Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Caspases, apoptosis and aging

2003; Elsevier BV; Volume: 2; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s1568-1637(03)00026-6

1872-9649

Jianhua Zhang, Yingpei Zhang, Brain Herman,

Autophagy in Disease and Therapy

Caspases are a group of cysteine dependent aspartate-specific proteases. Originally found as the homolog of Ced-3 in C. elegans, 14 caspases have now been identified in mammals to date. Caspases play important roles in both the intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic pathways and interact with the non-caspase apoptotic pathways. A number of recent published observations have suggested a strong association between apoptosis, age-related diseases and aging. Findings from our group and others reveal a strong correlation between alterations in caspase activity and aging. In this view point, we summarize current knowledge of the connection between caspases and aging observed in a variety of model systems from cultured cells in vitro to the in vivo models of rodents and humans.