Regulated targeting of cell death effectors to and from mitochondria.

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The protein components of human cells travel to their appropriate intracellular homes by means of the targeting signals they carry. It now seems that a short, but important, list of key regulatory proteins are victims of protein hijacking: these proteins provide critical functions within a particular sub-cellular compartment, but are initially prevented from finding their way to this intracellular home. Only in response to specific physiological signals are these proteins released to find the site at which they act. Human cells carry a molecular death-wish. A specific set of genes encode factors (proteins) that would ensure cellular suicide, or programmed cell death, but this program is only turned on in response to precise environmental signals. Because of the potentially deadly nature of these proteins, several of them are subject to protein hijacking thereby neutralizing their ability to promote cell death. These cell death factors are of great interest, and understanding their location and relocation within cells is crucial, as they represent targets for novel chemotherapies. Selectively triggering a cellular suicide has been proposed as a sensitive means to preventing the uncontrolled cell proliferation at the heart of many cancers. We are studying a set of key regulatory proteins to determine how and when they find their way to the intracellular homes and how this targeting effects their function in programmed cell death.