PBR AND APOPTOSIS · Physiological role of the peripheral benzodiazepine receptor and its implications in apoptotic cell-death signaling pathways
FP6 — Marie Curie Actions (Human Resources and Mobility)
- Duration
- 2008-03-03 → 2009-03-02
- EU contribution
- €40,000
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- ERG
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners. CORDIS does not always give exact coordinates for projects before 2014. These points are placed at city or country level.
Project objective
The peripheral benzodiazepine receptor (PBR) is an 18-kDa protein receptor, mainly found on the outer mitochondrial membrane of cells. The PBR seems to play a role in several cellular functions, including heme synthesis, steroidogenesis, DNA synthesis, cell growth and differentiation.Recently, a role for PBR in apoptosis has also been proposed and a number of findings argue in favour of this:- over-expression of PBR has been described in a large range of human cancers;- regulation of programmed cell death has in mitochondria a check-point targeted by various conventional cancer therapies; and- PBR ligation by directed drugs, enhances apoptosis induction in many types of tumours, reversing the Bcl-2 cytoprotective effects.These findings promoted the development of PBR targeting approaches in treatment of human cancers. Even though experimental data suggest that PBR may play a key role in various physiological and pathological processes, very little data are available on the protein-receptor cell physiology and on its role in apoptotic cell-death signalling pathways.OBJECTIVES: Our aim is then to investigate these aspects, studying the PBR capacity to modulate and shape the cell signalling, principally in respect of the mitochondrial function.In detail, we will:- examine the PBR expression and localization in cells of interest;- generate by molecular biology techniques recombinant probes of PBR;- investigate the result on cell signalling pathways of the PBR genetically and pharmacologically modulation;- finally, asses PBR role in respect of the apoptotic cell death and tumourigenesis.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- DEPARTMENT OF EXPERIMENTAL AND DIAGNOSTIC MEDICINE UNIVERSITY OF FERRARA, ITALY · FERRARACoordinatorCity levelItaly
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union