Skip to main content
. 2012 Mar 9;13(4):322–330. doi: 10.1038/embor.2012.19

Figure 1. Pro-inflammatory functions of caspase-1.

Figure 1

Several stress conditions can trigger the assembly of the inflammasome, a multiprotein platform for the activation of caspase-1 consisting of specific PRRs such as NLRP1 and NLRP3 and the adaptor protein ASC. Active caspase-1 catalyses the proteolytic processing of pro-IL-1β and pro-IL-18 followed by the secretion of mature IL-1β and IL-18 into the extracellular milieu. BCL-2 and BCL-XL inhibit IL-1β and IL-18 secretion by binding to NLRP1. ASC, apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a CARD; BCL, B-cell lymphoma; IL, interleukin; NLRP, NLR family, pyrin domain containing; PRR, pattern recognition receptor.