Exploring NLRP12-An emerging member of NOD-like receptor family

The innate immune system functions as a danger sentinel that recognizes danger signals, such as pathogenic microbes and host-derived signals of tissue damage, and initiates the appropriate responses leading to pathogen elimination and tissue repair. Inflammation is a crucial part of such responses. Key molecular triggers of inflammation are the inflammasomes, large signalling complexes that assemble in the cytosol of many cell types in response to infection or cellular stress. Inflammasomes serve as platforms for activation of caspase-1, a protease that drives the maturation and secretion of key proinflammatory cytokines, IL-1β and IL-18, and mediates pyroptosis, a proinflammatory type of cell death. The molecular scaffold of the inflammasome signalling complex typically consists of clustered receptors belonging to the NOD-like receptor (NLR) family. NLRP3 is an NLR family member that forms a well-characterised inflammasome that is crucial for the immune response against many pathogens and environmental insults, and is implicated in a range of inflammatory disorders. In this study, we seek to investigate the functions of NLRP12, a poorly characterised NLR closely related to NLRP3, through its expression profiling and functional analysis.