Training in Support of Research Project Entitled "Genetic Regulation of the Bcl-2/Bax Death Pathway"
Abstract
There are increasing evidences that the escaping from the cell suicide program is one of the major reasons of the development of malignant cancer cells including breast tissue. The cell suicide program is called "apoptosis". Bcl-2 family proteins are the major players in the regulation of apoptosis, and we explored the molecular mechanism of Bcl-2 family action and discovered 2 new cell death regulator using the innovative approach using yeast genetics. The followings are the list of our findings: 1) Mitochondrial proton-pump is required for the induction of apoptosis by Bax, a cell death-inducing member of Bcl-2 family proteins. 2) Bax-inhibitor-l (BI- 1) was discovered as a suppressor of Bax function to induce cell death. 3) BAR was discovered as a suppressor of Bax- and Fas-induced cell death. 4) Bcl-2 family proteins have the ion-channel formation activity in vitro and the protein sequences responsible for this activity is indispensable for their cell death regulating function. These findings provide the new strategies to develop anti-cancer drugs and the diagnostic-methods to detect malignant breast cancer cells.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADA380457
Entities
People
- Shigemi Matsuyama
Organizations
- Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute