Nice move up on CYPH today. The CYPH close was also plus 3.25 points for the week (or plus 41.94% for the week).
No offense, but for all those interested, I never post on Yahoo. The other blackmerlin is not me which you may know from SI.
As far as BCLs are concerned, they are a family of related molecules that "put the brakes on apoptosis." Apoptosis or programmed cell death is an orderly process, unlike cell necrosis which is disorderly. Apoptosis is characterized by nuclear chromatin condensation, cytoplasmic shrinking, dilated endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondrial Cyt c release, and membrane blebbing. Apoptosis perhaps exists because it may be needed for proper development such as the resorption of a tadpole's tail allowing metamorphosis into a frog. Also apoptosis may exist to destroy cells that represent a threat to the integrity of the organism, such as cancer cells.
Back to BCLs: explained simply, BCLs "put the brake on apoptosis" or inhibit apoptosis-induced death in cancer cells. A compound that inhibits BCLs would therefore tie up or inactivate the cell death inhibitors (the BCLs), allowing cell death to proceed (e.g., allowing cancer cells to die by programmed cell death). So this is a very good idea, especially if the BCLs inhibitor is unique and can be patented.
Other factors that make this more complicated are that BCLs are a family of proteins with Bcl-2 having a prominent role, that BCLs are affected by posttranslational modification in the mitochondrial environment (e.g., by Raf-1 kinase), and that BCLs interact with each other and with a protein called "bax" which in excess binds up Bcl-2.
One would have to apply the inhibitor of BCLs to cells in culture and look for tumor cell selectivity. Then one needs to progress into tunmor models in animals to follow all of the signalling events to see how the compound might really work, and/or to see if the compound can get to the tumor in enough concentration to inhibit tumor induction or progression in animals.
In any case, good luck, Yahoo posters with your CYPH stock. BCL inhibitors might have a lot of promise, especially if they work in animal models. I don't really have much else to say, except don't listen to bogus blackmerlins.
Regards,
Jake Blackmerlin |
