Inflammatory diseases
A distinctive feature of inflammatory diseases, IL-1β also serves as an
inducer of immunological memory. For example, it has been demonstrated
that IL-1β pre-treatment protects mice against lethal Pseudomonasinfection, and has also been reported to mediate the immune response in
human BCG vaccination, thereby indicating that this cytokine may play an
important role in the macrophage memory associated with inflammatory
diseases 62-64. This supposition in indeed supported
by the fact that β-glucan-induced macrophage memory can contribute to
inhibiting IL-1β-mediated inflammation. β-glucan is recognized as a
classical immune memory inducer that can also activate NOD-, LRR-, and
pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome, the biochemical
function of which is to activate cysteine-requiring aspartate
proteinase-1 (caspase-1) and subsequent IL-1β production, thereby
establishing macrophage memory and a marked attenuation of IL-1β
secretion in NLRP3-associated inflammatory diseases 65,
66.