Thornberry N A, Lazebnik Y
Department of Biochemistry, Merck Research Laboratories, R80W-250, Post Office Box 2000, Rahway, NJ 07065, USA.
Science. 1998 Aug 28;281(5381):1312-6. doi: 10.1126/science.281.5381.1312.
Apoptosis, an evolutionarily conserved form of cell suicide, requires specialized machinery. The central component of this machinery is a proteolytic system involving a family of proteases called caspases. These enzymes participate in a cascade that is triggered in response to proapoptotic signals and culminates in cleavage of a set of proteins, resulting in disassembly of the cell. Understanding caspase regulation is intimately linked to the ability to rationally manipulate apoptosis for therapeutic gain.
细胞凋亡是一种进化上保守的细胞自杀形式，需要特定的机制。该机制的核心成分是一个蛋白水解系统，它涉及一类名为半胱天冬酶的蛋白酶家族。这些酶参与一个级联反应，该反应由促凋亡信号触发，并最终导致一组蛋白质的裂解，从而使细胞解体。了解半胱天冬酶的调控与合理操纵细胞凋亡以获得治疗益处的能力密切相关。
