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In their seminal paper ‘The Hallmarks of Cancer’, Weinberg and Hanahan (2000, 2011) organized the complexities of cancer into key underlying principles and suggested that exploring these hallmarks will support the development of new and improved cancer therapies. Resisting Apoptosis, is an original hallmark that has since been well investigated to increase our understanding on the mechanism and regulation on how cancer cells resist apoptosis. Further anti-apoptotic strategies targeting the BCL-2 proteins, the p53 genome, amongst other cell signals within apoptosis is well underway.

Apoptosis or ‘cell death’, is a normal biological self-destruct program that cells have. It is an ordered and orchestrated event that occurs in physiological and pathological conditions.  For example, if a cell detects that it has damaged DNA, apoptosis is activated in that cell to remove it from the body. Other apoptotic signals include signaling imbalance caused by cancer gene activation; lack of oxygen supply; or insufficient growth factors. In some diseases, the condition arises due to too much apoptosis, as is evident in degenerative diseases while in others, the problem occurs due to too little apoptosis, like we see in cancer, resulting in malignant cells that will not die.

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The mechanism of apoptosis is complex and involves many pathways. The primary regulators of apoptosis are proteins belonging to the BCL-2 family that are either pro-apoptotic (trigger apoptosis) or anti-apoptotic (inhibit apoptosis). Apoptosis regulators also include death receptors on the cell surface that bind to death signaling molecules. Cells then need the ability to detect the necessary conditions for triggering apoptosis. The most common method cancer cells use to escape death is loss of the apoptosis gatekeeper, the protein p53. If repair is not possible then apoptosis is induced Letai et al (2017).

Following the landmark discovery of BCL2 in cancer nearly 3 decades ago, a break-through anti-cancer drug  targeting BCL2 is discovered. The role of BCL2 in cancer cell’s evasion of apoptosis was identified in 1988 and in 2016 the BCL2 anti-cancer therapy Venetoclax was successfully identified in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. 

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We at In Vitro Technologies are committed to groundbreaking cancer research to understand how cancer cells ‘resist apoptosis’ and improved therapeutic strategies. So we have brought together a range of quality resources to help you explore this hallmark. With our expert support, the solutions we offer guarantee high quality, reproducible results, allowing you to accelerate cancer discoveries.

R&D Systems Interactive Signaling Pathways

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>R&D Systems Apoptosis and p53 Interactive Pathway highlight the factors involved in both the extrinsic or intrinsic pathway of caspase activation, allowing researchers the opportunity to identify the solutions available to explore the mechanisms of apoptosis evasion in cancer cells and the basis of therapeutic intervention.

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