Chao Wei, Wei Jiang, Ruiyu Wang, Haoyu Zhong, Huabin He, Xinwei Gao, Shilin Zhong, Fengting Yu, Qingchun Guo, Li Zhang, Lisa D J Schiffelers, Bin Zhou, Martin Trepel, Florian I Schmidt, Minmin Luo, Feng Shao
The blood-brain barrier (BBB) protects the central nervous system from infections or harmful substances1 ; its impairment can lead to or exacerbate various diseases of the central nervous system2-4 . However, the mechanisms of BBB disruption during infection and inflammatory conditions5,6 remain poorly defined. Here we find that activation of the pore-forming protein GSDMD by the cytosolic lipopolysaccharide (LPS) sensor caspase-11 (refs. 7-9 ), but not by TLR4-induced cytokines, mediates BBB breakdown in response to circulating LPS or during LPS-induced sepsis...
April 17, 2024: Nature