The biochemistry of cell death: Cell Death: Apoptosis and Other Means to an End, Second Edition by Douglas R. Green, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, New York, 2018

摘要

Can we impress you with a mind-blowing revelation? “Cells are not eternal in our bodies, but rather they encounter death!” 1 . If someone pronounces this sentence at a biology class, students will laugh. Why? Because cell death has been studied since the 60s of the last century. When we speak about apoptosis nowadays, we regard it as a well-known truth. Anyway, this truth did not catch the attention of scientists until the 1980s, where the interest in the field exploded, leading to a dramatic increase of publications. Cell death passed “from neglect to hysteria” in only a few years, citing Martin Raff2 , one of the founders of the field. Undoubtedly, cell death is fundamental in our organism throughout the whole lifespan of a human being3 : during body development, in tissue remodeling, and in many diseases like cancer, auto-immune, or infectious diseases. Many of these morbidities may originate from an incorrect apoptosis process: either from an excessive removal of essential cells for the body or from a defective elimination of potentially damaged cells. Our knowledge on apoptosis and cell death in general has reached an interesting point and we have a broad understanding of the mechanisms that are crucial to its regulation and of their consequences, making it reasonable to look at them in a therapy-oriented fashion.