Frontiers in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

The cysteine protease caspase-6 is predicted to be an executioner caspase based on its sequence similarity to the pro-death enzyme caspase-3. However, it is involved in diverse and curious biological processes implicated in steatohepatitis and neurodegeneration. To clarify the correlative and sometimes contradictory data, we set out to develop potent inhibitors that were highly selective for caspase-6 over other caspase. If these compounds do validate the role of the enzyme in disease pathways, they can then be used as lead molecules towards development of therapeutics for NASH or Alzheimer's Disease.