Biochemical controls: controls of cell death (apoptosis) (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, June 02, 2023, 21:04 (538 days ago) @ David Turell

Cancer can happen during this process. It has a control:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-06-scientists-reveal-cellular-cancer.html

"Apoptosis is essential for human life, and its disruption can cause cancerous cells to grow and not respond to cancer treatment. In healthy cells, it is regulated by two proteins with opposing roles known as Bax and Bcl-2.

"The soluble Bax protein is responsible for the clearance of old or diseased cells, and when activated, it perforates the cell mitochondrial membrane to form pores that trigger programmed cell death. This can be offset by Bcl-2, which is embedded within the mitochondrial membrane, where it acts to prevent untimely cell death by capturing and sequestering Bax proteins.

"In cancerous cells, the survival protein Bcl-2 is overproduced, leading to uninhibited cell proliferation. While this process has long since been understood to be important to the development of cancer however, the precise role of Bax and the mitochondrial membrane in apoptosis has been unclear until now.

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"By using time-resolved neutron reflectometry in combination with surface infrared spectroscopy in the ISIS biolab, they were able to see that this pore creation occurred in two stages. Initial fast adsorption of Bax onto the mitochondrial membrane surface was followed by a slower formation of membrane-destroying pores and Bax-lipid clusters, which occurred simultaneously. This slower perforation process occurred on timescales of several hours, comparable to cell death in vivo.

"This is the first time that scientists have found direct evidence of the involvement of mitochondrial lipids during membrane perturbing in cell death initiated by Bax proteins.

"Dr. Luke Clifton continues, "As far as we can tell, this mechanism by which Bax initiates cell death is previously unseen. Once we know more about the interplay between Bax and Bcl-2 and how it relates to this mechanism, we'll have a more complete picture of a process that is fundamental to human life. This work really shows the capabilities of neutron reflectometry in structural studies on membrane biochemistry."

"The finding builds on previous studies by the team on the molecular mechanism of membrane-bound Bcl-2 to inform a more complete understanding of the early stages of apoptosis.

"Professor Gerhard Gröbner, University of Umeå scientist and and co-lead author says, "The unique findings here will not only have a significant impact in the field of apoptosis research but will also open gateways for exploring Bax and its relatives as interesting targets in cancer therapy such as by tuning up their cell-killing potential."

"Future research is planned at ISIS to further elucidate the molecular mechanism of apoptosis and in particular, to characterize the interplay between Bax and Bcl-2. It is hoped that this will yield insights which will open new avenues of research to continue to develop our understanding of the cellular processes necessary for human life."

Comment: raid precise action by Bax and Bc1-2 closes any loophole for cancer changes to sneak in. This mechanism shows God appreciated the chances for cancer. dhw's no-nothing God would not know this could happen and wouldn't have developed this blocking mechanisms.