About Cancer

Promotion Of Apoptosis

All cells in the body eventually die, either through being injured by damaging agents (eg toxic chemicals) or by a natural process of "suicide".

Cells commit suicide as a mechanism to protect the body against cells that have damaged themselves, or have become compromised in other ways (eg by becoming infected with a virus).

The process by which cells commit suicide is a very orderly series of events involving a predetermined sequence of structural changes causing a cell to shrink and be rapidly digested by neighboring cells. This process is often called "programmed cell death (PCD)" or "apoptosis".

Many cancers have developed mechanisms to avoid or overcome apoptosis, which therefore helps the cancerous cells to proliferate and spread. Mounting evidence indicates that the acquired ability to resist apoptosis is a hallmark of most, and perhaps all types of cancer.

Many anti-cancer drugs act in part by promoting apoptosis in cancerous cells, thus making it more difficult for the tumour to grow and spread.

Our team has generated in vitro data to show that PMX 290 promotes the emergence of apoptotic cell populations and generation of reactive oxygen species within cells.

	Antitumour quinols: Role of glutathione in modulating quinol-induced apoptosis and identification of putative cellular protein targets.
	Elucidation of thioredoxin as a molecular target for antitumour quinols.

	Induction and apoptosis without redox catastrophe by thioredoxin-inhibitory compounds.