Mechanism of Apoptosis | Intrinsic Pathway

The mitochondria are essential to multicellular life. Without them, a cell ceases to respire aerobically and quickly dies. This fact forms the basis for some apoptotic pathways. Apoptotic proteins that target mitochondria affect them in different ways. They may cause mitochondrial swelling through the formation of membrane pores, or they may increase the permeability of the mitochondrial membrane and cause apoptotic effectors to leak out.[19][24] They are very closely related to intrinsic pathway, and tumors arise more frequently through intrinsic pathway than the extrinsic pathway because of sensitivity.[25] There is also a growing body of evidence indicating that nitric oxide is able to induce apoptosis by helping to dissipate the membrane potential of mitochondria and therefore make it more permeable.[26] Nitric oxide has been implicated in initiating and inhibiting apoptosis through its possible action as a signal molecule of subsequent pathways that activate apoptosis.[27][citation needed]

Mitochondrial proteins known as SMACs (second mitochondria-derived activator of caspases) are released into the cell's cytosol following the increase in permeability of the mitochondria membranes. SMAC binds to proteins that inhibit apoptosis (IAPs) thereby deactivating them, and preventing the IAPs from arresting the process and therefore allowing apoptosis to proceed. IAP also normally suppresses the activity of a group of cysteine proteases called caspases,[28] which carry out the degradation of the cell. Therefore, the actual degradation enzymes can be seen to be indirectly regulated by mitochondrial permeability.

Cytochrome c is also released from mitochondria due to formation of a channel, the mitochondrial apoptosis-induced channel (MAC), in the outer mitochondrial membrane,[29] and serves a regulatory function as it precedes morphological change associated with apoptosis.[19] Once cytochrome c is released it binds with Apoptotic protease activating factor – 1 (Apaf-1) and ATP, which then bind to pro-caspase-9 to create a protein complex known as an apoptosome. The apoptosome cleaves the pro-caspase to its active form of caspase-9, which in turn activates the effector caspase-3.

MAC (not to be confused with the Membrane Attack Complex formed by complement activation, also commonly denoted as MAC), also called "Mitochondrial Outer Membrane Permeabilization Pore" is regulated by various proteins, such as those encoded by the mammalian Bcl-2 family of anti-apoptopic genes, the homologs of the ced-9 gene found in C. elegans.

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