Cytochrome c Negatively Regulates NLRP3 Inflammasomes

The release of cytochrome c from the inner mitochondrial membrane, where it is anchored by caridolipin, triggers the formation of the Apaf-1 apoptosome. Cardiolipin also interacts with NLRP3 recruiting NLRP3 to mitochondria and facilitating inflammasome assembly. In this study we investigated whether cytosolic cytochrome c impacts NLRP3 inflammasome activation in macrophages. We report that cytochrome c binds to the LRR domain of NLRP3 and that cytochrome c reduces the interactions between NLRP3 and cardiolipin and between NLRP3 and NEK7, a recently recognized component of the NLRP3 inflammasome needed for NLRP3 oligomerization. Protein transduction of cytochrome c impairs NLRP3 inflammasome activation, while partially silencing cytochrome c expression enhances it. The addition of cytochrome c to an in vitro inflammasome assay severely limited caspase-1 activation. We propose that there is a crosstalk between the NLRP3 inflammasome and apoptosome pathways mediated by cytochrome c, whose release during apoptosis acts to limit NLRP3 inflammasome activation.