Chopping GSDMD: caspase-8 has joined the team of pyroptosis-mediating caspases

nflammatory and apoptotic caspases mediate two distinct forms of cell death: pyroptosis and apoptosis, respectively. Three independent studies have now demonstrated that the "apoptotic" caspase-8 can cleave gasdermin D (GSDMD) leading to pyroptosis-like cell death and IL-1β release in murine macrophages (Orning et al, 2018; Sarhan et al, 2018; Chen et al, 2019). Orning et al and Chen/Demarco et al also show that the NLRP3 inflammasome is activated downstream of active caspase-8, but they attribute this inflammasome activation to different pore-forming proteins, GSDMD and pannexin-1, respectively (Orning et al, 2018; Chen et al, 2019).
Source: EMBO Journal - Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Tags: Autophagy & Cell Death, Immunology News [amp ] Views Source Type: research