Evolution: a mechanism of apoptosis (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, February 17, 2022, 19:39 (799 days ago) @ David Turell

At the molecular level:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-02-molecular-culprit-caught-cell-death.html

"Cell death is an important part of the body's immune response to infection. When uncontrolled, however, it can cause harmful amounts of inflammation in otherwise healthy organs and tissue. The research team uncovered how an overproduction of the molecule nitric oxide, which the protein caspase-8 helps to produce, caused dangerous levels of cell death. They showed that arresting the function of caspase-8 could prevent unregulated cell death and inflammation.

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"While nitric oxide is critical to the body's circulatory and nervous systems, the recent findings link an overproduction of the molecule with excessive levels of cell death and inflammation. Cell death is critical for a healthy immune response, however, too much of it can send the immune system into overdrive and trigger inflammatory disease."

Comment: worn out cells have one process of apoptosis to produce new cells, separate from the destruction of cells required in immune defense reactions. Over=reactions are mistakes in molecular reactions, which it seems we can learn to correct with further research.