#caspases

[bigfatbreak]

I'm sitting very politely and asking if it would be possible to see Adrien akumatised by Viceroy. Even if you don't want to, letting you know I'm insane about all your AUs (and your art in general, alien behaviour Shadow was so cool), you do such amazing work and I am completely normal about it

(Caspases' concept art beloooow)

[anulithots]

Random ask, can I ask what are apoptosis and caspases (in simple terms)?

I have been summoned

(my 'noorie rambles. be very afraid' tag will make so much sense now. I tried to talk about it in a way that's a way that's both engaging and simple. Lots of metaphors.)

Caspases destroy the cell if it needs to die. They dismantle the cell parts as the cell membrane turns into bubbles, containing all the damaged pieces within so that a white blood cell might disposes of them. That's apoptosis in a nutshell.

But why must the cell die you ask?

Plenty of reasons. Human embryos have webbed fingers, and apoptosis causes the webbing to dissipate. Tadpoles too, use apoptosis to rid of their tails so they can become frogs. Apoptosis opposes growth - aka mitosis - and it keeps the body in homeostasis - or a balance of sorts. The destruction to mitosis's creation.

However, what I find most interesting, what is the subject of much research nowadays, and what holds the most opportunity for angsty biology fanfics (most important/j) is that apoptosis opposes tumorigenesis. In other words, if something goes wrong, if the cell gets some notion that it might try to cheat death and live forever, if it has the inklings of an idea to hijack the rest of the body through growing its own lump of cells and draining the body of its nutrients... if it decides to throw a mutiny at the expense of peace...

Then the cellular system realizes, and it activates the caspases.

(Usually how a cell 'decides' is when something wrong happens with genetic replication, mutations and such and such. There are two labels of genes relating to this. Proto-oncogenes promote cell growth and avoid apoptosis - these are the creation genes, the ones that wish to achieve the heights of production and throw all caution to the wind. Whereas tumor suppressor genes are... tumor suppressors. They are the little 'angel on the cell's shoulder' that says 'you've done wrong, now commit cell death and accept your fate'. When a proto-oncogene mutates, it becomes an oncogene. Basically, the genes that said to grow for the sake of the body now says to grow at the expense of the body, the 'devil on the cell's shoulder' won... and now it'll try to cheat death)

Caspases are a type of enzyme, which is a subset of proteins. I like thinking about it like this: enzymes are witches, spell crafters. Proteins in general function like worker bees, but enzymes are the ones who actively create and destroy, the ones that change the way the universe manifests so life can exist. They utilize reactants from their environment - materials which they are named after, such as proteases that cleave other proteins - to either create larger, energy storing molecules (endergonic reactions), or break down large, energy storing molecules to release energy (exergonic reactions).

(One type of enzyme that I like is called kinases, they basically initiate things, they tell the cell 'it's okay to do things' or 'this will be dangerous, let's not do that', or 'oof this cell doesn't have the proper genes, that could be a problem, how about we destroy everything so this doesn't become a big issue?')

When the cell needs to die, the caspases activate.

Humans have 14 caspases. I wish I knew what all of them are, but the pub med articles I read do not have a whole list of them like a pokedex from pokemon (at least that I have read so far, after ap testing there's one article I want to read that seems to have ANSWERS to a lot of my questions)

So imagine this, the cell has lots of caspases floating around in the cytoplasm/water jelly environment. These beings of death in huge numbers in a perpetual slumber, just floating around, until the cell decides it needs them to destroy its existence, and it activates them.

(ALTHOUGH some of my questions refer to the "caspase-dependent non-lethal cellular processes", so far what I've been able to find is that if the cell needs some repair to the cytoskeleton/structure of the cell, then it activates a few caspases to destroy parts of it, so that the repair may start.)

There are two types: inflammatory caspases (if I remember correctly, this is caspase 1,4, and... a few others I'll have to check) and apoptotic caspases. What we're interested in are the apoptotic caspases. Initiator caspases get activated first. The way I story-fy them/see them in my head is as the older sibling types who condone violence. If the cell needs to die because of an external signal - a message from far away to destroy itself, to which it must oblige - then caspase 8 activates. If the cell needs to die because of an internal signal - something inside isn't right, and what a havoc it would be to pass that on through replication, so the proteins decide the fate of the world it lives in, and it choses death for the sake of the wider body- then caspase 9 activates.

Both these initiator caspases cleave (meaning 'cut', these inactive beasts are not yet 'complete', so they need further modification after activation to work properly. If the cell were to create caspases fully functional and finished, the large number of caspases would kill the entire cell, so they don't finish, they subdue the ones behind their death, and make sure to regulate their slumber.) their 'younger, violent siblings': caspase 7 and caspase 3. The doll I have is a caspase 3.

