CASP3 and central nervous system cancer: The addition of Z-VAD-FMK attenuated the cytotoxic efficacy of coibamide A with 40% of the SF-295 population remaining viable after 72 h in response to relatively high concentrations (100 nM to 1μM) of coibamide A. Taken together, these findings indicate that coibamide A can induce apoptosis via activation of a classic caspase-3-dependent pathway in SF-295 cells, but can also effectively trigger cell death via an alternate pathway in U87-MG glioma cells when caspase activity is inhibited.