Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 1992 Jun 25;357(6380):695-7.
doi: 10.1038/357695a0.

Identification of calcineurin as a key signalling enzyme in T-lymphocyte activation

N A Clipstone  1 , G R Crabtree
Affiliations

Identification of calcineurin as a key signalling enzyme in T-lymphocyte activation

N A Clipstone et al. Nature. .

Abstract

The immunosuppressive drugs cyclosporin A (CsA) and FK506 both interfere with a Ca(2+)-sensitive T-cell signal transduction pathway, thereby preventing the activation of specific transcription factors (such as NF-AT and NF-IL2A) involved in lymphokine gene expression. CsA and FK506 seem to act by interaction with their cognate intracellular receptors, cyclophilin and FKBP, respectively (see ref. 11 for review). The Ca2+/calmodulin-regulated phosphatase calcineurin is a major target of drug-isomerase complexes in vitro. We have therefore tested the hypothesis that this interaction is responsible for the in vivo effects of CsA/FK506. We report here that overexpression of calcineurin in Jurkat cells renders them more resistant to the effects of CsA and FK506 and augments both NFAT- and NFIL2A-dependent transcription. These results identify calcineurin as a key enzyme in the T-cell signal transduction cascade and provide biological evidence to support the notion that the interaction of drug-isomerase complexes with calcineurin underlies the molecular basis of CsA/FK506-mediated immunosuppression.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources