Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Dec 2.
Published in final edited form as: Adv Immunol. 2016 Aug 23;132:47–69. doi: 10.1016/bs.ai.2016.07.001

Fig. 4.

Fig. 4

(A) Schematic of the components and activation mechanism of the NLRP3 inflammasome. (B) A proposed mechanism by which the NLRP3 inflammasome is activated by self-RNAs. The Dicer1 deficiency was shown to cause accumulation of pol III-transcribed Alu elements, and this in turn was proposed to activate NLRP3 in RPE cells. It is unclear exactly how Alu can stimulate NLRP3; whether the stimulation involves the secondary structure within the individual Alu elements or intermolecular hybridization of distinct Alu elements.