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Function of Inflammasomes in Anti-microbial Infections
Lei Guowei1,2, Mao Liming2, Li Hua2, An Liguo1, Yang Guiwen1, Meng Guangxun2*
1College of Life Science, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250014, China; 2Key Laboratory of Molecular Virology and Immunology,Institute Pasteur of Shanghai, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200025, China
Abstract: As an important component of the innate immune system， inflammasomes are multi-protein complexes in the cytoplasm scaffolded by intracellular pattern recognition receptors (PRRs). Inflammasomes can be activated by sensing pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) or host-derived danger signals， resulting in the recruitment and activation of the cysteine protease caspase-1. Activated caspase-1 is critical in the proteolytic processing of pro-interleukin-1β (pro-IL-1β) and pro-IL-18 into their mature cytokine forms， respectively. In addition， caspase-1 mediated cell death， pyroptosis， has been revealed to be an efficient mechanism for pathogen clearance. To date， multiple inflammasomes have been shown to be involved in the elimination of a growing number of microbial pathogens. In turn， pathogens have also evolved a plethora of strategies to abrogate the inflammasomes mediated immune responses. In this review we retrospect our new knowledge about inflammasomemediated recognition of microbial pathogens， including that of bacterial， viral， fungal and protozoal， as well as the favorable or unfavorable effects of inflammasomes activation in host defense.
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