These engineered toxins, or immunotoxins, can selectively kill various cell types based upon their surface receptor phenotype and selectively eliminate cancer cells. We have designed immunotoxins for brain tumor therapy and promising results have been obtained in phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trials. Study of improved immunotoxin designs, improved delivery and minimization of nonspecific toxicity is currently underway. Use of human cytotoxic proteins for cancer therapy, including apoptosis promoting proteins, is being explored. Programmed cell death.
Neurons die in great numbers during normal human development.
Our early work showed that developmental neuron death occurs by apoptosis and studies with knockout mice revealed that p53 can play a role in neurodegenerative processes but not developmental neuron death. Bax, Bcl-XL and caspases, however, regulate developmental apoptosis of neurons. Understanding the molecular basis of cell death may lead to strategies to block neuron loss during acute and possibly chronic neurodegenerative diseases. We have found that Bcl-XL and Bax move from the cytosol compartment to the mitochondria during apoptosis. Two major aspects of this process are under investigation.