title: Caspases: pharmacological manipulation of cell death.
abstract: Caspases, a family of cysteine proteases, play a central role in apoptosis. During the last decade, major progress has been made to further understand caspase structure and function, providing a unique basis for drug design. This Review gives an overview of caspases and their classification, structure, and substrate specificity. We also describe the current knowledge of how interference with caspase signaling can be used to pharmacologically manipulate cell death.
authors.affiliation: Division of Immunogenetics, Tumor Immunology Program, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Inna N
authors.initials: IN
authors.lastname: Lavrik
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Golks
authors.forename: Peter H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Krammer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D061945:Caspase Inhibitors; D020169:Caspases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification / Q000378:metabolism*; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods; D015195:Drug Design; D006801:Humans; D011480:Protease Inhibitors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D013379:Substrate Specificity / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D061945:Caspase Inhibitors; D011480:Protease Inhibitors; D020169:Caspases