DAPK2 and cancer: Having established that genetic ablation of DAPK2 led to changes in cellular oxidative stress, mitochondrial respiration, activation of stress kinases and upregulation of SODs in two distinct cancer cell types, we next asked what effect downregulation of DAPK2 had on the levels of GSH, which functions as an electron donor and is involved in the reduction of cellular ROS.29, 30 In fact, the generation of oxidised GSH (GSSG) is tightly linked to mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, whereby NADPH reduces GSSG to GSH.