ScienceDaily (Feb. 29, 2008) — A new compound that blocks an early step in cell death could lead to a novel class of drugs for treating heart attacks and stroke. When cells are deprived of oxygen -- during a heart attack, for example -- they start to die through a tidy process called apoptosis or programmed cell death. Early in apoptosis, the mitochondria -- complex structures that supply energy to the cell -- divide into pieces, holes appear in their membranes and proteins such as cytochrome c leak out. These events trigger other processes, ending in cell death.
