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Apoptosis inducing peptides.

 Antimicrobial peptides and other peptides such as stabled peptides can induce apoptosis therefore they are also called “apoptosis inducing peptides” or just “apoptosis peptides”. Apoptosis or programmed cell death is a cellular process that occurs in multicellular organisms in which biochemical events trigger characteristic cell changes and finally cell death. During apoptosis cells undergo cytochrome c release, caspase activation, phosphatidylserine externalization, plasma or mitochondrial membrane depolarization, DNA and nuclei damage, cell shrinkage, apoptotic body formation, and membrane blebbing. A bleb is an irregular bulge in the plasma membrane of a cell that is caused by localized decoupling of the cytoskeleton from the plasma membrane. A diverse range of cell signals control the process. Extracellular signals that induce apoptosis can include toxins, hormones, growth factors, nitric oxide, cytokines as well as apoptosis inducing peptides. All these molecules must either cross the plasma membrane or transduce through the cell membrane to create a response. It is estimated that between 50 and 70 billion cells die each day due to apoptosis in the average human adult and approximately 20 billion to 30 billion cells in an average child between the ages of 8 and 14.

Most anti-cancer or apoptosis inducing peptides induce apoptosis of tumor cells by modulating the activity of Bcl-2 family members. These proteins control the release of death factors from the mitochondria or by inhibiting negative regulators of caspases. Caspases are proteases that mediate the apoptotic response in cells. Antimicrobial peptides can act as apoptosis inducing peptides in yeast and tumor cells. The apoptosis mechanism can be utilized to design different types of therapeutics. For example, apoptosis inducing peptides can be used to target antibiotic-resistant pathogens and as antitumor agents. During the developmental phase of an organism apoptosis is needed to ensure proper development. The resorption of the tadpole tail at the time of its metamorphosis into a frog is one example. Apoptosis inducing peptides that contain cognate peptide epitopes can induce cytotoxic T cells to undergo apoptosis. Automated solid phase sequencing can be used to synthesize antimicrobial peptides, stabled peptides and apoptosis inducing peptides.

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