Lipid raft-mediated Fas/CD95 apoptotic signaling in leukemic cells and normal leukocytes and therapeutic implications.

Plasma membrane is now recognized to contain tightly packed cholesterol/sphingolipid-rich domains, known as lipid or membrane rafts, which are more ordered than the surrounding lipid bilayer. Lipid rafts are crucial for the compartmentalization of signaling processes in the membrane, mostly involved in cell survival and immune response. However, in the last 15 years, a large body of evidence has also identified raft platforms as scaffolds for the recruitment and clustering of death receptor Fas/CD95 and downstream signaling molecules, leading to the concept of death-promoting lipid rafts. This raft-Fas/CD95 coclustering was first described at the early 2000s as the underlying mechanism for the proapoptotic action of the alkylphospholipid analog edelfosine in leukemic cells, hence facilitating protein-protein interactions and conveying apoptotic signals independently of Fas/CD95 ligand. Edelfosine induces apoptosis in hematologic cancer cells and activated T-lymphocytes. Fas/CD95 raft coclustering is also promoted by Fas/CD95 ligand, agonistic Fas/CD95 antibodies, and additional antitumor drugs. Thus, death receptor recruitment in rafts is a physiologic process leading to cell demise that can be pharmacologically modulated. This redistribution and local accumulation of apoptotic molecules in membrane rafts, which are usually accompanied by displacement of survival signaling molecules, highlight how alterations in the apoptosis/survival signaling balance in specialized membrane regions modulate cell fate. Membrane rafts might also modulate apoptotic and nonapoptotic death receptor signaling. Here, we discuss the role of lipid rafts in Fas/CD95-mediated apoptotic cell signaling in hematologic cancer cells and normal leukocytes, with a special emphasis on their involvement as putative therapeutic targets in cancer and autoimmune diseases. © Society for Leukocyte Biology.