Krebszellen entgehen der Apoptose, dem programmierten Zelltod. Die Auslösung von Apoptose bei Krebs ist für gesundes Gewebe möglicherweise weniger toxisch als Chemotherapie oder Bestrahlung. Japanische Wissenschaftler haben herausgefunden, dass ein mikrobielles Protein, wenn es grünem Licht ausgesetzt wird, bei Mäusen Apoptose in krebsspezifischen Zelllinien induziert.

I’ve linked to the press release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.5c13053

From the linked article:

**One of the hallmarks of cancer cells is their ability to evade apoptosis, or programmed cell death, through changes in protein expression. Inducing apoptosis in cancer cells has become a major focus of novel cancer therapies, as these approaches may be less toxic to healthy tissue than conventional chemotherapy or radiation**. Many chemical agents are currently being tested for their ability to trigger apoptosis, and researchers are increasingly exploring light-activated molecules that can be precisely targeted to tumor sites using lasers, sparing surrounding healthy tissue.

Cancer cells have mitochondria that supply energy for rapid growth and division, but an overly alkaline environment is thought to disrupt mitochondrial function, leading to apoptosis.

**A microbial protein called Archaerhodopsin-3 (AR3) may hold the key to alkalinity-induced apoptosis. When exposed to green light, AR3 pumps hydrogen ions out of the cell, increasing alkalinity, disrupting cellular functions, and eventually inducing apoptosis. The ability of AR3 to induce apoptosis in cancer-specific cell lines** was described in a recent paper by Professor Yuki Sudo, Dr. Keiichi Kojima, Dr. Shin Nakao, and their team from the Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Okayama University, Japan. Their findings were published online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society[New window] on November 4, 2025.