(I've found more information on them than caspase 7... although.. the one article I found.... it should have information on them all, the amount of searching I've done for those sorts of answers... but alas... I need to read the material for the ap bio exam... which does not include caspases.... one day...)

Caspase 3, as far as I could gather, destroys the cytoskeleton. The cytoskeleton supports the entire cell, acting as the 'tent poles' that keep the floppy cell membrane from collapsing. Collapsing, however, is exactly what the caspase 3 wants. It dismantles the whole thing, along with activating and inactivating a slew of other proteins. (it's an assassin basically.)

And with this, the caspases bow, for the cell is separated within these small little 'blebs' (they look like bubbles) and the cell is destroyed.

OH AND LAST LITTLE THING!

If something inhibits the caspases, the cell goes through with necrosis, which is basically instead of becoming little bubbles, the cell membrane ruptures and the cell 'guts spill out'

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ASK!! <3 <3 I got to blabber about caspases and it gave me happy sparkles.

ALSO, here's the doll I made for caspase 3:

[bpod-bpod]

Life or Death

When it comes to our health, death is just as important as life. Apoptosis – a type of cell death – is vital to keep everything balanced. Too much cell death can lead to neurodegenerative conditions, whereas not removing abnormal cells can result in cancer. The process of apoptosis culminates with enzymes called caspases dismantling the cell. Once caspases swing into action, there is no going back for that cell – or so we thought. Researchers activated apoptosis in cells for a limited time and then tracked whether they would survive. Despite the build-up of ‘executioner’ caspases in the cell (green), cells were able to come back from the brink of death. In the centre of the frame, a cell divides to become two – something that a cell sentenced to death wouldn’t be able to do. This could be another way that a cancer could return even after treatment.

Written by Sophie Arthur

Video from work by Maddalena Nano and colleagues

Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Video copyright held by original authors

Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), January 2023

You can also follow BPoD on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

[sequinssss]

Caspase Cascade 一次創作でゲームを作ろうとしていて、最近はシナリオやキャラクターをねりねりしています。 作り始めてもう2年も経ちました。早く世に出したくて、キャラクターやぼんやりとした設定だけ小出しにしています。

[soumyafwr]

Caspase 8 Market Overview, Competitive Analysis and Forecast 2031

[bigfatbreak]

sorry for the sadness, here's a lestat doodle redraw of Caspases about to kill his dad

[anulithots]

My caspase MC would listen to Marina and the diamonds.

.... I made a playlist

[soumyafwr]

https://twikkers.nl/blogs/174365/Caspase-8-Market-Overview-Competitive-Analysis-and-Forecast-2031

Caspase 8 Market Overview, Competitive Analysis and Forecast 2031

[bigfatbreak]

In the Villain Dad AU, does Lila work with Viceroy? Or is she beneath his radar?

Viceroy doesn't like using children in his schemes, unlike Hawkmoth. Adrien is allowed to be Caspases because he's around Marinette enough to stand sentinel for her, and he also knows Nathalie and Gorilla are trustworthy enough that they would give him a heads up if Adrien was useless. He very rarely uses kids in his plans, unless its there's no other choice - or unless they rightfully demand it.

[anulithots]

I finished my ap bio exam

It dissappointed me

not enough content questions, basically graph analysis. no.

(not cognizant right now. Mom's birhtday. loud restraunt. so I had energy to do this right after. not now. sihg

erm.

still would like asks to explain biology things. please. would be nice. becayes it gives me more satisfaction + fun and got no sense of accomplishment from that test. Must ramble. when energy regained. /not forced

I like cellular biology, genetics too. Hyperfixation on caspases. can finally read those articles. thes has rall alll charts for all of them.

Doll for caspase used to have large fluffy hair, took it with me to test in backpack, hair got flattened and I like it better. Matches art.

now hiar looks more like htis.

Before like hits:

why am i still trying to make this need to create but body cannot too tired and alksfd draggings against itself I need to make things.

Yesterday could do so much and excited. biology all day. today. so itre.d

asdkjfd

has things to do still. finals and now create tihngs. please still create things did not like supressing creating things while needig to study things please still afterewasrs

[bigfatbreak]

here's the next part of the gala arc btw, dropkicks this onto my blog

(1) (2) (here)

bonus: Bitterbug's design

bonus bonus! Unused concept art for a "Princess" Caspases design for Marinette - another type of Viceroy butterfly is the Queen variant, so this was based off its caterpillar stage. Would've been a fun play on words, but for plot reasons, Tom has Marinette looking as closely like Ladybug as he can manage.