Bcl-2 Family Activators Small Molecules and Peptides

Bcl-2 family proteins regulate and contribute to programmed cell death or apoptosis. They comprise a large protein family and all members contain at least one of four BH (Bcl-2 homology) domains. Certain members such as Bcl-2, Bcl-X_L and Mcl-1 are antiapoptotic, whilst others (Bax, Bak, Bok) are proapoptotic.

The proapoptotic group of Bcl-2 proteins can be further sub-divided into the structurally diverse 'BH3' only proteins (including Bid, NOXA, PUMA and Bad) and the multidomain ...