Abstract Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide. Current anticancer drugs involve various toxic side effects; efforts are ongoing to develop new anticancer agents especially from the screening of natural compounds. Present study investigated cytotoxic effects and mode of cell death induced by the Caspian cobra venom in some human cancer cell lines. Cytotoxic effects of snake venom toxin...

Abstract Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide. Current anticancer drugs involve various toxic side effects; efforts are ongoing to develop new anticancer agents especially from the screening of natural compounds. Present study investigated cytotoxic effects and mode of cell death induced by the Caspian cobra venom in some human cancer cell lines. Cytotoxic effects of snake venom toxin...

Glioblastoma multiforme is the most aggressive type of glioma, with limited treatment and poor prognosis. Despite some advances over last decade, validation novel selective antiglioma agents remains a challenge in clinical pharmacology. Prior studies have shown that leguminous lectins may exert various biological effects, including antitumor properties. Accordingly, this study aimed to evaluate...

Caspase-3 knockout mice exhibit thickening of the internal granule cell layer of the cerebellum. Concurrently, it has been shown that intracerebral injection of pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) induces a transient increase of the thickness of the cerebellar cortex. In the present study, we have investigated the possible effect of PACAP on caspase activity in cultured c...

Activation of caspase-1 through the inflammasome protein Nalp1b controls anthrax lethal toxin (LT)-induced necrosis in murine macrophages. In this study we analyzed physiological changes controlled by caspase-1 in LT-treated murine macrophages. The caspase-1 inhibitor Boc-D-cmk blocked caspase-1 activity and membrane impairment in LT-treated cells. To determine the relationship between caspase-...

Programmed cell death is a highly regulated form of cell death, mostly distinguished by the activation of a family of cystein-aspartate proteases (caspases) that cleave various proteins resulting in morphological and biochemical changes characteristic of this form of cell death. Several recent studies have addressed the role of programmed cell death in inflammatory and chronic pain states. Casp...

Src family tyrosine kinases (SFKs) phosphorylate caspase-8A at tyrosine (Y) 397 resulting in suppression of apoptosis. In addition, the phosphorylation of caspase-8A at other sites including Y465 has been implicated in the regulation of caspase-8 activity. However, the functional consequences of these modifications on caspase-8 processing/activity have not been elucidated. Moreover, various Src...

Apoptotic cell death plays an important role in many developmental pathways in multicellular animals. Here, we show that metamorphosis in the basal invertebrate Hydractinia echinata (Cnidaria) depends on the activity of caspases, the central enzymes in apoptosis. Caspases are activated during metamorphosis and this activity can be measured with caspase-3 specific fluorogenic substrates. In affi...