Apoptosis-inducing factor: mechanistic insights and therapeutic opportunities from a metabolic allosteric switch

Mechanistic and therapeutic insights gained from studying rare skeletal diseases.

Rare bone diseases account for 5% of all birth defects and can cause significant morbidity throughout patients' lives. Significant progress is being made to elucidate the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying these diseases. This paper summarizes presentation highlights of a workshop on Rare Skeletal Diseases convened to explore how the study of rare diseases has influenced the field's under...

Structure of a Potential Therapeutic Antibody Bound to Interleukin-16 (IL-16): MECHANISTIC INSIGHTS AND NEW THERAPEUTIC OPPORTUNITIES.

Interleukin-16 (IL-16) is reported to be a chemoattractant cytokine and modulator of T-cell activation, and has been proposed as a ligand for the co-receptor CD4. The secreted active form of IL-16 has been detected at sites of TH1-mediated inflammation, such as those seen in autoimmune diseases, ischemic reperfusion injury (IRI), and tissue transplant rejection. Neutralization of IL-16 recruitm...

Apoptosis-inducing factor

Although the seminal paper by Kerr, Wyllie and Currie (Kerr et al., 1972), who coined the word ‘apoptosis’, stated that only nuclei but not cytoplasmic organelles would undergo major modifications in the dying cell, recent evidence suggests that no cellular compartment is spared (Ferri and Kroemer, 2001). Mitochondria are particularly affected early during the apoptotic process, and they are no...

Apoptosis-Inducing Factor Regulates Death

vital functions of apoptosis inducing factor (aif)

in many models of programmed cell death, the mitochondrial protein aif translocates to the nucleus, where it induces the chromatin condensation and dna degradation. however, today it is well established that this flavoprotein is bifunctional. in addition to its lethal function in the nucleus of dying cells, aif plays a vital bioenergetic role in healthy ones by regulating mainly the activity of...