The Death Penalty in China Today: Kill Fewer, Kill Cautiously

Go in for the kill

FLIPping the kill switch

I t's always wise to consult others before making a big decision, so a cell seeks input from a lot of different proteins before choosing between survival and death by apoptosis. Fricker et al. describe how one particular protein— cFLIP—can nudge a cell in either direction depending on the expression levels of its three different isoforms (1). Cells contemplate suicide in response to a number of...

DNA vaccines and apoptosis: to kill or not to kill?

The Journal of Clinical Investigation | July 2003 | Volume 112 | Number 1 RNase. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 100:4102-4107. 14. Shinkura, R., et al. 2003. The influence of transcriptional orientation on endogenous switch region function. Nat. Immunol. 4:435–441. 15. Yu, K., Chedin, F., Hsieh, C.L., Wilson, T.E., and Lieber, M.R. 2003. R-loops at immunoglobulin class switch regions in the ch...

Do genes allow inflammation to kill or not to kill?

A lysin to kill

An enzyme produced by a bacteriophage can enter human cells and kill intracellular Streptococcus pyogenes.