Tudor Toma | Oct 31, 2002 | 1 min read
Neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease are associated with necrotic cell death, but the biochemical mechanisms behind these processes have been unclear. In October 31 Nature, Popi Syntichaki and colleagues at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Heraklion, Crete, Greece, show that specific calpain proteases (intracellular papain-like cysteine proteases) and aspartyl proteases are required for neurodegeneration in Caenorhabditis elegans (Nature, 419:939-944, Octo