By detailing the precise molecular pathways of apoptosis, or programmed cell death, scientists at Jefferson Medical College hope to someday develop new drugs against cancer, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.
In the June 10 issue of the journal Nature, Emad Alnemri, Ph.D., associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, in collaboration with Yigong Shi, Ph.D., at Princeton University, describe the workings of an enzyme, caspase-9, that is crucial to understanding apoptosis. In effect, they detail part of the intricate cascade of cellular events leading to activation of this enzyme in apoptosis.
"Biotechnology companies are trying to develop drugs that inhibit caspases to fight neurodegenerative diseases and other diseases in which apoptosis is involved in the pathologic process, and are developing clinical trials," says Dr. Alnemri, who is also deputy director of the Jefferson Center for Apoptosis Research. Understanding the apoptotic pathway and each protein's role in the cell-to-cell communication process has implications for drug discovery, he says.
Apoptosis is a fundamental biological process that is vital to cell differentiation and normal development. In human embryos, for example, apoptosis creates fingers from mitt-like hands. It occurs during normal aging and sometimes during irreversible cell injury from radiation and other poisons. Scientists believe apoptosis gone awry underlies neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, autoimmune diseases such as lupus, and cancer.
Apoptosis has received a great deal of attention in the popular press in recent years when scientists discovered that part of the reason cancer cells grow with abandon is because they lose the ability to die at a preset time.
Dr. Alnemri explores apoptosis at the molecular level, attempting to
understand how and why various mol
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Contact: Steve Benowitz
steven.benowitz@mail.tju.edu
215-955-5291
Thomas Jefferson University
10-Jun-1999