Turning off the inflammasome

In a July Nature paper, a team from the University of California San Diego identified CMPK2 as a potential target for inflammatory diseases involving NLRP3 inflammasomes and may launch a spinout to develop the findings.

Inflammasomes are cytosolic multiprotein complexes that induce cytokine secretion and caspase-mediated cell death. The best characterized complex contains NLR family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3; NALP3; CIAS1), an intracellular signaling molecule activated by external and internal signals such as pathogens, misfolded host proteins and lipopolysaccharides (LPS). NLRP3 inflammasomes activate caspase-1 (CASP1), which cleaves precursors of the inflammatory cytokines IL-1β and IL-18 into their active forms...