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Lighting Up the Pathways to Caspase Activation Using Bimolecular Fluorescence Complementation
Published on: March 5, 2018
Activation of pro-caspase-7 by serine proteases includes a non-canonical specificity
1Program in Aging and Cell Death Research, The Burnham Institute, San Diego, CA 92037, USA.
Abstract:
As a model to investigate the mechanism of caspase activation we have analysed the processing of pro-caspase-7 by serine proteases with varied specificities. The caspase-7 zymogen was rapidly activated by granzyme B and more slowly by subtilisin and cathepsin G, generating active enzymes with similar kinetic properties. Significantly, cathepsin G activated the zymogen by cleaving at a Gln-Ala bond, indicating that the canonical cleavage specificity at aspartic acid is not required for activation.
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