Seminar Etienne Meunier, le 10 Janvier 2025

Inflammasomes are intracellular multiprotein complexes that play an essential role in immunity against pathogens. Specifically, inflammasomes promote a regulated form of cell death called pyroptosis and trigger the release of key inflammatory cytokines, interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18, both of which are important processes in the fight against microbial infections. Due to their involvement in various pathophysiological conditions, our understanding of inflammasomes has attracted growing interest in the scientific and medical communities over the past 20 years. However, most of this knowledge comes either from the use of rodent models, which may not have the specific structural and functional characteristics of human inflammasomes, or from the use of immune cells, which express a wide range of inflammasomes but do not have inflammasomes specifically enriched in non-immune cells.
In this context, I will discuss new discoveries concerning the immune function of the human NLRP1 inflammasome, which is highly expressed in epithelia in response to a wide range of environmental and infectious threats that promote a specific stress pathway, the ribotoxic stress response.

NLRP1: Protecting the borders
Inflammasomes are intracellular multi-protein complexes that play essential functions in immunity against pathogens. Specifically, inflammasomes both promote a regulated form of cell death termed pyroptosis and trigger the release of the key inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18, two important processes in controlling microbial infections. Because of their involvement in various pathophysiological conditions, our understanding of inflammasomes has generated an ever-growing interest in the scientific and medical communities over the last 20 years. Yet, most of this knowledge comes either from the use of rodent models, which may lack the specific structural and functional characteristics of human inflammasomes, or from the use of immune cells, which express a wide range of inflammasomes but lack inflammasomes specifically enriched in non-immune cells.
In this context, I will discuss about novel findings about the immune function of the human NLRP1 inflammasome, highly expressed in epithelia, in response to a broad range of environmental and infectious threats that promote a specific stress pathway, the ribotoxic stress response.