Latest Caspase Stories

Scientists at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have found that the Caspase-8 protein, long known to play a major role in promoting programmed cell death (apoptosis), helps relay signals that can cause cancer cells to proliferate, migrate and invade surrounding tissues. The study was published in the journal Cancer Research on June 15.The team of scientists, led by Kristiina Vuori, M.D., Ph.D., professor and director of the Cancer Center at Burnham, showed that Caspase-8...

The role of a protein called XIAP in the regulation of cell death has been identified by Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers and has led them to recommend caution when drugs called IAP inhibitors are used to treat cancer patients with underlying liver conditions.A team led by Professor Andreas Strasser from the institute's Molecular Genetics of Cancer division has found that XIAP (X-chromosome-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein) is the critical factor that determines which of two...

 Going out like a brilliant flame is one way to get attention. If physicians could watch tumor cells committing a form of programmed suicide called apoptosis, a desired effect of workhorse cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy, they could more quickly pick the most effective treatment. Now scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have found a way to do just that, by lighting up cells as they die.Apoptosis is a carefully orchestrated sequence of...

A research article to be published on June 21, 2009 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. The research team led by Professor Yan Li from Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University studied the growth inhibitory effects of Alisol B acetat and determined its mechanism of antitumor activity in human gastric cancer cell line SGC7901.Professor Li and his colleagues found that Alisol B acetat could inhibit the proliferation of SGC7901 cell in a time and dose dependent...

Women have a more powerful immune system than men, researchers in Montreal found. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found the production of estrogen by females could have a beneficial effect on the innate inflammatory response against bacterial pathogens. Dr. Maya Saleh of the McGill University Health Centre and McGill University said estrogen naturally produced in women seems to block the production of the enzyme Caspase-12, which blocks the...

MUHC researchers demonstrate that estrogen renders the innate immune system of women more powerful than that of men When it comes to immunity, men may not have been dealt an equal hand. The latest study by Dr. Maya Saleh, of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre and McGill University, shows that women have a more powerful immune system than men. In fact, the production of estrogen by females could have a beneficial effect on the innate inflammatory response against...

- Data on novel pro-apoptotic agent presented at the 100th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research - - University of Pennsylvania data on chemotherapy resistance patterns in neuroblastoma cell lines, highlighting AT-101's inhibition of Mcl-1, also presented - MALVERN, Pa., April 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Ascenta Therapeutics announced today that the results of preclinical studies of its orally-active, small molecule, pro-apoptotic agent, AT-406, have been presented at the...

Diabetes and eczema may appear to be two completely unrelated diseases. But UC San Diego biologists have uncovered what appears to be a crucial biochemical link between the two.The scientists report in the March 26 issue of the journal Nature their discovery that a protein previously linked only to cell death, plays a critical role in the healing of wounds in laboratory mice. This protein, known as caspase 8, is deficient in humans with eczema, but produced in excess amounts by diabetics.The...

U.S. researchers have discovered a new route through which Alzheimer's disease may either trigger or maintain the destruction of brain cells. A team of scientists at the biotechnology firm Genentech Inc., discovered that beta-amyloid precursor protein, known as APP, and death receptor 6 trigger a widespread self destruction program that relies on caspases -- sometimes called executioner proteins because of the role they play in apoptosis, or programmed cell death, Medical News Today...

Medicinal plants have been used as traditional remedies for hundreds of years. Among them, S. barbata has been traditionally used in treatment of hepatitis, inflammation, osteomyelitis and gynecological diseases in China. Studies indicate that extracts from S. barbata have growth inhibitory effects on a number of human cancers. Reports are available on the treatment of lung, breast and digestive system cancer, hepatoma, and chorioepithelioma with S. barbata extracts. However, the underlying...