Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 19, 2026

Detection of Inflammasome Activation and Pyroptotic Cell Death in Murine Bone Marrow-derived Macrophages
Published on: May 21, 2018
PKR stirs up inflammasomes
1Institute of Innate Immunity, Biomedical Center, University Hospitals Bonn, Sigmund-Freud-Str. 25, Bonn 53127, Germany.
Abstract:
Inflammasomes are multiprotein complexes that detect and respond to foreign and endogenous danger signals by activating caspase-1; active caspase-1, in turn, matures the pro-inflammatory IL-1β family cytokines by cleaving their pro-forms into the biologically active cytokines. The upstream mechanisms leading to inflammasome activation, in particular for the NRLP3 inflammasome, remain poorly understood. Lu and colleagues identify a new function of Protein Kinase R (PKR) for activating the NLRP1, NLRP3, NLRC4 and AIM2 inflammasomes, thus identifying a potential new target for treating inflammasome-mediated diseases.
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