New way to induce programmed cell death, or apoptosis
Tuesday, July 17, 2012 - 12:00
in Biology & Nature
Researchers have developed a technique to cause apoptosis -- programmed cell death. In two proteins involved in apopotosis -- mitochondrial carrier homologue 2 and truncated BID -- they found the regions that bind to each other to help initiate apoptosis. They then developed peptides that inhibited the binding process, which in lab experiments resulted in the death of human-origin cancer cells. This is a potential target for the development of anticancer drugs that will stimulate apoptosis.