Caspases are a group of cysteine proteases, enzymes that can cleave other proteins. Caspases are essential in cellss for apoptosis, the programmed cell death in development and cancer prevention.
Caspases initiate apoptosis by cleaving inactive pro-forms of other caspases, thus activating them. These caspases, in turn, start the apoptotic process by cleaving pro-forms of other enzymes. The initiation of that cascade reaction is usually blocked by caspase inhibitors. Induction of apoptosis thus means overexpression of the initial caspases, overcoming the inhibition.
