Caspases belong to a family of highly conserved aspartate-specific cysteine proteases and
are members of the interleukin-1β-converting enzyme family, present in multicellular
organisms. The caspase gene family consists of 15 mammalian members that are grouped
into two major sub-families, namely inflammatory caspases and apoptotic caspases. The
apoptotic caspases are further subdivided into two sub-groups, initiator caspases and
executioner caspases. The caspases form a caspase-cascade system that plays the central …