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Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Activation and Measurement of NLRP3 Inflammasome Activity Using IL-1β in Human Monocyte-derived Dendritic Cells
Published on: May 22, 2014
Identification of calcium-activated neutral protease as a processing enzyme of human interleukin 1 alpha
Y Kobayashi1, K Yamamoto, T Saido
1Laboratory of Molecular Immunoregulation, National Cancer Institute, Frederick Cancer Research Facility, MD 21701-1013.
Abstract:
We describe here the involvement of calcium-activated neutral protease (CANP or calpain, EC 3.4.22.17) in calcium-dependent proteolytic processing of the precursor of human interleukin 1 alpha (IL-1 alpha) into mature IL-1 alpha. Calcium ionophore ionomycin enhanced proteolytic processing of pre-IL-1 alpha and the release of mature IL-1 alpha either from lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated human adherent mononuclear cells or from a human bladder carcinoma cell line (HTB9 5637) that constitutively produces human IL-1 alpha and -beta. The proteolytic processing of pre-IL-1 alpha was completely inhibited by EGTA. Similar calcium-dependent proteolytic processing of pre-IL-1 alpha was also observed with lysates of either LPS-activated human adherent mononuclear cells or HTB9 5637 cells. Since the optimal pH for processing was between 7 and 8, and E-64 (a cysteine protease inhibitor) and leupeptin (a serine and cysteine protease inhibitor) both inhibited this processing by cell lysates, we hypothesized that a calcium-activated neutral protease, CANP, might be responsible for this processing. This hypothesis was supported by data showing that the specific CANP inhibitor peptide inhibited this proteolysis in cell lysates in a dose-dependent fashion (IC50 = 0.05 microM) and that treatment of pre-IL-1 alpha with purified CANP yielded the 17-kDa mature form of IL-1 alpha, which has an amino terminus identical with that reported for mature human IL-1 alpha. Taken together, these findings indicate that calcium-dependent proteolytic processing of pre-IL-1 alpha is selectively mediated by CANP.
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