Molecular Mechanisms of Apoptosis and their Correlation with Cancer

Apoptosis, which is commonly called cell suicide or programmed cell death is a natural and evolutionarily conserved phenomenon. It plays a role not only in the embryological development of organisms for shaping and sculpting different organs of the body but also maintains homeostasis between cell growth and cell death in adults. Approximately 50 to 70 billion cells are generated per day and the same numbers of cells undergo death in an adult human body. It involves hundreds of proteins, enzymes and transcription factors acting through highly intricate molecular pathways. Modern research has deciphered the proteins involved in molecular apoptotic pathways. These have been shown to be evaded by different types of cancer by either inducing the expression of anti-apoptotic proteins or suppress the pro-apoptotic machinery. New therapeutic research is focused on identifying and targeting the molecules that inhibit apoptosis during cancer.