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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2009 Feb 20.
Published in final edited form as: J Immunol. 2007 Dec 15;179(12):7993–7998. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.179.12.7993

Figure 4. PYD and CARD-containing inhibitors of the inflammasomes.

Figure 4

Five COPs regulate pro-caspase-1 interaction with the adaptors ASC, Rip2, IPAF, and Nod2. The majority of humans carry caspase-12 short as depicted (25). Nod2-S is a CARD-only splice variant of Nod2 (29). Two POPs are encoded in humans and are also present in several poxviruses. In addition, pyrin and PYNOD function as potential modulators of inflammasomes. PYNOD lacks the LRRs that are usually encoded by NLRs, and might compete for PYD-mediated ASC binding, as well as by heterotypic NACHT interactions with other NLRs (49). These modulators compete for essential protein interactions with inflammasome proteins. The known targets for POPs and COPs are indicated by a “+” sign, showing that COPs compete with crucial adaptor proteins for binding to pro-caspase-1. POPs bind to ASC and prevent its interaction with NLRPs and potentially NLRCs, to hinder the recruitment of pro-caspase-1 into inflammasomes. CARD (yellow), PYD (red), BBox (blue), SPRY (orange), NACHT (green).