objective: ecstasy, also known as 3, 4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (mdma), is a psychoactive recreational hallucinogenic substance and a major worldwide recreational drug. there are neurotoxic effects observed in laboratory animals and humans following mdma use. mdma causes apoptosis in neurons of the central nervous system (cns). withdrawal signs are attenuated by treatment with the adenosin...

The pro-apoptotic protein Bax commits a cell to death by permeabilizing the mitochondrial outer membrane (MOM). To obtain small-molecule probes for elucidating the molecular mechanism(s) of Bax activation, we screened for compounds that induced Bax-mediated liposome permeabilization. We identified five structurally different small molecules that promoted both Bax targeting to and oligomerizatio...

The function Bax and/or Bak in constituting a gateway for mitochondrial apoptosis in response to apoptotic stimuli has been unequivocally demonstrated. However, recent work has suggested that Bax/Bak may have unrecognized nonapoptotic functions related to mitochondrial function in nonstressful environments. Wild-type (WT) and Bax/Bak double knockout (DKO) mice were used to determine alternative...

To explore the potential mechanism of nobiletin in improving sensitivity breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells to Pirarubicin. were randomly divided into Control group, Nobiletin Pirarubicin group and co-Pirarubicin group. CCK-8 assay was used detect inhibitory effect on proliferation cells, cell cycle apoptosis detected by flow cytometry. The combined with migration repair ability scratch test. Weste...

Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) and its taurine-conjugate, tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA), play a unique role in modulating the apoptotic threshold in cells. The mechanism is thought to involve, in part, inhibition of translocation for Bax from the cytosol to mitochondria. Here, we attempted to use the native fluorescence of the tryptophan residues of Bax to determine whether bile acids bind dir...

In response to various apoptotic stimuli, Bax, a pro-apoptotic member of the Bcl-2 family, is oligomerized and permeabilizes the mitochondrial outer membrane to apoptogenic factors, including cytochrome c. Bax oligomerization can also be induced by incubating isolated mitochondria containing endogenous Bax with recombinant tBid (caspase-8-cleaved Bid) in vitro. The mechanism by which Bax oligom...

objective(s):valproic acid (vpa), a drug used in the treatment of neurological disorders, has been shown to have cytotoxic effects on cancer cells through different mechanisms. telomerase, a ribonucleoprotein reverse transcriptase, is responsible for elongation of the telomere and is activated in cancers. a relation between telomerase activity and resistance to apoptosis has been established. t...

How the pro-apoptotic Bax protein permeabilizes the mitochondrial outer membrane is not fully understood. Previously, using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), we showed that activated Bax forms large, growing pores. Whether formed in liposomes or in mitochondrial outer membranes, Bax-induced pores exhibit the same morphology, with negative curvature flanking the edges and with no visible prote...