Caspase-10 Negatively Regulates Caspase-8-Mediated Cell Death, Switching the Response to CD95L in Favor of NF-κB Activation and Cell Survival

Formation of the death-inducing signaling complex (DISC) initiates extrinsic apoptosis. Caspase-8 and its regulator cFLIP control death signaling by binding to death-receptor-bound FADD. By elucidating the function of the caspase-8 homolog, caspase-10, we discover that caspase-10 negatively regulates caspase-8-mediated cell death. Significantly, we reveal that caspase-10 reduces DISC association and activation of caspase-8. Furthermore, we extend our co-operative/hierarchical binding model of caspase-8/cFLIP and show that caspase-10 does not compete with caspase-8 for binding to FADD. Utilizing caspase-8-knockout cells, we demonstrate that caspase-8 is required upstream of both cFLIP and caspase-10 and that DISC formation critically depends on the scaffold function of caspase-8. We establish that caspase-10 rewires DISC signaling to NF-κB activation/cell survival and demonstrate that the catalytic activity of caspase-10, and caspase-8, is redundant in gene induction. Thus, our data are consistent with a model in which both caspase-10 and cFLIP coordinately regulate CD95L-mediated signaling for death or survival.