Merck Research Laboratories other research news

Merck researchers and collaborators published the characteristics of apopain, a protease enzyme that cleaves the poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase, a gene repair enzyme activated primarily by environmental stress.

The protease that cleaves this repair enzyme at the onset of programmed cell death has properties similar to those of ICE and CED-2, two enzymes already identified as players in apoptosis. Apopain is an appropriate target for therapeutic intervention in conditions where inappropriate cell death is prominent, the investigators concluded. ...