Caspase在T细胞活化与增殖中的作用

Role of caspases in activation and proliferation of T lymphocytes

半胱氨酸天冬氨酸特异性蛋白酶（caspases）是一类同源蛋白酶，主要参与细胞的凋亡过程。近年来的研究表明，该家族部分成员在T细胞活化与增殖中亦发挥重要作用，主要体现在以下3个方面：T细胞活化过程中检测到多种caspases活性；caspase-8失活后导致了人与鼠T细胞免疫的缺陷；体外实验中，caspase抑制剂能够阻断抗CD3单抗及超抗原引起的T细胞的活化与增殖。目前，部分体内实验已经证实了caspase抑制剂抗免疫反应及抗炎症反应的有效性，这为免疫性及炎症性疾病提供了新的治疗思路，为研制新型抗免疫、抗炎药物提供了依据。

Caspases （Cysteine-dependent aspartate-specific proteases） are a family of cysteine proteases that play important roles in regulating apoptosis. Recent studies have shown that some caspases related to apoptosis also participate in the activation and proliferation of T lymphocytcs. This can be reflected in three aspects： several easpases were detected in the activation and proliferation of T lymphocytes; inactivation of caspase-8 in vivo resulted in T cell immune deficiency in both human and mouse; in vitro proliferation and activation of T lymphocytes,induced by anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody or superantigen could induce were blocked when easpase inhibitor was added at the same time. In vivo investigations have confirmed the anti-immune and anti-inflammatory effects of caspase inhibitor, These studies provided new approach for the treatment of immune and inflammatory for the development of new anti-immune and anti-inflammatory drugs.