Cell death keeps the cellular balance in check by ridding organisms of unwanted cells, ensuring normal development and protecting against tumor formation and viral infection. Yet increasingly, cell death is being implicated in a number of disorders, including cancers, autoimmune diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases. In 2000, two groups of scientists, working on altogether different aspects of the issue, made two seminal discoveries that shed crucial light on the matter. They showed for the first time that all cell deaths are not equal; it means different things at different times and in different places. The findings presented in both these Hot Papers1,2 give insight into the effect of cell death on immune system initiation and the implications for vaccine development; and the way in which a certain programmed cell-death trigger may offer a clue to the mechanism of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer.
Photo: Courtesy of The Rockefeller University |  |
  Nina Bhardwaj | |
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