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Updated: Jul 10, 2026

In Vitro Cleavage Assays using Purified Recombinant Drosophila Caspases for Substrate Screening
Published on: October 6, 2022
Caspase-2 cleaves DNA fragmentation factor (DFF45)/inhibitor of caspase-activated DNase (ICAD)
Giri Raj Dahal1, Pratap Karki, Arjun Thapa
1Research Center for Proteineous Materials (RCPM), Department of Bio-materials Engineering, Chosun University, Gwangju 501-759, Republic of Korea.
Abstract:
To investigate the signal transduction pathway of caspase-2, cell permeable Tat-reverse-caspase-2 was constructed, characterized and utilized for biochemical and cellular studies. It could induce the cell death as early as 2h, and caspase-2-specific VDVADase activity but not other caspase activities including DEVDase and IETDase. Interestingly, nuclear DNA fragmentation occurred and consistently DNA fragmentation factor (DFF45)/Inhibitor of caspase-activated DNase (ICAD) was cleaved inside the cell as well as in vitro, suggesting a role of caspase-2 in nuclear DNA fragmentation.
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