Julien Nadjar, Sylvain Monnier, Estelle Bastien, Anne-Laure Huber, Christiane Oddou, Léa Bardoulet, Hubert B Leloup, Gabriel Ichim, Christophe Vanbelle, Bénédicte F Py, Olivier Destaing, Virginie Petrilli
Inflammasomes are multiprotein platforms that control caspase-1 activation, which process the inactive precursor forms of the inflammatory cytokines IL-1β and IL-18, leading to an inflammatory type of programmed cell death called pyroptosis. Studying inflammasome-driven processes, such as pyroptosis-induced cell swelling, under controlled conditions remains challenging because the signals that activate pyroptosis also stimulate other signaling pathways. We designed an optogenetic approach using a photo-oligomerizable inflammasome core adapter protein, apoptosis-associated speck-like containing a caspase recruitment domain (ASC), to temporally and quantitatively manipulate inflammasome activation...
April 23, 2024: Science Signaling