As of 2009, there are 12 confirmed caspases in humans and 10 in mice, carrying out a variety of cellular functions. They are named caspases due to their specific cysteine protease activity – a cysteine in its active site nucleophilically attacks and cleaves a target protein only after an aspartic acid residue.
Ĭaspases ( cysteine- aspartic prote ases, cysteine aspart ases or cysteine-dependent aspartate-directed prote ases) are a family of protease enzymes playing essential roles in programmed cell death. Structure of caspase-1 (CASP1), originally called interleukin-1 beta-converting enzyme (ICE), the first human caspase to be identified.
