Inappropriate inflammasome activation has been associated with various diseases. Gout has been known for many years to cause inflammation in the cartilaginous tissues by the deposition of monosodium urate crystals, but how urate crystals caused inflammation was a mystery. Although the precise mechanism is still unclear, urate crystals are known to activate the NLRP3 inflammasome, which induces the inflammatory cytokines associated with the symptoms of gout. Mutations in the NOD domain of NLRP2 and NLRP3 can activate inflammasomes inappropriately, and they are the cause of some inherited autoinflammatory diseases, in which inflammation occurs in the absence of infection. Mutations in NLRP3 in humans are associated with hereditary periodic fever syndromes, such as familial cold inflammatory syndrome and Muckle–Wells syndrome (discussed in more detail in Chapter 13). Macrophages from patients with these conditions show spontaneous production of inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1β. We will also discuss how pathogens can interfere with formation of the inflammasome in Chapter 13.
3-10 The RIG-I-like receptors detect cytoplasmic viral RNAs and activate MAVS to induce type I interferon production and pro-inflammatory cytokines.
TLR-3, TLR-7, and TLR-9 detect extracellular viral RNAs and DNAs that enter the cell from the endocytic pathway. By contrast, viral RNAs produced within a cell are sensed by a separate family of proteins called the RIG-I-like receptors (RLRs). These proteins serve as viral sensors by binding to viral RNAs using an RNA helicase-like domain in their carboxy terminal. The RLR helicase-like domain has a ‘DExH’ tetrapeptide amino acid motif and is a subgroup of DEAD-box family proteins. The RLR proteins also contain two amino-terminal CARD domains that interact with adaptor proteins and activate
Fig. 3.21 RIG-I and other RLRs are cytoplasmic sensors of viral RNA.
First panel: before detecting viral RNA, RIG-I and MDA-5 are cytoplasmic and in inactive, auto-inhibited conformations. The adaptor protein MAVS is attached to the mitochondrial outer membrane. Second panel: detection of uncapped 5ʹ-triphosphate RNA by RIG-I, or viral dsRNA by MDA-5, changes the conformation of their CARD domains to become free to interact with the amino-terminal CARD domain of MAVS. This interaction involves the generation of K63-linked polyubiquitin from the E3 ligases TRIM25 or Riplet, although structural details are still unclear. Third panel: the aggregation induces a proline-rich region of MAVS to interact with TRAFs (see text) and leads to the generation of additional K63-linked polyubiquitin scaffold. As in TLR signaling, this scaffold recruits TBK1 and IKK complexes (see Figs. 3.15 and 3.16) to activate IRF and NFκB, producing type I interferons and pro-inflammatory cytokines, respectively.
signaling to produce type I interferons when viral RNAs are bound. The first of these sensors to be discovered was RIG-I (retinoic acid-inducible gene I). RIG-I is widely expressed across tissues and cell types and serves as an intracellular sensor for several kinds of infections. Mice deficient in RIG-I are highly susceptible to infection by several kinds of single-stranded RNA viruses, including paramyxoviruses, rhabdoviruses, orthomyxoviruses, and flaviviruses, but not picornaviruses.