Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a severe retinal eye disease where dysfunctional mitochondria and damaged mitochondrial DNA in pigment epithelium (RPE) have been demonstrated to underlie the pathogenesis of this devastating disease. In present study, we aimed examine whether induce inflammasome activation human RPE cells. Therefore, ARPE-19 cells were primed with IL-1α exposed electro...

Listeria monocytogenes is an intracellular, Gram-positive bacterium that can cause life-threatening illness especially in immunocompromised individuals and newborns. The pathogen propagates within the cytosol of various host cells after escaping from the phagosomal compartment depending on the cytolysin listeriolysin O. While L. monocytogenes can manipulate the endocytic and many host-cell sign...

Francisella tularensis is an intracellular pathogen that causes the fatal zoonotic disease tularaemia. Critical for its pathogenesis is the ability of the phagocytosed bacteria to escape into the cell cytosol. For this, the bacteria use a non-canonical type VI secretion system (T6SS) encoded on the Francisella pathogenicity island (FPI). Here we show that in F. novicida T6SS assembly initiates ...

Myeloid cells assemble inflammasomes in response to infection or cell damage; cytosolic sensors activate pro-caspase-1, indirectly for the most part, via the adaptors ASC and NLRC4. This leads to secretion of proinflammatory cytokines and pyroptosis. To explore complex formation under physiological conditions, we generated an alpaca single domain antibody, VHHASC, which specifically recognizes ...

The inflammasome is an intracellular signaling complex, which on recognition of pathogens and physiological aberration, drives activation of caspase-1, pyroptosis, and the release of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β and IL-18. Bacterial ligands must secure entry into the cytoplasm to activate inflammasomes; however, the mechanisms by which concealed ligands are liberated in the cytoplasm ha...