Gulyaeva N V
Department of Functional Biochemistry of the Nervous System, Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 117865, Russia.
Biochemistry (Mosc). 2003 Nov;68(11):1171-80. doi: 10.1023/b:biry.0000009130.62944.35.
Some enzymes that have been recognized as "apoptotic" so far may be involved in important cellular processes not necessarily related to cell death in nervous tissue. The activity of caspase-3, an "apoptotic" enzyme, can be measured in normally functioning neurons. The results reported by several groups point to the possibility that caspases may be involved in nervous tissue function as top enzymes in the regulatory proteolytic cascade. A concept on a new mechanism of synaptic plasticity modulation involving caspase-3 has been formulated postulating a specific role of caspase-3 in normal brain functioning. The idea of synaptic plasticity modulation by caspase-3 is in line with data reported recently. For example, caspase-3 is possibly involved in the long-term potentiation (LTP) phenomenon since proteins that are key players of molecular mechanisms of LTP induction and maintenance are caspase-3 substrates. Experimental results on blocking LTP by a caspase-3 inhibitor confirm this concept.
目前一些被认为具有“凋亡性”的酶可能参与了神经组织中与细胞死亡不一定相关的重要细胞过程。“凋亡性”酶caspase-3的活性可在正常功能的神经元中检测到。几个研究小组报告的结果表明，半胱天冬酶有可能作为调节性蛋白水解级联反应中的顶级酶参与神经组织功能。一种涉及caspase-3的突触可塑性调节新机制的概念已经形成，推测caspase-3在正常脑功能中具有特定作用。caspase-3调节突触可塑性的观点与最近报道的数据一致。例如，caspase-3可能参与长时程增强（LTP）现象，因为LTP诱导和维持分子机制的关键蛋白是caspase-3的底物。用caspase-3抑制剂阻断LTP的实验结果证实了这一概念。
