[Caspases--a target for intervention in diseases which are still difficult to treat]

The central role in apoptosis, which is a precondition of the normal development of the organism, as played by caspases, a family of highly specific cysteine proteases. Caspases released from procaspases in a certain surplus induce apoptosis, with simultaneous cleavage of some cellular proteins essential for cellular growth. Caspase activity (initiative or effector one) is the resultant and final physiological as well as pathological stimulus, in which impairment of the cell membranes, function of mitochondria and other organelles, and also DNA takes place. The interest is focused on caspases inhibitors, which could influence, at some stages, some diseases which are difficult to control or which are still untreatable (tumours, neurodegenerative diseases, viral liver diseases, inflammatory diseases). The caspases family includes 14 enzymes, the best examined ones being caspase-1 and caspase-3. The therapeutically usable protease inhibitors include, for the time being, serine proteases and some metaloproteases, whereas the inhibitors of cysteine proteases have not been introduced into practice yet. Synthesis of caspases inhibitors, in particularly those of non-peptidic character, the so-called small molecules, is one of the strategic aims of contemporary research of the treatment of the above-mentioned diseases.