Protein / target
Caspase-1
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Cysteine-type endopeptidase
Strongest disease association
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
Therapeutic position
Clinically advancing target
Research activity
Emerging research
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function overview
Thiol protease involved in a variety of inflammatory processes by proteolytically cleaving other proteins, such as the precursors of the inflammatory cytokines interleukin-1 beta (IL1B) and interleukin 18 (IL18) as well as the pyroptosis inducer Gasdermin-D (GSDMD), into active mature peptides.
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Thiol protease involved in a variety of inflammatory processes by proteolytically cleaving other proteins, such as the precursors of the inflammatory cytokines interleukin-1 beta (IL1B) and interleukin 18 (IL18) as well as the pyroptosis inducer Gasdermin-D (GSDMD), into active mature peptides (PubMed:15326478, PubMed:15498465, PubMed:1574116, PubMed:26375003, PubMed:32051255, PubMed:37993714, PubMed:7876192, PubMed:9334240). Plays a key role in cell immunity as an inflammatory response initiator: once activated through formation of an inflammasome complex, it initiates a pro-inflammatory response through the cleavage of the two inflammatory cytokines IL1B and IL18, releasing the mature cytokines which are involved in a variety of inflammatory processes (PubMed:15326478, PubMed:15498465, PubMed:1574116, PubMed:32051255, PubMed:7876192). Cleaves a tetrapeptide after an Asp residue at position P1 (PubMed:15498465, PubMed:1574116, PubMed:7876192). Also initiates pyroptosis, a programmed lytic cell death pathway, through cleavage of GSDMD (PubMed:26375003). In contrast to cleavage of interleukin IL1B, recognition and cleavage of GSDMD is not strictly dependent on the consensus cleavage site but depends on an exosite interface on CASP1 that recognizes and binds the Gasdermin-D, C-terminal (GSDMD-CT) part (PubMed:32051255, PubMed:32109412, PubMed:32553275). Cleaves and activates CASP7 in response to bacterial infection, promoting plasma membrane repair (PubMed:22464733). Upon inflammasome activation, during DNA virus infection but not RNA virus challenge, controls antiviral immunity through the cleavage of CGAS, rendering it inactive (PubMed:28314590). In apoptotic cells, cleaves SPHK2 which is released from cells and remains enzymatically active extracellularly (PubMed:20197547)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (44)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- CAIM2 inflammasome complex
- Ccytoplasm
- Ccytosol
- CIPAF inflammasome complex
- Cmicrotubule
- CNLRP1 inflammasome complex
- CNLRP3 inflammasome complex
- Cnucleolus
- Cplasma membrane
- Cprotease inhibitor complex
- Cprotein-containing complex
- FCARD domain binding
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
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Immune signalling
- ·Thiol protease involved in a variety of inflammatory processes by proteolytically cleavi…
- ·cytokine binding
- ·cytokine precursor processing
- ·positive regulation of inflammatory response
Proteolysis
- ·Thiol protease involved in a variety of inflammatory processes by proteolytically cleavi…
- ·protease inhibitor complex
- ·cysteine-type endopeptidase activity
- ·endopeptidase activity
Apoptosis & cell death
- ·cysteine-type endopeptidase activator activity involved in apoptotic process
- ·apoptotic process
- ·positive regulation of apoptotic process
- ·TP53 Regulates Transcription of Caspase Activators and Caspases
View underlying pathways (11)Hide underlying pathways
Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.
Interaction neighbourhood
Proteins with the strongest functional or physical association. Node size and line weight reflect STRING confidence; hover or select a partner to inspect one association.
Functional and physical associations from STRING v12.0. Only associations with this protein are drawn — partner-to-partner links are not part of this evidence.
Drugs targeting this protein
How approved and investigational drugs engage this protein — mechanism and action type, direct vs complex targeting, and how broadly each acts across other targets. A drug-first view (the section above groups the approved ones disease-first); direct binders with few recorded targets are listed first.
Caspase-1 inhibitor
ChEMBL mechanism, action type, target identity and approved indications. Open Targets clinical status.
Translational evidence
Why this target matters therapeutically, strongest evidence first. Disease associations are gene-level (via the gene that encodes this protein) and open into the full confidence synthesis; the development universe, tractability and safety annotations are target-level, from Open Targets.
Strongest disease associations · via encoding gene CASP1
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene CASP1 that encodes this protein — not a direct protein–disease relationship. Ranked by Forefront's causal-directness weighting, so genetically- and clinically-evidenced diseases lead over ones that merely share the literature.
View evidence synthesis (5)Hide
The evidence agreement range shows how closely the independent evidence families agree — it is not a statistical confidence interval, and nothing here is fitted to outcome data. Derived from Open Targets evidence types under Forefront weighting; the per-type scores above show the calculation.
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Drug development
3 compounds recorded · 3 in clinical development
View all recorded compounds (3)Hide
Open Targets known-drugs universe. Drug name and highest clinical stage only — the disease relationship is NOT read from this slice (it carries trial-context noise); approved indications come from the canonical graph above.
Tractability
Small molecules — Strong
Antibodies — Emerging
Protein degraders — Emerging
View underlying tractability evidence (11)Hide
Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.
Safety-related annotations
Terms indexed against this target in Open Targets' safety data, with their datasource. These are annotations, not causal claims: the direction of effect (whether activation or inhibition is implicated), species and evidence strength are not captured here, so an entry does not mean that modulating this target is known to cause that condition.
Clinical trials
Trials of drugs that target this protein — reached indirectly through those drugs, so a trial listed here studies the drug, not the protein. Ranked by active status, then clinical phase and recency, and spread across the targeting drugs.
ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.
What's happening now
Recent therapeutic activity around this target — regulatory actions, clinical trials and safety signals for a drug that targets this protein, plus publications where such a drug is a genuine subject. Every item is reached indirectly through the drug, not the protein itself; incidental mentions (a paper that merely measures a drug) and press items are excluded.
- New publicationPharmacological Inhibitors of the NLRP3 Inflammasome.
Objective event titles are shown unmodified; the event kind and significance line are derived from structured fields. Forefront AttentionEvent stream aggregating Europe PMC Regulatory filings ClinicalTrials.gov.
Research activity
Papers linked directly to this protein. This is the protein's own literature — descriptor-derived papers are kept separate below.
Most cited
Recent
Europe PMC papers linked directly to this protein.