dimers and some trimers (Fernandes-Alnemri and Alnemri, 2008; Figure 3B); (iv) the association between caspase-1 cleavage and NLRP3, as demonstrated by the Co-IP of both proteins with the appearance of the active p20/p10 caspase-1 in treated-astrocytes (Figure 3C); and (v) the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β and IL-18 (Figure 3D). If we consider that ASC is an adaptor protein required for the activation of both NLRP3 inflammasome and caspase-1 (Fernandes-Alnemri et al., 2007), the results indicate that by inducing NLRP3 inflammasome complex activation and ASC-pyroptosome formation, ethanol was capable of inducing the innate immune response. Our results further suggest that activation of NLRP3/caspase-1 is associated with the TLR4 function since the astrocytes from TLR4-KO mice presented no response or a minimal one to different stimuli, including alcohol, on NLRP3 inflammasome activation ().
