Caspases, a family of cysteine proteases, are crucial intracellular signal transducers and executioners of apoptosis, which is a genetically encoded cellular suicide pathway. Caspases may be activated in response to different pro-death stimuli through the formation of activating complexes in the presence of adaptor proteins. Activated caspases proteolytically cleave both additional caspases and specific cellular substrates to cause cellular destruction during apoptosis. Activation of caspases has been implicated in mediating neuronal cell death during development as well as neuronal loss in both acute and chronic neurodegenerative diseases. Caspases are also important mediators of inflammatory responses. Activation of specific caspases can lead to the processing of pro-interleukin-1β and the production of mature interleukin-1β, which is an important pro-inflammatory cytokine.