SoylentNews
SoylentNews is people
https://soylentnews.org/

Title    Deadly Combination: New Direct Trigger for Cell Death Discovered
Date    Saturday January 15 2022, @05:33AM
Author    martyb
Topic   
from the you're-dead,-Jim dept.
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=22/01/14/030212

upstart writes:

Deadly combination: New direct trigger for cell death discovered:

Scientists led by Professor Ana J. Garcia-Saez at the CECAD Cluster of Excellence for Aging Research at the University of Cologne have shown that apoptosis, the programmed cell death, involves a direct physical interplay between the two proteins BAX and DRP1. DRP1 can serve as a direct cell death activator by binding to BAX without the need for other cell death triggers. This finding could lead to the development of new cell death regulators for cancer therapies, for example. The article, 'DRP1 interacts directly with BAX to induce its activation and apoptosis' was published in The EMBO Journal.

It is known that the so-called 'apoptotic enforcer protein' BAX encounters DRP1 in the cell at the mitochondrial membrane. The latter is a dynamin-like protein that plays a critical role in mitochondrial division. However, the functional implications of their interaction and the contribution of DRP1 to apoptosis have been highly controversial.

BAX is a key protein in the pathway to cell death. Understanding the mechanism of action of BAX is critical for therapeutic regulation of apoptosis. Using super-resolution confocal fluorescence microscopy and biochemical as well as biophysical methods in model membrane systems, the research team was able to demonstrate the direct interaction of the two proteins in dying cells. In addition, using a system that artificially brings the two proteins together, they investigated the functional consequences of the interaction of BAX and DRP1.

"When we artificially force the interaction of the two proteins, they move from the cytoplasm to the mitochondria, where the protein complex triggers a reorganization of the mitochondria. This leads to pores in the membrane. The contents of the mitochondria enter the cell plasma, which ultimately leads to cell death," said Andreas Jenner, first author of the study.

Apoptosis at Wikipedia.

Journal Reference:
Andreas Jenner, Aida Peña-Blanco, Raquel Salvador-Gallego, et al. DRP1 interacts directly with BAX to induce its activation and apoptosis [open], The EMBO Journal (DOI: 10.15252/embj.2021108587)


Original Submission

Links

  1. "upstart" - https://soylentnews.org/~upstart/
  2. "Deadly combination: New direct trigger for cell death discovered" - https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220113111451.htm
  3. "Apoptosis" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
  4. "10.15252/embj.2021108587" - https://doi.org/10.15252/embj.2021108587
  5. "Original Submission" - https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=53329

© Copyright 2024 - SoylentNews, All Rights Reserved

printed from SoylentNews, Deadly Combination: New Direct Trigger for Cell Death Discovered on 2024-03-29 11:57:49