Nucleotides block cell death

They're already the buildingblocks of DNA and the universal currency for cellular energy. Now there's another reason to keep nucleotides on your radar screen: New research has shown that these sugar derivatives also play an essential role in the prevention of cell death. It turns out that nucleotides prevent the association of cytochrome c with another protein called Apaf-1. Preventing this association inhibits the formation of a protein complex called the "death wheel" that activates a cell's quick demise, a process known as apoptosis (Cell 2006, 125, 1333). Dhyan Chandra and his colleagues at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center found that negatively charged nucleotides inhibit apoptosis by interacting with several positively charged lysine residues on cytochrome c. More than demonstrating another raison d'??tre for nucleotides, this work impacts cancer drug development. Many researchers try to kill cancer by inducing apoptosis, says Chandra. "Drug developers will have to make sure nucleotides are at a low level for their apoptosis strategies to work."