Figure 2.
Autocatalytic PC-3 activation, resulting in large effects from minor initial activity. (A) Pictorial representation of PC-3 and caspase-3 domains. (B) Reaction scheme for PC-3 activation to form caspase-3. While PC-3 is canonically cleaved by caspase-8 or caspase-9, caspase-3 can be formed by PC-3-mediated proteolysis of another PC-3 protein, or caspase-3 mediated cleavage of PC-3. (C) Initial PC-3 activation to form caspase-3 leads to a proteolytic cascade to form increased levels of caspase-3, in turn increasing proteolysis.