Journal article
Cell death and the mitochondria: Therapeutic targeting of the BCL-2 family-driven pathway
MJ Roy, A Vom, PE Czabotar, G Lessene
British Journal of Pharmacology | Published : 2014
DOI: 10.1111/bph.12431
Abstract
The principal biological role of mitochondria is to supply energy to cells; although intriguingly, evolution has bestowed another essential function upon these cellular organelles: under physiological stress, mitochondria become the cornerstone of apoptotic cell death. Specifically, mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization (MOMP) allows cell death factors such as cytochrome c to be released into the cytoplasm, thus inducing caspase activation and the eventual destruction of essential cellular components. Proteins of the B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL-2) family control the tightly regulated pathway that causes MOMP. The equilibrium between pro-survival and pro-apoptotic members of the BCL-2 fami..
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Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
We thank our colleagues from the Structural Biology, Chemical Biology and Molecular Genetic of Cancer Divisions, in particular, Profs Adams, Colman, Huang and Strasser, Drs Fairlie, Lee and Segal for many insightful discussions. Work in the laboratories of G. L. and P. E. C. is supported by funding from the NHRMC (Project Grants No GNT1025138 and GNT1023055) and the ARC (Future Fellowship FT0992105). M. J. R. is supported by an Australian Postrgraduate Award (APA) from the Australian Government. We also thank Life Arts for providing support in preparing Figure 1.