On the other hand, the pro-apoptotic activity of such peptide, acting directly on the lipid membrane and regardless the expression of Bax or Bak, suggests that it could be used to design a therapeutic strategy to kill a number of tumor cells in which Bax or Bak has been inactivated (see also below).Similar to Bfl-1-α5, Bax-α9 was found to promote cytochrome c release from purified mitochondria in a Bax/Bak-dependent manner. The gene discussed is CYCS; the disease is neoplasm.