CASP3 and colorectal cancer: The current results revealed that down-regulation of AK027294 in colorectal cells induced the increase of caspase 3 and caspase 8 expression but resulted in the decrease of BCL-2 expression in colorectal cancer cells, indicating that AK027294 affected cell apoptosis and proliferation via regulating the expression of caspase 3, caspase 8, and Bcl-2.