Apoptosis: Opening PANdora's BoX

Abstract

(Current Biology 20, R940–R942; November 9, 2010) The introductory section of this dispatch contained the following passages: “Whereas it is well established that neurons and neuroendocrine cells liberate ATP via classical mechanisms involving Ca2+-dependent exocytosis of specialized secretory vesicles, non-excitable cell types locally release ATP via non-lytic mechanisms that do not involve obvious exocytosis. In this context, various membrane transport proteins or functionally characterized permeability pathways have been suggested to act as ATP channels, including some ATP-binding cassette (ABC)-family transporters, volume-regulated anion channels, plasma membrane variants of the mitochondrial voltage-dependent anion-selective channel (VDAC), porins, and maxianion channels.” and “Panx1 [pannexin 1] belongs to a family of three membrane proteins (Panx 1, 2, and 3) that exhibit similar topology but minor sequence homology to the larger family of connexins. In contrast to Panx2, which is restricted to the brain, and Panx3, which is predominantly a skin and connective tissue gene product, Panx1 is widely expressed in diverse tissues.” The same background has been covered in a recent review on Panx1 by George Dubyak (Dubyak, G.R. [2009]. Both sides now: Multiple interactions of ATP with pannexin 1 hemichannels. Focus on “A permeant regulating its permeation pore: Inhibition of pannexin 1 channels by ATP.” Am. J. Physiol. Cell Physiol. 296, C235–C241), and this review should have been cited in the dispatch. The authors regret that they failed to cite this review and apologize for any inconvenience that they might have caused. Apoptosis: Opening PANdora's BoXPeter et al.Current BiologyNovember 09, 2010In BriefExtracellular nucleotides have been reported to act as a ‘find-me’ signal in the context of phagocyte recruitment by apoptotically dying cells. A new study now examines the mechanisms of nucleotide release during apoptosis and describes the hemichannel-forming protein pannexin 1 as a crucial player in this scenario. Full-Text PDF Open Archive