title: Inflammasome activation: how macrophages watch what they eat.
abstract: Underhill and colleagues (Shimada et al., 2010) provide evidence for an intriguing link between the activity of lysozyme in the phagosome and activation of the Nlrp3 inflammasome, a cytosolic regulator of inflammation and cytokine production. The authors show that resistance to lysozyme allows Staphylococcus aureus to evade Nlrp3 activation.
authors.affiliation: Division of Immunology & Pathogenesis, Department of Molecular & Cell Biology, 415 Life Sciences Addition, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. rvance@berkeley.edu
authors.forename: Russell E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Vance
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D016207:Cytokines / Q000378:metabolism*; D008264:Macrophages / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D051379:Mice; D008954:Models, Biological; D009113:Muramidase / Q000378:metabolism*; D000071199:NLR Family, Pyrin Domain-Containing 3 Protein; D010588:Phagosomes / Q000201:enzymology*; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D002352:Carrier Proteins; D016207:Cytokines; D000071199:NLR Family, Pyrin Domain-Containing 3 Protein; C492716:Nlrp3 protein, mouse; D009113:Muramidase