Month: September 2022

STUNNING MOLECULAR MACHINE. "Apoptosome assembly is a critical step in the mitochondrial death pathway and requires Apaf-1, cytochrome c, and dATP/ATP. The apoptosome is a wheel-like particle with seven spokes that radiate from a central hub, and has a calculated mass of ∼1 MDa." https://lnkd.in/eXVxDrY View in LinkedIn

VISUAL MODEL OF APOPTOSOME. This large molecular machine is a radially symmetrical multimolecular holoenzyme complex with five structural domains. In some aspects it looks rather like an ATPase. https://lnkd.in/eP3sxmT View in LinkedIn

THE MOLECULAR DESIGN of the apoptosome is exquisitely detailed in this beautiful paper. https://lnkd.in/ev4WxVR View in LinkedIn

APOPTOSOME. "In many cells, the apoptosome is dispensable for stress-induced apoptosis. Since the level of total caspase activity is markedly lower in its absence, the apoptosome must be an amplifier of the caspase cascade rather than a critical initiator of it. Apparently the amplification is more important for ensuring the death of certain cell types (e.g., neuronal precursors) than others (e.g., lymphocytes)." https://lnkd.in/er7D9PK View in LinkedIn

SECOND LEVEL OF COMPLEXITY. "Apoptosis is intertwined with inflammation for pathogen-infected cells. Inflammatory cell death mediated by caspases may serve as an effective defense mechanism against infection." The apoptosome is intimately associated with the inflammasome. A brilliant example of the exquisitely fine-tuned molecular regulation in the cell. https://lnkd.in/eKiDeEq View in LinkedIn

DELUGE OF PUBLICATIONS. "The growing realization of the importance of autophagy in the physiological responses to stresses as well as its importance in pathophysiological processes such as cancer, neurological and cardiovascular diseases is quite obvious from the shear number of reviews published in the first half of 2010." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167488910002764 View in LinkedIn

NECROSIS. "The alternative to apoptotic cell death is necrosis, which is considered to be a toxic process where the cell is a passive victim and follows an energy-independent mode of death. Although the mechanisms and morphologies of apoptosis and necrosis differ, there is overlap between these two processes. Evidence indicates that necrosis and apoptosis represent morphologic expressions of a shared biochemical network described as the “apoptosis-necrosis continuum”. https://lnkd.in/eFmC7Ys View in LinkedIn

PROGRAMMED CELL DEATH. "Necrosis or type III PCD is the cell death that is observed in response to severe stresses such that occurs after physical injury or prolonged ischemia. In fact excessive amount of most apoptotic inducing stimuli will lead to necrosis." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167488910002764 View in LinkedIn

"AUTOPHAGY, the process by which cells recycle cellular constituents, is a critical adaptation to starvation and plays an important role in normal cell function and in PCD." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167488910002764 View in LinkedIn

LARGE CATALOGUE. "A comprehensive list of anti-apoptotic and cell survival genes is difficult to compile. An analysis of the results of searches of the existing literature...revealed a multitude of papers that describe over 150 different unique genes. In addition, there are 785 anti-apoptotic gene entries in the Gene Ontology database (https://lnkd.in/eZ6RHST). The later list is an over estimation." https://lnkd.in/ekVSuhr View in LinkedIn