Caspase 13 (CASP13)

Caspase 13 is an enzyme known as a cysteine protease that was identified in cattle that is also called "Evolutionarily Related Interleukin-1β Converting Enzyme" (ERICE). It belongs to a family of enzymes called caspases that cleave their substrates at C-terminal aspartic acid residues. Although this enzyme was originally reported as a human caspase that could be activated by caspase 8, later studies confirmed the gene identified for caspase 13 came from bovine origin, and is the likely orthologue of human caspase 4. Caspases are are expressed as latent zymogens and are activated by an autoproteolytic mechanism or by processing by other proteases (frequently other caspases). Human caspases can be subdivided into three functional groups: cytokine activation (caspase-1, -4, -5, and -13), apoptosis initiation (caspase-2, -8, -9, -and -10), and apoptosis execution (caspase-3, -6, and -7).