Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and spinal cord injury (SCI) are pathological events that lead to neuropathological conditions which have in consequence the initiation of pro-inflammatory cytokine production. Neuroinflammation plays a key role in the secondary phase of both TBI and SCI after initial cell death. Activation of cytoplasmic inflammasome complexes is regarded as the essential step of neuroinflammation and a key trigger for neuronal death called pyroptosis. Inflammasome complexes are involved in activation of caspase-1 which catalyzes the cleavage of pro-interleukins into their active forms (including interleukin-18 [IL-18] and IL-1β). The focus of this article is to discuss the time-course and regulation of inflammasome assembly and activation during TBI and SCI and their targeting in designing therapeutic approaches. We particularly focus on the inflammasomes NLRP1 and NLRP3 which play a pivotal function during TBI and SCI in the central nervous system (CNS).
Keywords: NLRP1; NLRP3; caspase-1, inflammasomes; interleukin-1β (IL-1β); spinal cord injury (SCI); traumatic brain injury (TBI).
© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.