Caspase-11 (17D9) Rat mAb #14340

Caspases are a family of aspartate-specific cysteine-dependent proteases that play a critical role in apoptosis as well as inflammatory responses. Pro-inflammatory caspases include caspase-1 and mouse caspase-11 (1). Caspase-11 has about 60% and 55% identity to human caspases-4 and -5, respectively. Caspase-1 cleaves inflammatory cytokines such as pro-IL-1β and IL-18 into their mature forms (2). It is activated by proteolytic cleavage producing a tetramer of its two active subunits, p20 and p10. Canonical activation of caspase-1 occurs through several complex molecular platforms designated “inflammasomes” that include Pycard/Asc, nucleotide-binding oligomerization receptors (NLRs), and AIM2 (3, 4). Non-canonical activation of caspase-1 is triggered by caspase-11, which is transcriptionally induced by toll-like receptor ligands including LPS. Activation of this pathway induces inflammatory cytokines as well as pyroptosis, a form of programmed cell death (5-9).