Mounting a mitochondrial attack to starve the inflammasome

While companies are directly inhibiting NLRP3 to treat a swath of inflammatory diseases, at least one academic group is shutting down the protein’s upstream mitochondrial triggers. The approach, from University of California San Diego researchers, was published in Cell Metabolism on April 11.

The NLRP3 inflammasome leads to the secretion of inflammatory cytokines IL-1β and IL-18. Its chronic activation is implicated in myriad diseases including non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and neurodegenerative diseases, and at least four companies are inhibiting the complex itself with small molecules as therapeutic approach (see “NLRP3 Early and Often")...