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Caspases in apoptosis and beyond

Oncogene volume 27, pages 6194–6206 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

The demonstration of protein sequence and functional homology of the Caenorhabditis elegans programmed cell death gene product, CED-3, with human caspase-1 in 1993 triggered an explosion of research activities toward the understanding of molecular mechanisms of apoptosis. During the past 15 years, a plethora of knowledge has been obtained on the mammalian caspases, the homologs of CED-3, with regard to their distinct physiological functions, their substrates, different activation mechanisms, the signal transduction pathways that lead to their activation as well as their involvement in the pathogenesis of diseases. Such knowledge is beginning to be translated into new therapies for the treatment of human diseases.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Yuan Lab members for helpful comments. This work was supported, in part, by a Merit Award from NIA (R37 AG12859). We apologize to colleagues whose work could no be cited due to space constraints.

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  1. Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    J Li & J Yuan

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  1. J Li
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  2. J Yuan
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Correspondence to J Yuan.

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Li, J., Yuan, J. Caspases in apoptosis and beyond. Oncogene 27, 6194–6206 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/onc.2008.297

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/onc.2008.297

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