Department of Bioorganic Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Wroclaw University of Technology, 50-370 Wrocław, Poland.
Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol. 2013 Aug 1;5(8):a008680. doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a008680.
Caspases are proteases at the heart of networks that govern apoptosis and inflammation. The past decade has seen huge leaps in understanding the biology and chemistry of the caspases, largely through the development of synthetic substrates and inhibitors. Such agents are used to define the role of caspases in transmitting life and death signals, in imaging caspases in situ and in vivo, and in deconvoluting the networks that govern cell behavior. Additionally, focused proteomics methods have begun to reveal the natural substrates of caspases in the thousands. Together, these chemical and proteomics technologies are setting the scene for designing and implementing control of caspase activity as appropriate targets for disease therapy.
半胱天冬酶是调控细胞凋亡和炎症的网络核心的蛋白酶。过去十年，对半胱天冬酶的生物学和化学性质的理解取得了巨大进展，这在很大程度上要归功于合成底物和抑制剂的发展。这些试剂被用于确定半胱天冬酶在传递生死信号、在原位和体内成像半胱天冬酶以及解析调控细胞行为的网络方面的作用。此外，靶向蛋白质组学方法已开始揭示数千种半胱天冬酶的天然底物。这些化学和蛋白质组学技术共同为设计和实施对半胱天冬酶活性的控制奠定了基础，将其作为疾病治疗的适当靶点。
