Bcl2

By Christina Towers, PhD

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) currently contributes to nearly 30% of all injury deaths in the United States.  Characterized by an abrasive head injury that interrupts normal brain function, TBI can range from mild to severe.  Mild symptoms can present themselves as excessive tiredness, difficulty concentrating and lack of clear thinking.  Severe cases of TBI are hallmarked by unusual behavior, seizures and loss of consciousness.  Research has shown that on a molecular level TBI triggers various mechanisms of cell death alongside attempted tissue recovery, therefore Choi et al sought

Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, is controlled by a caspase signal cascade that activates downstream signals to induce the morphological changes used to differentiate apoptosis from other forms of cell death.  Novus Biologicals offers a variety of antibodies and tools to detect the different morphological indicators of cell death. 

Apoptosis is a method of programmed cell death that is notably characterized by a morphological change in cellular nuclei and membrane appearance.  Not to be confused with necrosis, apoptosis is a pathway that is induced by a variety of factors that activate cysteine proteases known as caspases to lead the cell to its ultimate death versus natural death of a cell.

The root of Parkinson’s disease (PD) points to a poorly regulated electron transport chain leading to mitochondrial damage, where many proteins need to work cohesively to ensure proper function.  The two key players of this pathway are PINK1, also known as PTEN or PARK6, and Parkin, also known as PARK2 - where PINK1 acts as an upstream effector of Parkin to regulate mitochondrial dynamics.  Mitochondria must maintain a healthy equilibrium and do so by undergoing a series of fission and fusion event

c-Myc, a proto-oncogene, has documented involvement in cellular differentiation, cell growth, cell death and tumor formation.  Target genes of the Myc family include those that participate in cell survival, translation, transcription, metabolism and more.  On a more specific level, c-Myc is a transcription factor that can both activate and repress its target protein by way of DNA modifications.  This allows for the use of a c-Myc antibody in two manners; it can be used to monitor the actual c-Myc protein expression levels, or, it

p53, the protein product of the tp53 gene, is one of the most widely studied tumor suppressor proteins in cancer research.  p53 is unique in that it demonstrates both tumor suppressive and tumor progressive properties depending on whether it is functional or mutated.  The most common mutation in the p53 protein that leads to lack of tumor suppression activity is a missense mutation, however frameshift or nonsense mutations are also common.  In fact, mutant p53 has exhibited dominant negative inhibition of the wild type version of the protein, demonstrating the fact that the p53 pat

Proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) plays a crucial role in nucleic acid metabolism as it pertains to DNA replication and repair.  Most noted for its activation of subunits of DNA polymerase, it has also been found to interact with cell-cycle progression proteins.  Modifications of PCNA as a result of cellular response put PCNA in a pivotal position with DNA replication, DNA damage, and chromatin structure and function.  In response to DNA damage, PCNA is ubiquitinated and becomes part of the RAD-6 dependent DNA repair pathway, where it acts as a substrate with a variety of p

Autophagy is a crucial cellular process that clears the cell of protein aggregates, toxins, and damaged cell products. Accumulation of toxins, damaged cell products and unwanted proteins has been proven to play a role in aging and many forms of disease and cancer.

Autophagy is a crucial intracellular pathway that manages the degradation and recycling of long-lived proteins in the cell. The LC3 (or light chain 3) family is composed of three members, LC3A, LC3B and LC3C. Upon autophagy induction, LC3 is cleaved, causing the release of a C-terminal glycine that is required for phospholipid conjugation.  This process is vital to the formation of the autophagosome, a double membrane structure that delivers proteins to the lysosome during autophagy.