The Molecular Machinery Regulating Apoptosis Signal Transduction and its Implication in Human Physiology and Pathophysiologies

C.      T. Hellwig; E.      Passante; M.      Rehm

doi:10.2174/156652411794474400

Abstract

The regulation of apoptotic cell death, a terminal and fatal cell fate decision, has been intensely investigated and, due to its paramount implications for human health and disease, has sparked one of the most prolific and competitive research fields in biological and biomedical sciences of the past decades. Many key components of the molecular machinery processing and transducing apoptotic cell death signals have been described in great detail by now, dramatically advancing our understanding of how the network of apoptosis signaling proteins integrates and regulates cell death signals, and ultimately executes apoptosis. Building on the latest significant advances in deciphering apoptosis signal transduction as well as on the central original groundbreaking discoveries in cell death research, we here present an in-depth description of the current knowledge on the core molecular machinery of apoptotic signaling and how it is implicated in human physiology and pathophysiologies.

Keywords: Apoptosis, Bcl-2 protein family, cancer, caspases, cell death, death receptors, inhibitor of apoptosis proteins, mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilisation, metazoans, chromatin condensation, pyknosis, nuclear, karyorrhexis, necrosis, autophagy, traumatic destruction, Alzheimer's disease, homeostasis, immune system, autoimmune diseases, UV radiation, Chemotherapy, angiogenesis, chemotherapeutic drugs, platin, docetaxel, paclitaxel, cisplatin, 5-Fluorouracil, extrinsic pathway, anti-cancer agent, osteoprotegerin, oligomerisation, dimerization, Autoproteolysis, heterodimerization, homodimerization, X-chromosome, Bcl-2 family, ischemic injury, calcium ions, oxidative phosphorylation, apoptotic protease-activating factor-1, apoptosome, XIAP, crystallography, proteolysis