Bcl-2 regulates pyroptosis and necroptosis by targeting BH3-like domains in GSDMD and MLKL

Abstract

Apoptosis is a form of programmed cell death in multicellular organisms. Bcl-2 prevents apoptosis and promotes cellular survival by neutralizing BH3 domain-containing proteins, which directly activate the pore-forming proteins BAX and BAK. However, Bcl-2 is not known to regulate other cell death effectors such as gasdermin D (GSDMD) or mixed lineage kinase domain-like (MLKL), whose activation causes pyroptosis and necroptosis, respectively. Here, we identify a BH3-like domain in both GSDMD and MLKL that mediates an interaction with B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2). The presence of Bcl-2 reduced GSDMD cleavage at D275 by caspase-1, 4 or 5, and enhanced the GSDMD cleavage at D87. The GSDMD D87 cleavage inactivates the pyroptotic execution program. The presence of Bcl-2 also limited RIP3 mediated phosphorylation of MLKL, which reduced MLKL oligomerization and tempered the induction of necroptosis. Our observations suggest that the presence of Bcl-2 limits the induction of three forms of cell death apoptosis, pyroptosis, and necroptosis.