White J Brandon, Beckford Jeremy, Yadegarynia Sina, Ngo Nhi, Lialiutska Tetiana, d'Alarcao Marc
Department of Biological Sciences, San José State University, One Washington Square, San Jose, CA 95192-0100.
Food Chem. 2012 Apr 15;131(4):1453-1459. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2011.10.026.
A common feature of both apoptosis and inflammation is the activation of caspases. Caspases are aspartate-directed cysteine proteases that have numerous cellular targets. It has been discovered that several flavonoids are inhibitors of caspases. Flavonoids are members of a family of polyphenolic compounds from plants that have many biological properties, one of which is the ability to induce cell death. Some flavonoids are selective inhibitors of particular caspases. Since some of the inhibitory flavonoids are nevertheless cytotoxic, these results suggest that flavonoid-induced cell death may be occurring through a non-classical apoptosis pathway that is not dependent on caspase activity.
细胞凋亡和炎症的一个共同特征是半胱天冬酶的激活。半胱天冬酶是天冬氨酸定向的半胱氨酸蛋白酶，具有众多细胞靶点。现已发现几种黄酮类化合物是半胱天冬酶的抑制剂。黄酮类化合物是植物多酚类化合物家族的成员，具有多种生物学特性，其中之一是诱导细胞死亡的能力。一些黄酮类化合物是特定半胱天冬酶的选择性抑制剂。由于某些具有抑制作用的黄酮类化合物仍具有细胞毒性，这些结果表明，黄酮类化合物诱导的细胞死亡可能通过不依赖半胱天冬酶活性的非经典凋亡途径发生。
