Drugs to Prevent Cell Suicide

MrErlenmeyer writes "Many injuries and diseases including heart attacks, stroke, and Parkinson's cause healthy cells to kill themselves. A group of scientists at Washington University in Saint Louis believe they have a lead on how to stop apoptosis (unwanted cell suicide) and thus minimize the tissue damage that occurs as a result of these injuries. They designed drugs that halt the actions of executioner caspases, proteins that act as a molecular wrecking crew. Other scientists had found that a chemical called isatin could prevent tissue damage in rabbit hearts that were deprived of oxygen. This was the starting point for the team of researchers in Missouri. By making some changes to the molecule, they were able to develop an even more effective molecule. With some further refinement, this may lead to a new class of emergency medications."

Cancer Man would be proud!

[smellsofbikes]

Cessation of programmed cell death is often called cancer.
I'm sure they have all sorts of good research and know lots about this, and I freely grant that a 10x increase in your chances of getting cancer somewhere down the line beats Parkinson's, but this still sounds really scary.

Apoptosis not "unwanted"

[Anonymous Coward]

As stated in the second paragraph of the article, apoptosis is simply the process of cell death--a something perfectly normal and required by the body. Hardly "unwanted"! See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apoptosis [wikipedia.org]

Apoptosis

[HomelessInLaJolla]

The summary characterizes apoptosis as unwanted cell suicide which, in most cases, it most certainly is not. Apoptosis is one of the natural mechanisms by which the body eliminates cells which have become damaged, dysfunctional, or are simply no longer needed.

Especially with respect to cancer research apoptosis is a pathway which we seek to activate. Cells which become cancerous are supposed to enter apoptotic cycles and prevent themselves from creating tumors within the tissue. Cancerous cells manage to win the race condition between apoptotic and survival pathways but, in terms of the mechanisms at work within the cell, are tottering on the edge. Many new cancer treatments rely on this on the edge circumstance in the interest of introducing a pharmacologically active substance into the body which will cause cancerous cells, on the edge of apoptosis, to move fully into apoptotic function.

Since the cells in the body are constantly in a state of self-regulation and interregulation it is possible that cells which enter apoptosis too easily are similarly causes of diseases. It is this set of conditions that the researchers in the article wish to treat.

Don't be misled about what apoptosis actually is, though, or be swayed to view it as good or bad. Different conditions within the tissue call for different actions within the cells which make up that tissue.

Re:Cancer Man would be proud!

[nonsequitor]

This is for emergency response to strokes, heart attack, etc to prevent healthy cells from being destroyed by the enzymes which cause apoptosis. It would follow common sense that the inhibitor would be out of the system within a day or so after treatment with the drug is ended. In conclusion, RTFA.

Re:A cure for death

[sjames]

This is a cure for death, unless I'm badly mistaken.

That'sa bit of an overstatement. It may be the beginnings of a treatment that will greatly improve survival after heart attacks, strokes, and a number of other conditions.

It could do that by limiting or preventing the damage from reperfusion. As reported in an article a couple months ago, lack of circulation/oygen doesn't ITSELF cause dath, but it does set up a condition where as soon as circulation and oxygenation resume, the person will die of massive cell death.

In theory it means that a person who collapses and has no heartbeat for some time (say, 2 hours) could be brought in to a hospital and resuscitated successfully if apoptosis from reperfusion can be prevented.

On a smaller scale, this could be very helpful in treating crush injuries and limb reattachment. It might also permit complex surgeries that are currently out of the question.

It may prolong life in the sense that it makes various medical crises in old age survivable, but it won't eliminate death. The problem there is cell senescence, that is they stop dividing.

A few clarifications...

[Pedrito]

First of all, this doesn't seem like a huge deal. By the time you get to the hospital, most of the cells that are going to die are already undergoing apoptosis (BTW, that's programmed cell death and not necessarily unwanted cell death). The other issue is that hypoxia also causes cell necrosis, which is another form of cell death that's completely different from apoptosis and wouldn't be saved by this kind of drug.

The major issue, however, is simply that most of the cells that are going to die are irreparably damaged byt he time you get to the hospital. They ER will likely give you drug thinners and do whatever else is needed to get oxygen supply back. Not that this drug wouldn't be somewhat helpful, but I'd be really surprised if there's any great improvement in the % of lives saved. And any life saved is certainly worth the effort, but I just don't see this as a major breakthrough.

Now, show me a drug that can selectively induce apoptosis in certain cells, and then we'd have a cure for most forms of cancer (most forms of cancer are the result of cells whose apoptosis pathway is failing for some reason), and that would be a big deal.

Re:A few clarifications...

[compro01]

as far as i understand it, after a certain time of no oxygen, a "suicide bit" gets set and once oxygen comes back, the cell dies, but not until then.

this would prevent that. the cells might not work for long, but hopefully long enough for replacements to come in, as a sizable number of cells spontaneously dying in the heart or brain tends to lead to death for everything else, but a few cells dying at a time and being replaced wouldn't, which i presume is the intent.

though i can't RTFA (the server is probably on fire), so i dunno if i am even close on this.