Dear Colleagues,

The concept of the inflammasome, ‘A Molecular Platform Triggering Activation of Inflammatory Caspases and processing of pro-IL-1b’, was first proposed 20 years ago by Dr. Jurg Tschopp. Pathogen/pattern Recognition Receptors (PRRs) on the cell membrane (e.g., toll-like receptors) recognize extracellular danger signals and trigger the transcription of immune responses. Inflammasomes are formed by cytosolic danger signals and activate inflammatory caspases (e.g., caspase-1) and mature cytokine precursors to induce inflammatory cell death (i.e., pyroptosis). Uncontrolled inflammasomes can lead to auto-inflammatory diseases such as type 2 diabetes, arteriosclerosis, and gout. Recently, the inflammasome has been in the spotlight because it is thought to mediate the cytokine storm during COVID-19 infection. Activation of the inflammasome is therefore considered to represent a therapeutic target for several metabolic and infectious diseases. The focus of this special issue is to provide a research update on the regulation of inflammasomes.

Prof. Geun-Shik Lee

Guest Editor