomere Stress Induced Senescence
Reactive oxygen species (ROS), whose concentration increases in senescent cells due to oncogenic RAS-induced mitochondrial dysfunction (Moiseeva et al. 2009) or due to environmental stress, cause DNA damage in the form of double strand breaks (DSBs) (Yu and Anderson 1997). In addition, persistent cell division fueled by oncogenic signaling leads to replicative exhaustion, manifested in critically short telomeres (Harley et al. 1990, Hastie et al. 1990). Shortened telomeres are no longer able to bind the protective shelterin complex (Smogorzewska et al. 2000, de Lange 2005) and are recognized as damaged DNA.
The evolutionarily conserved MRN complex, consisting of MRE11A (MRE11), RAD50 and NBN (NBS1) subunits, binds DSBs (Lee and Paull 2005) and shortened telomeres that are no longer protected by shelterin (Wu et al. 2007). Once bound to the DNA, the MRN complex recruits and activates ATM kinase (Lee and Paull 2005, Wu et al. 2007), leading to phosphorylation of ATM targets, including TP53 (p53) (Banin et al. 1998, Canman et al. 1998, Khanna et al. 1998). TP53, phosphorylated on serine S15 by ATM, binds the CDKN1A (also known as p21, CIP1 or WAF1) promoter and induces CDKN1A transcription (El-Deiry et al. 1993, Karlseder et al. 1999). CDKN1A inhibits the activity of CDK2, leading to G1/S cell cycle arrest (Harper et al. 1993, El-Deiry et al. 1993).
SMURF2 is upregulated in response to telomere attrition in human fibroblasts and induces senecscent phenotype through RB1 and TP53, independently of its role in TGF-beta-1 signaling (Zhang and Cohen 2004). The exact mechanism of SMURF2 involvement is senescence has not been elucidated.
Cells are subject to external molecular and physical stresses such as foreign molecules that perturb metabolic or signaling processes, and changes in temperature or pH. Cells are also subject to internal molecular stresses such as production of reactive metabolic byproducts. The ability of cells and tissues to modulate molecular processes in response to such stresses is essential to the maintenance of tissue homeostasis (Kultz 2005). Specific stress-related processes annotated here are cellular response to hypoxia, cellular response to heat stress, cellular senescence, HSP90 chaperone cycle for steroid hormone receptors (SHR) in the presence of ligand, response of EIF2AK1 (HRI) to heme deficiency, heme signaling, cellular response to chemical stress, cellular response to starvation, and unfolded protein response.
Individual cells detect and respond to diverse external molecular and physical signals. Appropriate responses to these signals are essential for normal development, maintenance of homeostasis in mature tissues, and effective defensive responses to potentially noxious agents (Kultz 2005). It is convenient, if somewhat arbitrary, to distinguish responses to signals involved in development and homeostasis from ones involved in stress responses, and that classification is followed here, with macroautophagy and responses to metal ions classified as responses to normal external stimuli, while responses to hypoxia, reactive oxygen species, and heat, and the process of cellular senescence are classified as stress responses. Signaling cascades are integral components of all of these response mechanisms but because of their number and diversity, they are grouped in a separate signal transduction superpathway in Reactome.
