Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, is the mechanism by which cells die either physiologically or pathologically. A vast research in apoptosis has advanced our understanding of basic physiological and pathological processes occurring in cells, organs and organisms, and its role in a number of diseases. These new advanced understandings are playing a major influence in drug discovery and the introduction of new therapies that target this cell death process. These two thematic volumes 125 and 126 of the Advances in Protein Chemistry and Structural Biology focus on apoptotic responses in numerous conditions - from bacterial and parasite infections to pathological states such as oxidative stress, pulmonary hypertension, different cancer types, etc. Finally, therapeutic strategies for targeting apoptosis are also discussed.

1. Apoptosis in infectious diseases as a mechanism of immune evasion and survivalJorge Quarleri, Cintia Cevallos, and María Victoria Delpino2. Reactive oxygen mediated apoptosis as a therapeutic approach against opportunistic Candida albicansTanu Atriwal, Meenal Chawla, Afzal Hussain, Mohamed F. Alajmi, and Mohammad Abid3. TRPM2 channel in oxidative stress-induced mitochondrial dysfunction and apoptotic cell deathPhilippa Malko, Ran Ding, and Lin-Hua Jiang4. Intrinsic and extrinsic pathways of apoptosis: Role in cancer development and prognosisDharambir Kashyap, Vivek Kumar Garg, and Neelam Goel5. Immunological and functional aspects of MAGEA3 cancer/testis antigenBiswajit Das and Shantibhusan Senapati6. Role of histone acetyltransferase inhibitors in cancer therapyMuthu K. Shanmugam, Arunasalam Dharmarajan, Sudha Warrier, Anupam Bishayee, Alan Prem Kumar, Gautam Sethi, and Kwang Seok Ahn7. Triggering the downstream apoptotic signal inside human parasitic organisms demonstrates a promising approach for anti-parasitic drug development: A mechanistic perspectiveNikhilesh Joardar, Niladri Mukherjee, Satyajit Halder, Kuladip Jana, and Santi P. Sinha Babu8. Ferulic acid-mediated modulation of apoptotic signaling pathways in cancerAshutosh Gupta, Amit Kumar Singh, Mariam Loka, Abhay Kumar Pandey, and Anupam Bishayee9. S1PR1 signaling in cancer: A current perspectiveB. Anu, N.N. Namitha, and K.B. Harikumar10. Phyto-drug conjugated nanomaterials enhance apoptotic activity in cancerKaruppaiya Vimala and Soundarapandian Kannan