This gene encodes a member of the cysteine-aspartic acid
protease (caspase) family. Sequential activation of caspases plays
a central role in the execution-phase of cell apoptosis. Caspases
exist as inactive proenzymes composed of a prodomain, a large
protease subunit, and a small protease subunit. Activation of
caspases requires proteolytic processing at conserved internal
aspartic residues to generate a heterodimeric enzyme consisting of
the large and small subunits. This protein is involved in the
programmed cell death induced by Fas and various apoptotic stimuli.
The N-terminal FADD-like death effector domain of this protein
suggests that it may interact with Fas-interacting protein FADD.
This protein was detected in the insoluble fraction of the affected
brain region from Huntington disease patients but not in those from
normal controls, which implicated the role in neurodegenerative
diseases. Many alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding
different isoforms have been described, although not all variants
have had their full-length sequences determined. [provided by
RefSeq].
