Anti-BAD

BAD is a member of the BCL-2 family of proteins that are known to be regulators of programmed cell death. BAD is a pro-apoptotic protein that forms a heterodimer complex with BCL-xL and BCL-2 which reverses the prosurvival activity of these proteins (1). The proapoptotic activity of BAD is regulated through its phosphorylation and this inhibits the pro-apoptosis function of BAD. Protein kinases such as AKT, RAF and RSK1 can phosphorylate BAD and RSK1-induced phosphorylation of BAD at ser112 suppresses BAD-mediated apoptosis in neurons. BAD inhibits G(1) to S phase transition in MCF7 breast cancer cells and overexpression of BAD inhibits cell growth as well as cyclin D1 expression (2).